A Camp on Moving Ice
Tents on a drifting floe, with black water waiting below.
The crew named their new home Ocean Camp, a of tents on the frozen sea.
They lived now upon a great sheet of ice, with the black ocean waiting below.
If the floe breaks apart, Weller warned, everything we own will sink into the sea.
With their ship gone, the men learned to read the ice like a dangerous, moving map.
Each morning they checked for cracks, knowing that safety could vanish within a single hour.
If a opens beneath a tent, the men inside have only seconds to .
With the dogs tied close and the boats ready, the camp stayed prepared for flight.
The ice drifted slowly north, carrying the whole camp with it toward open water.
If the current turns, Weller explained, we may drift for months in the wrong direction.
With every day the sun rose lower, and the returning darkness pressed upon their spirits.
The men slept in wet bags, with the cold seeping through every seam and stitch.
If a man lets his boots freeze solid, he can lose his toes by morning.
With patience and care, they dried their clothes over small, precious flames each evening.
Weller walked the camp constantly, with a calm face that hid his private fears.
If the men see me worried, he thought, their courage will before the ice does.
With food running lower, the hunters searched the floes for seals and the penguin.
The dogs grew thin, and Weller knew a hard decision was coming with the deepening winter.
If the ice holds until spring, he reasoned, the boats can carry us to land.
With their lives balanced on drifting ice, the men clung to and humour.
They celebrated small birthdays, with songs and an extra biscuit saved from the day's ration.
If despair spreads through a camp, Weller believed, it kills faster than any .
So he filled each day with duties, with games, and with talk of the journey home.
The floe cracked once in the night, with a noise like a great door slamming.
If the whole sheet splits, the captain knew, they will have to take to the boats.
For now the ice held, with the tents huddled together beneath the cold and endless stars.
But every man understood that if the sea decides, no camp on ice can stand.