Ronald Arthur Hopwood Rear Admiral Ronald Arthur Hopwood CB ( 1868 – 1949 ) was a British naval officer and poet . He began his career in 1882 with the Royal Navy as a gunnery officer , completed it in 1919 as a rear admiral , and was acclaimed in 1941 as poet laureate of the Royal Navy by " Time " . As an author , Admiral Hopwood ' s first work was his poem " The Laws of the Navy " , published in 1896 when he was a lieutenant . With its good - natured military advice making it popular within both the Royal and U . S . navies , " Time " gives it " precedence among Navy men even over Kipling ' s " If " " and goes on to quote Hopwood ' s new poem " Secret Orders " in its entirety . The last lines of " Secret Orders " , written in appreciation of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement ( a predecessor to Lend Lease ) , harken to the Second World War bond between the two navies . Early life . Hopwood was born on 7 December 1868 as the third son of John Turner Hopwood and he was educated at Cheam School . Military career . Hopwood entered the Royal Navy onboard as a naval cadet in 1882 , and became a lieutenant in 1890 . After serving in the gunboat on the Cape and West Africa Station , he joined in 1891 to specialize in gunnery , and on qualifying in 1893 was appointed to the junior staff in the HM Gunnery School , HMNB Devonport . He was gunnery officer first of the cruiser in the English Channel , and then of the battleship in China . Hopwood returned to the Gunnery School , joining the senior staff . Promoted to commander in 1902 , he was second - in - command of , flagship in China , and later of the cruiser . He advanced to captain in 1907 . After commanding and , he reattached to in charge of " gunnery training ships " . Hopwood was flag captain from 1910 to 1912 to Vice - Admiral Jellicoe in and . From 1913 until after the start of the First World War in 1914 , Hopwood commanded the cruiser . He was appointed in December 1914 , to membership in the Ordnance Committee , becoming its vice - president in 1917 . He served as such until January 1919 , when he retired on promotion to rear admiral . Later work . He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1919 . From 1919 to 1922 he was general secretary of the Navy League , the charity that supported the Royal Navy and the oldest such organization worldwide . His subsequent advancements to vice - admiral in 1924 and admiral in 1928 were on the retired list . Late in his military career , Admiral Hopwood wrote " Our Fathers " , " The Old Way " , as well as " The Secret of the Ships " , and " The New Navy " , " all of which were steeped in the tradition of the Service . " Thirty nine of Hopwood ' s poems , including " Secret Orders " , are collected in " The Laws of the Navy and Other Poems " , an expanded edition published in 1951 . In his foreword , Alfred Noyes , acclaimed " The Laws . . . " as a book Of less renown , Hopwood was an authority on Horatio Nelson ' s ships . On 21 October 1925 , 120 years after the Battle of Trafalgar , Hopwood appeared before the Royal United Services Institution to lecture on the " The Ancestry of Nelson ' s Ships . " In 1921 , he wrote an article entitled " The Saving Grace " that appeared in " The Quarterly Review " 467 . Hopwood wrote strongly of this opinion : " The Laws of the Navy " . The 23 July 1896 issue of the British " Army and Navy Gazette " presented a poem that was destined to become one of the Naval World ' s literary classics . Hopwood ' s work , entitled " The Laws of the Navy " , set forth what might safely be termed the " wisdom of the ages " for all who seek to make their way in large , hierarchical organizations , with special emphasis on the seagoing versions . During the Great War era , Lieutenant Rowland Langmaid , R . N . , made a series of drawings to accompany the poem , which was published in the version illustrated here . The writer Eeyore Smith in " The Naval Review " remarked " that " The Laws of the Navy " has had a considerable influence upon the careers of many naval officers who have served during the last half century . The commonsense , the mild cynicism ( " there be those who have risen thereby " ) , the jingling metre , accentuated by the illustrations of [ Langmaid ] , have left their marks upon the memories of those who have come across the twin frames which hang upon the bulkheads and walls of ships and naval establishments . " By the mid - 1920s , the virtues of " The Laws of the Navy " crossed from the Royal Navy and penetrated the consciousness of the United States Navy . The poem began to appear in the U . S . Naval Academy ' s " Reef Points " , a handbook presented to freshmen ( called " Plebes " ) for their edification and guidance . It has been featured in the annual editions of this publication to the present day , and many a former Plebe can recite its words by heart , having been made to memorize them as an essential part of the educational process . Starting in the early 1970s , " Reef Points " provided a brief introduction to " The Laws of the Navy " , which is quoted here ( as printed in the 1998 – 1999 edition ) : As a word of advice , we include ' The Laws of the Navy ' by Admiral R . A . Hopwood , R . N . ( ret . ) . These twenty - seven laws contain words of wisdom that few of you will appreciate fully now , words which you may wish you had heeded twenty years from now . Read these laws , then apply them . See how those above you apply these rules - - and how they sometimes disregard them - - and the consequences . Be alert to learn from others ; only through experience will your understanding of others broaden . You will become a richer and fuller person , a better naval officer . Mis - attributed stanzas . Two stanzas are often quoted that are not part of Langmaid ' s art or Hopwood ' s poetry . They appear at the end , set - off with Hopwood ' s last stanza as the moral to the poem . < poem style = " margin - left : 2em " > Take heed in your manner of speaking That the language ye use may be sound , In the list of the words of your choosing " Impossible " may not be found . Now these are the Laws of the Navy And many and mighty are they , But the hull and the deck and keel And the truck of the law is - OBEY ! < / poem > While their appendage is an unsourced tribute to Hopwood ' s appeal , their meter is not quite Hopwood ' s . " Secret Orders " . The title of the 1941 " Time " article ( " World War : Debutantes Celebrated " ) is unusual for a discussion of the Second World War . Its inspiration comes from the metaphor in the fifth stanza of " Secret Orders " : < poem style = " margin - left : 2em " > That even while Goering was spinning his webs , Ere Goebbels consigned the flotilla to flames , As trim and excited as so many " debs " The fifty were bound for the Court of St . James , Displaying the emblems that none can mistake Their feathers — of steam , and the trains — in their wake . < / poem > The " fifty " are the fifty retired ( " mothballed " ) destroyer s transferred from the U . S . Navy to Great Britain in exchange for land rights on British possessions ( i . e . the destroyers - for - bases agreement ) . The destroyers became the " Town " - class , and were renamed for cities common to both the United States and Great Britain , or for rivers bordering the United States and Canada . While the U . S . Navy considered the destroyers obsolescent , British naval officers were publicly " agreeably surprised " at their good condition as they debuted in the Royal Navy . Though the " fifty " in truth were not much liked by their new crews , Hopwood was moved to poetry by the image of old ships returning to duty : < poem style = " margin - left : 2em " > When orders arrive , irrespective of man , To waken for service as fast as [ they ] can ! The mothers of pilgrims brought up over there Are waiting with pride to convey them to Court , As daughters of Freedom presenting their claim To champion her cause in the family name ! < / poem > Personal life . On 26 June 1915 , Hopwood married Gladys Wolryche - Whitmore of Thedden Grange , Alton , Hampshire , England . They had two daughters . Hopwood has two portraits in the National Portrait Gallery , London , by Walter Stoneman .