Locked in Ice

Lyrics

In the year of 1831 I sailed towards the setting sun Bringing food and fuel and guns for the Hudson Bay Company From Vancouver to the North West shore Like I'd done these fifteen years or more Little did I know what lay in store on the icy Beaufort Sea Trading cargo for the finest furs Trapped by Eskimos and voyagers It was early winter came that year Through closing pack ice I did steer Just a narrow patch of sea lay clear Now I was homeward bound But as I crossed the Beaufort Sea The pack ice, it closed in on me It was a fearful guarantee that I'd be run aground To Barrow then, the crew did go To shelter from the wind and snow Locked in ice Half a hundred years Drifting with the flow Where the ice goes, I go It seemed that fortune looked my way For early on, the following day The ice broke up and moved away And the crew came back aboard But two miles from Alaska's shore The pack ice, it closed in once more Cut the skyline where I'd sailed before Like a white and deadly sword Captain and the thirty crew To the safety of the shore withdrew But I was locked in ice Half a hundred years Drifting with the flow Where the ice goes, I go So without a crew, I drifted slow Stuck fast within the pack ice floe Till a group of hunting Eskimo found me floating just offshore Two years later, I was seen again Heading Northward through the snow and rain The salvage men, they tried to stake their claim But the ice made them withdraw It was in the year of '69 I was sighted for the final time Locked in ice Half a hundred years Drifting with the flow Locked in ice Half a hundred years Where the ice goes, I go I'm a little ghost ship on the Beaufort sea Doomed to travel endlessly Locked in ice Half a hundred years Drifting with the flow Locked in ice Half a hundred years Where the ice goes, I go I go I go