Bulldog Breed

Thousands of Britons lined the shores of Plymouth Sound early one morning last week to behold the cruiser Exeter, leading lady of the Battle of Punta del Este, steaming home under her own power after being patched up in the Falkland Islands. Her funnels riddled, her sides repainted but still scarred by shells from the Admiral Graf Spee, she tied up at Devonport alongside her comrade in action, the Ajax (third participant, the Achilles, is still on duty off South America). Aboard stepped Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, who made a stirring speech in which he invoked the shades of Drake and Raleigh, praised the action as "a flash of light and color" in an otherwise drab war, prophesied that it "will long be told in song and story."

First saga of Punta del Este was written by the Exeter'?, Stoker Charlie Holmes.

Text:

You've heard of British heroes, bold in air, on land or sea,

But here's a tale will e'er be told, the fate of the Admiral Spee.

Thirteenth of December was her unlucky fate,

Was then she met the Exeter hard by the River Plate, And though she was the stronger in armaments, indeed, We'd speed aboard the Exeter and men of bulldog breed.

We met as dawn was breaking, she raked us with her shell, But we put trust in the turbines' thrust and our faith in Captain Bell.

Tho' many of our comrades fell even at victory's gate, Theirs was the death of heroes, hers an inglorious fate.

As sunk by her captain's orders, a woeful sight to see, No more shall rise Germania's pride, the Admiral Graf Spee.

-- During the historic fight, an egg laid by a canary on the Exeter hatched as a shell burst nearby. The battle-bred nestling, named Spee, now three months old (adolescent) was last week raffled off in Plymouth, brought -L-17.165 for dependents of the Exeter'?, 61 dead. The winner: Stoker Smith.

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