Endurance: The Ballad of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

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Captain Corbin

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Polaris was forged
Before the world was at war
For some Norwegians, their guests, and cooks
But this name that she bore
When she first left the shore
Wasn't completely erased from the books

Cursed from beginning
For this mariner's sinning
Her bougie interior glistened
Her shipbuilder's bane
Was Shackleton's gain
And thus, the ship was rechristened

She was built for the north
It was pretty straight forth
To refit her for a different mission
Her hull built for ice
Would surely suffice
On the journey to southern perdition

"Men wanted for hazardous journey
Small wages, bitter cold
Long months of complete darkness
Constant danger, safe return doubtful
Honour and recognition in case of success"

Ernest put out a call
To find the bravest of all
To traverse Antarctica on sled
Twenty-seven brave men
Came to Ernest's dank den
Hoping they wouldn't end up dead

Three life boats logged
And seventy sled dogs
Among the cargo she laden down
And at London's Lloyd's
They insured those boys
Valued at fifteen thousand pounds

They steamed away
For Vahsel Bay
For this Antarctic expedition
But for months they'd drift
In the iceberg rifts
On the journey to southern perdition

Endurance, Endurance
Bound for the Southern Seas
With your great brave crew
And Shackleton too
You're remembered for eternity

Endurance, Endurance
Cutting through the ocean spray
With a great bold plan
To cross southern land
And Shackleton led the way
And Shackleton led the way
 
Round Halloween
Of Nineteen fourteen
They left Brazil's port of call
But the seas were rough
And the ice was tough
And they were hit with frozen squalls

By January's Ides
They were two hundred miles
From their first ground destination
But those icy rifts
Rarely gave or split
Much to Shackleton's frustration

They heaved and hoed
On the icy floes
With no break from these conditions
What rotten luck
The Endurance was stuck
In an icy southern perdition

Endurance, Endurance
Adrift in the Weddell Sea
She braced herself
Near the Ronne ice shelf
As the ridges heaved and squeezed

Endurance, Endurance
Fighting frostbite's decay
With shovels in hand
They made their stand
And Shackleton led the way
And Shackleton led the way  

On Valentine's Day
They clawed their way
Only four hundred yards from freedom
But the gales came in
And the ice froze again
So, they settled in a cold winter's tedium

For the next half year
The froze their rears
Even had to put Mrs. Chippy down
In October's ice rush
The hull got crushed
Had to abandon from the starboard bow

They camped in wait
For the weather to abate
But the ice dealt a final blow
On November twenty-one
The Endurance was done
And she sank to the depths below

Endurance, Endurance
Now just a memory
With split deck planks
The ship she sank
Like lead into the sea

Endurance, Endurance
Your crew stranded far away
But with three life boats
They still had hope
And Shackleton led the way
And Shackleton led the way

By April of sixteen
The crew caught a gleam
Of a place called Elephant Isle
But it was so remote
That no explorer's boat
Would pass within a hundred miles

Ernest enlisted five
Of his most dependable guys
To find a busier port of call
And on the James Caird
They small crew sailed
On the greatest sea journey of all

Eight hundred miles
On a sea so wild
But they made to Haakon Bay
Three had to stay put
Three walked on foot
To a town forty clicks away

James Caird, James Caird
One lifeboat, cold and damp
South Georgia's shore
Was where they moored
And they called it Peggotty Camp

James Caird, James Caird
Their lives don't end today
Three men would go
Over mountains and snow
And Shackleton led the way
And Shackleton led the way  

A Norwegian whaler
Saved the other three sailors
And luck was finally on their side
But the Endurance's crew
Was surely through
If Ernest couldn't get them a ride

Three times they failed
To break the ice shelf's gales
By August it was looking dire
But on the fourth go
A ship called Yelcho
Got them set for Elephant Isle

The ship was true
And the weather was too
And they made it through an ice transition
They found those men
And set sail again
Delivered from southern perdition

Endurance, Endurance
All twenty-eight-crew survived
They went through hell
With a tale to tell
And records for the London archives

Endurance, Endurance
Not one had passed away
Three years apart
From their lover's hearts
And Shackleton led the way
And Shackleton led the way 

No ticker tape parade
For the men so brave
Cause the war had not yet relented
But the records they kept
From Endurance's wreck
Meant their legacy was cemented

Over a century later
A submarine crew made her
Off Palmer's eastern bank
Her discovery
'Neath the Weddell Sea
Was only four miles from where she sank

Now we look to the stars
To the Moon and Mars
The next frontier of exploration
And now we need
Someone to lead
The next daring generation
(Do you have what it takes?)

Endurance, Endurance
We've found you once again
A historic site
Neath a frozen blight
A monument to great brave men
Endurance, Endurance
The folly of a man obsessed
Three clicks below
Where the mariners go
Is where you're laid to rest
Is where you're laid to rest

Endurance, Endurance
Lost to the Southern Seas
But your great brave crew
And Shackleton too
Are remembered for eternity
But your great brave crew
And Shackleton too
Are remembered for eternity
They're remembered for eternity