Mister Eneos 

(The Cold South Georgia Ground)

© 1969 Gordon Bok, BMI

 

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 in 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 the 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 months later off the coast of South America.

 

South Georgia is an island in the latitude of Cape Horn.

 

 

            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 of the sea

But Mister Eneos was gone

 

            Clew up…

 

 

 

Mister Eneos  is recorded on the albums North Winds Clearing and Peter Kagan and the Wind, and  is also in the songbook Time and the Flying Snow