> Folk Music > Songs > Mister Eneas (The Cold South Georgia Ground)
Mister Eneas (The Cold South Georgia Ground)
[ Roud - ; Robert Cushman Murphy, Gordon Bok]
[Note: This page uses the spelling of the names of Mr Antão Eneas and Mr da Lomba as printed in R.C. Murphy’s book.]
Gordon Bok sang Mister Eneas (The Cold South Georgia Ground) in 1971 on his Folk-Legacy album Peter Kagan and the Wind. This track was also included in 1995 on his Folk-Legacy compilation North Winds Clearing. He noted:
A true story, taken from a smooth-log of the last.sailing whaler to go out o New Bedford: the Daisy brig (R.C. Murphy, A Logbook for Grace: Whaling Brig Daisy, 1912-1913 [New York: Macmillan, 1947; New York: Time Magazine, 1965, p. 35]).
Practically verbatim, this is the ship’s carpenter’s account (as reported by Mr. Murphy) of the drowning of fourth mate Antão Eneas off South America, on a voyage to South Georgia, an island in the latitude of Cape Horn.
(Murphy also wrote another fine book, with his own photographs, of a trip he took on the Daisy two years after this particular happening: A Dead Whale or a Stove Boat.)
The refrain here, the melody, and some of the phrasing are mine. (Played on the 12-string guitar.)
Steve Turner sang Mr Eneas in 2026 on his Tradition Bearers CD A Host of Furious Fancies.
Lyrics
Gordon Bok sings Mister Eneas
Chorus:
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 Mister1 da Lomba and Mister Alves,
And Mister Eneas also.2
(Chorus)
Now, the whales did rise a mile from the ship,
And the other two mates made their kill,
But Mister Eneas was caught in the pod
Where the whales were lying still.
Mister Eneas stood still in the bow,
And he had his lance in his hand,
But the whale he had harpooned3 would not break away
And would neither sound4 or run.
It struck at the boat and lifted her high,
And the men fell out over the stern,
And we saw the flukes come crashing down
Where Mister Eneas had been.
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 Eneas was gone.
(Chorus)
1. All mates of sailing vessels are traditionally called
“Mister”. Usually only that, by the captain.
2. The first mate, too, Mr. Almeida, if I remember correctly.
3. The whale his boat-steerer had harpooned, actually.
4. Sound = to get deeper, or to dive.
Steve Turner sings Mr Eneas
March twenty-ninth, nineteen 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 Eneas also.
Chorus:
Clew up your royals and topsails,
Haul your headsails down.
For you’ll never see the whale no more
Nor the cold South Georgia Ground.
The whales they did rise a mile from the ship,
And the other two mates made their kill,
But Mister Eneas was caught in the pod
Where the whales were lying still.
Mister Eneas 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 turn.
It struck at the boat and lifted her high,
And the men fell out over the stern,
And we saw the flukes come a-crashing down
Where Mister Eneas had been.
(Chorus)
The captain had the stern boat lowered away,
And we searched where the whales they did sound;
Five men we gathered from out the sea,
But Mister Eneas was gone.
(2× Chorus)