Medicine Show (5): Shackleton’s Banjo

Shackleton’s ship trapped in pack ice went down without its banjo, that “vital mental medicine” as he called it, fished out at the last minute & hauled along to Elephant Island with the raffish rest of the crew. Who included one Leonard Hussey, meteorologist & cut-up, hired for his quick wit & repertoire of banjo tunes. Picture them singing Stephen Foster over slabs of seal meat, 22 men confined to a hut with the one remaining boat for a roof, the southern stars swimming over its hull. Picture webbed feet frying in a pan on New Year’s Day as the men hopped & shuffled their cornball best. And years later when Shackleton returned with Hussey to the South Atlantic, on the night he died he asked for one last tune. Imagine that banjo pale as a bloodless cheek, the explorer’s watery gaze. And in the silence that followed, shadows from the oil lamp continuing to dance.