Cargoes 

(1903)
John Masefield

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,

Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,

Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,

Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
Detailed Analysis

Stanza One

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,

(…)
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

In the first stanza of ‘Cargoes,’ the poet uses several words that readers might
not know. He starts off by describing “Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant
Ophir.” The word “Quinquireme” refers to a Roman galley with five banks of
oars on each side, according to The Free Dictionary. They were common
ships of the period. These ships were from “Nineveh,” an important city in the
Assyrian empire, and from Ophir, a port that’s mentioned in the Bible.
It’s associated with King Solomon and the story of his receiving cargo from
there every three years. The items included sandalwood, gold, and apes, and
peacocks. These are all things the poet mentions in the following lines. With
this reference to the Bible, as well as the biblical connections to Nineveh, it’s
important that readers consider this first stanza to have religious, or at least
historically religious undertones.
This first stanza is filled with imagery, from the apes to the “sweet white
wine.” Readers are given a very layered and interesting image of what a cargo
ship was like at this period in history. The next two portraits of cargo ships are
quite different.

Stanza Two

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,

Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
(…)

Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

In the following lines, the speaker moves into the discussion of another type of
cargo ship from another period in history— the Spanish galleon. This was a
large, Spanish ship the was used as an armed cargo carrier from the 16th to
18th centuries. These ships carried different cargo through a different part of
the world.
Again, readers are given several good examples of imagery. The speaker
describes “Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.” The word “moidores”
is also likely unusual for most readers. It refers to a gold Portuguese coin. This
period of cargo appears to be focused primarily on wealth. The gemstones are
contrasted against the “palm-green shores.”

Stanza Three

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,

(…)
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
The final stanza of ‘Cargoes’ brings the reader towards the present day. The
speaker discusses the “Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack.”
Gone are the massive Spanish galleons and exotic-sounding “Quinquireme of
Nineveh.” Now, readers are presented with a “dirty” ship that’s putting out
smoke and “Butting through the Channel.” There is nothing romanticized
about this image of a cargo ship.
Clearly, the speaker has a different image of the present than they do of the
past. The ships no longer transport gemstones, apes, and peacocks. Now, they
carry coal along the River Tyne and “iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.” These
unappealing items do not speak to the reader’s imagination in the same way as
the previous stanzas did. A change has come over the world that corresponded
with industrialization.

Extracted from:
Baldwin Emma, Cargoes by John Masefield. Extracted from web 28/08/2021 2:00pm:
https://poemanalysis.com/john-masefield/cargoes/