Laureate of the Royal Navy is Admiral Ronald Arthur Hopwood, 72, an oldtime gunnery officer who retired in 1919, but still writes for the Fleet. His poem The Laws of the Navy takes precedence among Navy men even over Kipling's If, hangs embellished in most officers' messes. At Christmas this year, a number of R. N. officers issued as their greeting cards copies of a new Hopwood opus entitled Secret Orders, celebrating the arrival in British waters of the 50 old U. S. destroyers.
The poet states a sailor's belief "That ships, when they're christened, on leaving the ways acquire a mysterious...
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