One-hundred-fifteen years after the crew abandoned Endurance and she sank, that great ship has been discovered. The expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackelton . Twenty months of constant life-threatening experience.
Five-thousand men applied to go on the Endurance Expedition. Each job application contained the same question: “Can you sing?” One man protested that he was not a performer to which Shackelton defined the task as joining in to sing with the rest of the crew.
During the ten months on the doomed ship, regular nights were designated as gramophone nights for listening to and singing with recorded music. When orders were sounded to abandon ship. Shackelton informed the chief musician that he had already carried his banjo off the ship. Months later, the crew was informed they would be limited to two pounds of personal articles. Shackelton said the banjo would be taken on the trek. “For we shall need it.”
One of the strangest parts of the A&E movie about the expedition was watching the crew singing after supper. Can you imagine mechanics at your car dealership or stylists at the beauty salon singing as they work on your car or style your hair? How about your family singing at the supper table? Feels odd, doesn’t it? Had there not been singing in Antarctica, life would have seeped out.
There is no way to describe the harrowing months for this crew. Shackelton joyfully proclaimed that not one person was lost. Sometimes, you just must sing or hum!
©2015 HopePushers, D. Dean Benton, (Smashwords, Spring Daisy Publications) Chapter 13
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