Frank Worsley, a New Zealander and skipper of the Endurance was an outstanding navigator with an instinctive skill for reckoning. He was also a highly competent boat handler, especially in the rough seas of the south and especially on rocky coasts with surf. It is quite possible that Worsley insisted that the Caird was built as a double ended boat in case such a beach landing would be required. He would also have been aware of the impossibility of sailing such a small lifeboat into the wind in the Southern Ocean. Therefore the boat would likely be running with a following sea, with a sharp in these conditions the boat wold have been far less likely to broach and capsize.
During the 2013 Shackleton’s Epic Expedition; when Tim Jarvis led a team including Seb Coutlhard in repeating the voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia in a replica of the James Caird with period sledging wear (highly unsuitable for sea voyages) and eating pemmican (yuk!); it became obvious that keeping the boat on course would have been more tricky than initially thought by Tim and, latterly, the only two crew members who took the steering were the experienced sailors. This was because the Alexandra Shackleton, their reproduction boat, was drifting too far east and in danger of missing South Georgia. All the crew members on the James Caird would have had experience under sail and all had experience of handling boats.
Throughout all of this there is no evidence whatsoever of any further mutiny from McNish. On arrival at Peggoty Camp, McNish was left in charge and to care for Vincent and McCarthy, both of whom were in a bad way.. He fashioned cleats from brass screws taken from the Caird to allow Shackleton, Worsley and Crean to attempt the crossing of the Island. Without these home made crampons, this would have been impossible.
After the rescue of the men from Elephant Island the Endurance crew and the expedition were paid off at Buenos Aries. Worsley and Shackleton returned to Britain, but instead of being Shackleton’s employee and Master of the Endurance, Worsley travelled as his companion and friend over the next few months.
Frank Worsley, 1906, in the uniform of a Lt of the Royal New zealand Naval reserve. (Photo reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of New Zealand)
As Andrew Leachman suggests in the Journal of the New Zealand Antarctic Society, Worsley had no reason to love McNish, in fact, from his journals we can see that he was quite antagonistic towards the Scot, in challenging Shackleton he had also challenged Worsley, worse, Worsley was unable to impose his authority on McNish, one of his crew, in front of the men. Most of us are painfully aware of our own foibles and Worsley was no different, gifted seaman and navigator extraordinaire (his feat during this voyage has never been surpassed and is unlikely ever to be) though he was, he was also an ineffectual leader especially when compared with Shackleton’s titanic abilities in that area. It must have been humiliating for him to be so contemptuously treated by McNish. If Shackleton’s attitude towards McNish had mellowed (indicated by his striking of the incident from the log) Worsley’s certainly had not. Did Worsley’s attitude to McNish influence Shackleton during the long voyage home? Shackleton, despondent as he always was post expedition, maybe depressed and worried about returning to Britain a failure, certainly concerned about the state of financial matters, his relationship with his wife and family and the work load that awaited him cold have easily been influenced in identifying a Jonah. Shackleton hated writing post expedition books, the cold self-discipline required of grinding out a book was not in his nature. The writing of South was handed to a ghost writer, Edward Saunders working from Shackleton’s log and notes from Worsley (who didn’t publish his memoires for another 14 years) editorial assistance was given by the young expedition meteorologist, Leonard Hussey who was only 21 and impressionable. Leachman states that when you compare specific McNish related incidents from South with other, eye witness sources, they don’t stack up and he gives a couple of examples. However and why it happened is unknown but it appears a conscious or unconscious hatchet job was done on McNish.
Rediscovered in the 1970s as a hero and feted as one of the greatest leaders of men and perhaps the greatest explorer of the heroic age of Polar exploration, Shackleton’s treatment of McNish in recommending that the Polar Medal not be awarded to the Scot rankles and sullies our relationship with Shackleton the hero. However, we must also recognise that what makes Shackleton a hero is that he was human and he displayed human weakness.
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