Icebound endurances

In nineteen hundred fourteen,

They sailed beneath the southern stars,

With twenty-eight aboard her,

For a frozen world afar.

They called her the Endurance,

And her timbers stout and true,

But the Weddell Sea was waiting,

And the ice was closing through.

By January she was captured,

In the grip of frozen seas,

And the winter fell upon them,

With a slow and dreadful squeeze.

They heard her timbers breaking,

Watched her decks begin to rise,

Till the ice consumed Endurance,

Underneath Antarctic skies.

And the ice rolled on beneath them,

And the southern winds did moan.

Twenty-eight men sailed for glory,

Twenty-eight men longed for home.

They made their beds upon the ice,

With the heavens overhead,

And counted out their rations,

As the frozen ocean spread.

They rowed through broken waters,

Till an island came in sight,

But Elephant held no salvation,

Only hunger, cold, and night.

Six men climbed aboard the Caird,

And twenty-two

remained,

Eight hundred miles of angry sea,

Through darkness, sleet, and rain.

And Worsley watched the heavens,

For a glimpse of sun or star,

While Shackleton held their purpose,

Though salvation seemed so

far.

Sixteen days upon the ocean,

Till South Georgia broke the gray,

But the whalers lay beyond the peaks,

And three men made their way.

Across the icebound mountains,

Where no human trail was known,

They heard the distant factory whistle,

And knew they weren’t alone.

And the ice rolled on behind them,

And the southern winds did moan.

Twenty-two men watched the water,

While six fought to bring them home.

On Elephant they waited,

Beneath their overturned boats,

While the wind tore through their clothing,

And the salt burned in their throats.

Three times he tried to reach them,

Three times the ice said no,

Till August brought a vessel,

Through the drifting ice and snow.

And the ice rolled on behind them,

And the southern winds still moaned.

Twenty-eight men sailed for glory,

And twenty-eight were going home.

No man had crossed Antarctica,

No flag was planted there.

Endurance slept beneath the sea,

Beyond the world’s despair.

And somewhere

in the Weddell Sea,

Where the frozen waters run,

The ship lies lost in silence…

But she never lost a one.