The Wreck of the Viking, by Jeanette Winsor

​The Wreck of the Viking
​
after Fire Down on the Labrador, by David Blackwood (Canada) 1980. View at 3:00 in above video.
 https://www.artsy.net/artwork/david-blackwood-fire-down-on-the-labrador-1

​“The night was colder than a nun’s tit.”
Uncle Isreal plugged his pipe full of Sail tobacco,
tamped it down with a Seadog matchbox.
“And, there we was, half-starved, backs bent,
so that lunatic Varick Frissell could film the seal hunt.
All a bloody show.
We slaughtered harps and dog hoods,
dragged pelts back to the ship, traced paths
of scarlet on pristine ice,
ate hard tack and salt beef,
drank switchel tea, and slept among the carcasses.
A few planks above, in heat and comfort,
Captain Kane and his rich chums
feasted on the best beef, swigged the finest port,
slept on clean sheets covered in warm blankets.
 
Just off the Horse Islands in White Bay,
rigged out in winter work clothes,
we sat around covered in blood and gury,
with the sea ice whispering in our ears.
‘Light a fire in the friggin’ stove t’ere.’
Words from a man whose teeth chittered.
We heaped up the coal, fed the fire,
sat back to bask in the warmth,
stared at the boxes packed tight around us.
Fifty pounds.
Dupont Explosives. Extra Dynamite.
For when the ship got stuck in the ice.
 
When that dynamite caught, the boooom was heard for miles.
Twenty-six bodies descended to the murky bottom
along with Frissell and his old dog.
The rest escaped to face the frozen solitude.”
 
Beneath the waves, the whales
jarred from their slumber,
disturbed by men who go down to sea in ships,
stirred in the darkness.

Silent witnesses.
 
Jeanette Winsor
 
Jeanette Winsor is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers in Toronto and has been writing for more than forty years. Her work is rooted in Newfoundland outports and addresses a way of life slowly being eroded by the modern world. Her nonfiction has appeared in journals and magazines in Canada and internationally. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in various anthologies, and she is the author of three novels. She lives in Essa, Ontario with her husband. When she is not writing, she tends her garden, reads widely, and sews. Her summers are spent in Newfoundland.