Mr. Eneos (The Cold South Georgia Ground)
(Gordon Bok)

Clew up your royals and topsails
Haul your headsails down
For you'll never see the whale no more
Or the cold South Georgia Ground.

It was March twenty—ninth, nineteen and ten,
The little brig Daisy did sail;
The morning was clear and the sea was down,
And we raised a great pod of whale.

The captain had three of the boats lowered down,
And in them the mates they did go:
There was Mister Da Lomba and Mister Alves
And Mister Eneos also.
Clew up...

Now the whales did rise a mile from the ship,
And the other two mates made their kill,
But Mister Eneos was caught in the pod
Where the whales were lying still.

Mister Eneos stood still in the bow,
And he had his lance in his hand,
But the whale he had harpooned would not break away
And would neither sound nor run.

It struck at the boat and lifted her high,
And the men fell out over the stern,
And we saw the flukes come thrashing down
Where Mister Eneos had been.
Clew up...

The captain had the stern boat lowered away,
And we searched where the whales did sound;
Five men we gathered from out the sea,
But Mister Eneos was gone.
Clew up. .

Bok's Notes: The brig Daisy was the last sailing whaler out of New Bedford. This is the story, practically verbatim, that the ship's carpenter told Robert Cushman Murphy (A Logbook for Grace [New York: Macmillan, 1947]) about the drowning of the fourth mate, Anton Eneos.
It was told so strongly that I didn't do much to make it a song —-
just rearranged some words for the sake of the meter, and added the chorus and tune.
If I remember correctly, the Daisy was lost with all hands a few years later off the coast of South America.
South Georgia is an island in the latitude of Cape Horn.

Guitar in A minor, recording sounds F sharp minor.
Alves = alcesh; Eneos = eneeus.

from Time and the Flying Snow: Songs of Gordon Bok - songbook published by Folk-Legacy Records in 1977 (out of print)

This song is on Gordon Bok's CD, North Winds' Clearing, available from Folk-Legacy Records, 800-836-0901