The Scurvy Poets Society

Shiver me timbers! The RV Tangaroa has a poet on board, and he’s makin’ jingles at sea.

The mate is there up on the bridge, steering us south down the Ridge. It’s blowing a lot when he gets to the spot, so he alters the course, just a smidge.

The deckhands are standing about, so the bosun is starting to shout, “Quit all ya blabbing, these moorings need grabbing”- he’s laid money on how many come out.

“Get to work,” calls the bosun, “understand? I want all those deck winches manned!” But they all have to wait, cos the mooring guy’s late……..then he appears, transducer in hand.

Now the mooring guy’s feeling a wreck. He’s tired and he’s got a stiff neck. He was caught unawares, then he tripped down the stairs, and wound up rear-end on the deck…

That’s just an excerpt. The ship and crew spent a month sailing the Macquarie Ridge as part of the Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam) project. They’ve posted about 25 daily logs at the website below. The R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer will conduct a second expedition to Antarctica that runs concurrently. They set sail just the other day. You can follow the expedition through daily logs here at the CenSeam website.