"What the ice gets, the ice keeps"
"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. " January 1914 (E.S.)
I.
He must have had a pull stronger
than magnetic north to draw so many men
to his desire. Did his eyes blaze
with passion as he caressed the curves
of his ship? His wife, child, not enough
to anchor him. The Pole stolen, he claimed
a continent as consolation prize.
II.
He drifts with deadly currents, a man
of action forced to watch land and sun recede;
tastes failure in the brackish water
that pools at his crew's feet.
III.
They salvage Hurley’s negatives
from the groaning ship. He must choose
only a few, cries as he smashes glass plates
and the pack ice locks Endurance in its embrace.
A crack reverberates through still air.
Sled dogs fall silent.
IV.
Sailors savage seals and penguins
with greater skill than killer whales.
They reek of fish. Hair, skin, clothes stiff
with spray. They sleep like sardines in the shelter
of two upturned lifeboats, imagine tea,
whiskey, lavender-scented linens. They fear
even death will not rescue them.
V.
A tiny sextant against seventeen
days of frostbite, thirst and madness;
they sail an open boat 800 nautical miles
to desolation. On the glacier, Shackleton drives
his two companions overland --
the whaling station always over the next rise. He turns
five minutes’ sleep into thirty. The whalers weep
when the three wraiths shape themselves from fog.
VI.
In time, the sea calls many of her sailors back --
as if earth alone could not sustain them,
as if Antarctica herself had transfused
ice water for blood.
c. april 2002, rev dec 2003
E.S. : Sir Ernest Shackleton, leader of the expedition
http://www.shackleton-endurance.com/images.html
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/endurance/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/