Endurance: The Ballad of the Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition Lyrics

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