Douglas Mawson Lyrics

Once more the cruel Antarctic calls me back

To set my foot where no man yet did go

O memories of nineteen eight of taking chances tempting fate

And the happy days we spent in McMurdo

So we dropped our anchor off Adélie Land

And we built a hut to stand the winter gale

And when the sun returned again the air rang out with sounds of men

And Greenland huskies eager for the trail

From Aladdin's cave we started on our way

Our friends they bid goodbye and turned for home

Xavier Mertz was there with me and Cherub Ninnis just we three

Were left to carry on our fate unknown

The black crevasse claimed Ninnis and his dogs

It claimed our food our fuel it claimed our tent

I never heard one single sound just by chance I turned around

As Ninnis to his death in silence went

Defeat and death now stared us in the face

We had one lightweight tent and that was all

Just to stay alive we knew we'd have to kill the dogs for food

How were we to know that they'd be our downfall

A leaden glare now spread across the land

And neither shape nor feature reached our eyes

And nothing left to eat only deadly poison meat

For my brave friend death has no disguise

He wears the mask of illness on his face

He wears the cloak of silence at the trace

Around his mouth the cracks and ruts are deep and bleed like razor cuts

I fear he has already lost this race

His eyes were rolling ominous and grim

On the sledge I pulled him on my hands and knees

One night he bit his finger through and spat it out upon the snow

His cries of madness caused my blood to freeze

When I awoke next morning he was dead

The wreckage of his body stiff and cold

I have to try and reach firm ground at least my diary must be found

Someday this sad story may be told

The soles of my feet became detached

Teeth nails muscles all are gone

Down icy pits I fell through space till brought up by my harness trace

Give up give up there's no point in going on

Three weeks I staggered on across the ice

Then a cairn of snow by sheer chance I struck

A letter there told the tale of searching men that very day

Even now I can't believe my luck

My pulse was racing as I saw the men

My journey at an end no more to do

My skeleton was easily raised and gently on the sledge was laid

My God they cried which one of them are you?

And later tears were wet upon their cheeks

And my own eyes filled with the telling of the tale

And on that bleak and distant shore the blizzard blows for evermore

For those in icy tombs out on the trail