Page 42 of Valour

“It’s honestly not very good,” Charlotte protested.

Mei dashed off and appeared moments later with her accordion and Rufus’s banjo. Hester crossed her legs on the bed and clapped her hands together. “I always knew I’d be immortalised in song. Let’s hear it.”

The accordion’s deep melody filled the cabin, and Rufus struck up on the banjo.

Charlotte began to sing, her cheeks flushing:

Oh, the Weddell Sea is a cruel mistress,

Where the floes stretch ever more,

But Captain Hester Orn set out,

To seek the Antarctic shore.

Through pack ice and the sparkling mists,

Her sturdy ship did glide,

And when the giant orca neared,

She refused to run and hide.

The rest of the crew joined in with the chorus then, singing as loudly as they had done the previous evening:

Heave-ho! Through the ice we break

Though the frost bites hard and the sail doth shake!

With Valour we sail through the frozen sea,

Captain Orn and the crew and me!

Hester clapped, her mouth open in awe as Charlotte sang the next verse:

The beast came forth in black and white,

And hauled up on the floe,

But Hester Orn was not afraid,

And bid the terror to go,

She fired the harpoon with all her might,

Towards the murderous whale,

And struck the beast in its cavernous jaws,

Her aim would never fail.

They all joined in again with the chorus, including Hester this time, slapping her thighs along with the music. And Charlotte sang the final verse:

Now the Weddell Sea will freeze your bones,

And the ice may shriek and groan,

But the tale of Orn will warm your heart,