In a late celebration of Fitzbones Day, have the lyrics to the arrangement of The Northwest Passage I'm gonna record this weekend!
All credit to Stan Rogers for the song, this is just a little act of love for the archaeologists, historians, and countless other professionals who work on the Terror, Erebus, and walkout sites! I've left the first chorus and verse entirely unaltered, my work follows <3
Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea
Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones
Ah, so many times they had tried the Northwest Passage
To look for Sir John Franklin frozen in the Arctic Sea
Tracing one worn line through a land by cold so ravaged
Til they found a Northwest Passage through the sea
Betrayed by their country, eating rotten food of lead
Franklin's men left frozen ships, took to the land instead
They began the walk out south to where Backs Fish River wells
Six hundred miles not crossed ere each man fell
Oh, time after time they have searched the Northwest Passage
To find the men of Franklin lost before the Beaufort Sea
Marked out line by line through a land so often scavenged
To learn about the lives that once had been
James Fitzjames fell early, sharing in his men's cold fates
Not far from his own ship lost on King William Island's straits
He laid for years unburied, knife marks cutting to the bone
As all his men died slowly far from home
Ah, again in time they did search the Northwest Passage
Where Erebus and Terror sank far from the Beaufort Sea
Listening this time to the long ignoréd message
Of those who'd seen them sink into the sea
Aglooka led men southward in hopes they could be found
By Netsilik or trappers steady heading homeward bound
He and many others lie waiting to be named
One final pointless frozen English shame
Till the end of time they might sail the Northwest Passage
Hand in hand with Franklin enduring on the Arctic Sea
Walk their endless line through a land that gently ravaged
Their eternal southern passage from the sea
Ah, one final time I will take the Northwest Passage
And think on nameless men still reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Trace their ghostly lines through a land we've left so damaged
One mourning quiet passage to the sea
Also shout-out to @onefellsloop for the extremely funny suggestion to have the JFJ verse end
He laid for years thereafter, in his snowy resting place / Some hella awkward bite marks on his face…’
and making me snort water out my nose and almost onto a guitar
