Darwin and the Beagle (p-176) 1/11/05
Title sailors sing “Over this great Ocean” Possibly sung by Pringle in Intro
It is necessary to sail … (Over this great Ocean) overcome by
To comprehend its immensity every great emotion
The same profoundly deep blue ocean washing in waves
No rest for the imagination over this great ocean
Even shadows cannot catch (a man moving onward)
when I think of this great ocean
enormously vast and free...
abide tide aside cried...
5:30 am dream May 24th, 2007
casting about in the deep end to drown
without a doubt consistent with our plan to take soundings
Its our crew
Its your navy
its the start of the day/play
Its our crew
Its your story
what will you have them say
TIERRA
TERRA
Territory
Its my land and I will frighten you off if I can
FUEGO
FIRMA
Terra Incognito
Here lie demons
Here lie demons
Here lie demons no more
for we’ve mapped and surveyed
rivers and bays
we’ve clocked and chronicled
estuaries and cays
and we’ve Christianized around the horn...
Set a boat
Drop an anchor
Lower away
At the bottom of the world
As Christians we welcome this day
At the bottom of the world
In witness
Let us pray
for this out post
for these people
Fuegia Basket a coracle on the sea
York Minster a sullen and sulking rock
Jemmy Button
and their comrade - Boat Memory
who now lies in England
taken by disease and named after our loss
Jemmy Button Well how did I get here?
I will tell you…
I was traded for a button
As bright and shiny as my eye
Hence my ascribed name – Jemmy Button
because a boat had been stolen
I was brought to this vessel
They thought that I could learn to translate
their language for mine.
They needed my help
What could I say
What could I do
For all their good intentions
I was a captive
Fitzroy How could we complete our survey
I did what needed to be done
I did what I could
With my crew to carry on our mission
Boats were indispensable to carry us to land
To take on measurements and supplies…
Jemmy Button I was given clothes
I was taught language
I learned their words
I was impressionable
I was tractable, adapatable
and young
And because I was eager to please
I became a friend
And a symbol and a cause
For Lord Fitzroy the missionary
Chorus) for our Lord on this day (date 18--)
for His wisdom
and His guidance
solemly we will pray
Tierra del Fuego
Land of fire
Show them the way
Light their souls on fire
Make light their days
and bright their morrows
Show them the way
Jemmy Button
I was in London
I saw the queen
I was made much of
I know my place
I can speak English
I now wear fine clothes
I am out of my depth
I am frightened and embarrassed
Why does my captain send me back here
Fitzroy as a candle illuminates the night
these people will shine
light upon darkness
as a beacon upon the rocks
and a light for the world
Jemmy Button I was savage
I was a heathen
I was foresaken
I was in darkness
I was in error
Now I am saved
and I am subjected
to empire
God bless king and queen
Please return me to England
Chorus) no matter what we do or try to say
all mans plans go astray
we require God’s grace faith and love
to lead the way
(regarding Jemmy Buttons return to savagery)
Narration) let me explain
captain fitzroy
for all of his love
of science and the sea
was in his heart
a missionary
October 29, 2007
(perceived as hot headed rather than cool and dispassionate
a most able seaman but aloof
Talked about in terms of weather
And clocks
Minutes and tocks
Precision and accuracy
Order intention attention
Sailors “Lot in Life”
There was work in the mines and mills
and in the fields and factories
but we took to the sea
to be free
to be free
and we were free
we took to the sea
where even the master
must bow and kneel
before the power
of the almighty sea
fired in the crucible of nature
and annealed to God’s laws
ROBERT FITZROY
(hero – decent, brittle, manic depressive, honorable, believed in law and fairness – married to a very religious woman to which he was deferential - though he slit his throat in the bathroom before breakfast …. Obviously at the end of his rope -
Yes dear
What do you want from me now?
I took over command in Rio de Janeiro
Loneliness
out of touch with my fellow creatures
set apart by function and position
aside…
evolution has been good to me
a sign of our nobility
and justification for slavery
Fitzroy It is lonely on board ship
There are demons in these seas
In the vastness of the deep
In the caverns within me
And the waves roll on forever and ever
God created the firmament so
That ships would have a destination
A reason to go
And awaken the soul
Before the ships wake
And the body slips consciousness
Into the unfathomable deep
A man needs a guide
And a captain a safe harbor
A chart to fix his course firmly
In a plot that is simple and clear
Held fast and laid low
A fair breeze and change to weather
Fitzroy:
A crew of seventy four souls
And twenty two chronometers
To clock the universe
Measured and sedate,
Tick tock and calibrate
For the king of kings
An inventory of all earthly things
To fathom the seas, rivers and bays
And count the tides that harbour our days
Chartered to fathom the seas, rivers and cays
To count upon the winds that buffet our days
How does the good captain find a safe and secure bay
A place of rest upon our way
‘tween the light and the dark?
Missionary zeal
Set upon this seal – Tierra del Fuego
We return these souls to the land of fire
Naked and cold at the bottom of the world
Tween the seas Atlantian and Pacific
Through the straights of Magellan
Jemy Button returned to the fold
The bosum tribal
when I think of this great ocean
unfathomably vast and free
F: tick tock the celestial clocks
the music of the spheres
I can hear the universe singing to me...
as a young sailor
influenced by friends
secure in my youth
I disbelieved the
scientific truth
revealed in
Genesis
I know that in our
very modern world
people contemplate
and bend the bible
to accomodate
distrust and
lack of faith
as an example
of a fallacy
some people are wrong
to think God’s days are
a thousand years long
as if this
could explain
I brought aboard
chronometers and men ‘have them name themselves w/ some detail about their lives
to clock and measure treasure
to plot the planetary treasure
that god has given
and the ways about the earth
‘ the young man who drowned in the falklands
‘ the naturalist upstaged by Darwin
‘discuss life on board ship...
Thomas Scott Nelson ©
last modified
September 13, 2020