Rudyard Kipling

«Epitaphs of the War». 1914-1918. 32. V.A.D. (Mediterranean)

Ah, would swift ships had never been, for then we ne’er had found, 
These harsh Aegean rocks between, this little virgin drowned, 
Whom neither spouse nor child shall mourn, but men she nursed through pain 
And—certain keels for whose return the heathen look in vain.