pickup from a previous thread on 'Songs About Shackleton' I found this homage to the James Caird 7 meter sailing vessel that heroically braved the South Georgia Sea (1914) on the second Shackleton expedition. Credits to songwriter Cliff Wedgbury, a well-know UK poet, playwright and songwriter. Excepted from James Caird Journal V11.3

THE JAMES CAIRD SAVED THE DAY
(Cliff Wedgbury)

On Elephant Island the men were trapped,
       Survivors from the ice.
Endurance crushed by surrounding floes,
       In the Weddell sacrificed.
   Upturned boats on that barren shore,
   Their home for months to come,
As the James Caird they prepared,
       For a suicidal run.

On the Southern Ocean,
    Heroes of the tide,
The James Caird and her valiant crew,
    Helped all hands survive.

   Eight hundred miles to South Georgia,
      Salvation their belief,
   Six brave men on the stormy main,
      Sailing for relief.
   The savage waves surrounding them,
      Drenched by icy spray,
   Through screaming winds, they battled hard,
      To hold their nerve and pray.

   And the James Caird brought them safely back,
    To South Georgia’s mountains high,
       Seventeen days on the ocean wide,
         ‘Neath the wild Antarctic sky,
       Six brave souls with a savage tale,
          Of endurance against all odds,
    To amaze the Stromness whaler men,
          Who thought all hands were lost.

   The whaler boat with a canvas deck,
      McNish had used his skill,
   To raise the gunwales, caulk the hull,
      And every crack to fill.
   To cross the cold tempestuous sea,
      To find King Haakon Bay,
   The tiny craft had made it through,
      The James Caird saved the day.
   And the hardy crew showed bravery,
      For their shipmates cast away.

   On the Southern Ocean,
       Heroes of the tide,
   The James Caird and her valiant crew,
       Helped all hands survive.

voyager
veteran of the US Antarctic Program