Loaned to Smart Gallery by Martin Winterton alongside with the poem “A Memory”.

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to the story behind the poem below

 

A Memory

Ice ship “Kista Dan” shouldering aside the Weddell Sea pack ice

Like a prop forward at Twickenham

Charging for the white line.

 

Contorted blocks of ice-

Beautiful in the sunlight, awful in the shade

En route to dot on the map Halley Bay

 

Not for us the dilettante heroism of Scott

But serious scientific research to join the dots

Defining this Terra Australis Incognito.

 

The ship departs for a year,

Leaving twenty-four desperate and disparate egos

Pursuing parallel polar courses.

 

Then came tragedy.

A sudden southerly blizzard

Swept the Bay ice seaward

With the deftness of a yard-broom on a driveaway

Taking with it

A sledge, Four huskies

and Neville Mann.

 

Martin Winterton, Bank Newton

Dog Sledger, Halley Bay, 1961-1964