Shackleton’s Christmas Dinner
Grey and white and
White and grey
ad infinitum
night
and
day ;
Scouring faces
battering bone
the ceaseless howl
of the bleak unknown ;
Across the Weddell Sea ice pack
driving the dog team
hauling three boats ,
trudging trudging
seven and a half miles ,
a week’s work ;
White and grey and
Grey and white
ad infinitum
day
and
night.
HISTORIC FOOTNOTE:
SHACKLETON 1915
December 22 was kept as Christmas Day, and most of our small remaining stock of luxuries was consumed at the Christmas feast. We could not carry it all with us, so for the last time for eight months we had a really good meal - as much as we could eat. Anchovies in oil, baked beans, and jugged hare made a glorious mixture such as we have not dreamed of since our school-days. Everybody was working at high pressure, packing and repacking sledges and stowing what provisions we were going to take with us in the various sacks and boxes.