I’ve read many places that McNish was a ‘socialist’ this isn't accurate because it implies sociaism in the modern sense of the word. In fact it was McNish's faith that was the root of his 'socialism'. McNish was from a religious tradition that was highly liberal and egalitarian in its philosophy. A man was judged on his merits and no man was more than God. He was a member of the United Free Church of Scotland which had broken from the Church of Scotland after the latter started to permit the practice of patronage, where a sponsor could effectively finance the appointment of a minister to a parish. To the ‘Wee Frees’ this was a betrayal of the fundamental principle of all men being equal in the eyes of God. That people of McNish’s faith shared many of the ideals of socialism and often became the bedrock of the socialist and union movement doesn’t make McNish a socialist per se.
During the voyage to the south McNish proved his worth as an extremely talented ship wright, he fabricated furniture, built dog kennels, storage boxes for the scientists, windscreens to protect the helmsman, a set of iron knees for the Endurance’s pram dinghy and, when the Endurance entered the ice he designed a telegraph enabling the watch officer to steer the ship from the bows by transmitting steering orders to the helmsman. As a time served Master Ship Wright he would have been highly experienced at working with all types of wood, iron and steel.
When the Endurance became trapped, McNish built a structure known as the Ritz to allow the crew to move in with the shore party as Shackleton brought them together as a team. He fought hard, working for hours with ice cold water up to his waist, to build a coffer dam to attempt to save the Endurance. This must have been hell for a man who was showing signs of arthritis.
His courage as a shipmate was never in doubt. The author Gerald Bowman sailed with McNish subsequently and wrote of him in 1958: ““I had the great luck to find myself shipmates with one “Chips” McNish, who had been Shackleton’s carpenter on the Imperial Trans –Antarctic Expedition. Chips was neither sweet-tempered nor tolerant and his Scots voice could rasp like a frayed wire cable…….. I loved him not, yet in the course of the next few weeks I discovered him to be one of the most courageous and skilful men I have ever met. Finally after two notable incidents, we actually became friends, and I found in place of a tormentor a good shipmate with a shrewd wit and a power of describing men and high adventure that was admirable.”
The memoires of surgeon Macklin and others indicate similar sentiments indeed, after World War 1 Macklin paid for McNish’s fare from Scotland to London to attend reunion dinners.
Location of Port Glasgow, Inverclyde © Crown Copyright, Ordnance Survey
When the Endurance was crushed McNish saved crucial wood and only 4 tools from the wreck – a hammer, an adze, a chisel and a saw. He suggested to Shackleton that he construct a sloop (a single masted boat) from the wreckage, capable of carrying them from the ice once the flow they were on had been driven sufficiently far north enough to melt. Shackleton, who knew how dangerous the sea was when the ice started to break up knew that this wouldn’t work. Such a boat built in such a way would have been too fragile. It would have been considerably more seaworthy than the boats they ended up taking to but it would have lacked the agility to negotiate the fragmented sea ice as it broke up. There was never any doubt that McNish would not have been able to build a ship from the wreckage, his skills were never doubted.
When the Endurance finally sank, the tension that existed between the irascible Calvinist and the leader came to a head. McNish had adjusted the motor sled to be able to be man hauled and saw to putting the 3 ship’s boats (the pram dinghy and motor boat were left) on the sleds for man hauling. He also built a shelter for the cook, Green, so that the blubber stove Hurley had designed, and Green were kept from the wind. The tension started to come to a head when Shackleton ordered the killing of the puppies and Mrs Chips, McNish’s and the ship’s cat. McNish was very upset despite the necessity of the act, the cat’s life would have been utterly miserable on the ice and Shackleton recognised that they were in no position to feed animals that couldn’t work. McNish may also have been appalled by Shackleton’s symbolic act of ripping up the expedition bible and only keeping the flyleaf where the Queen had inscribed the book and this verse from Job:
"Out of whose womb came the ice?
And the hoary frost of Heaven, who hath gendered it?
The waters are hid as with a stone,
And the face of the deep is frozen." (Job 38:29-30)
He also threw away his gold cigarette case, watch and a handful of gold sovereigns. He told his men to strip themselves of superfluous weight:
““No article has any value when measured against our survival,” Shackleton intoned. “Everything is replaceable except your lives.””
39.