Barnacle Bill Magazine January 2016 | Page 48

Seb continues:

Worsley may have said that but I believe he had no choice but to buy a new SOLAS lifeboat...with additional modifications added to his specification perhaps (this makes more sense to me). Do bear in mind that his account for the voyage was written 13 years after WW1. In his book he incorrectly refers to her as clinker built when she evidently isn't! I'm not saying what he wrote is false, I am merely suggesting that perhaps his memory was clouded and he may have worded that sentence incorrectly. The James Caird weighs 1.5 tonnes...that doesn't sound very lightweight to me. Springy...she is certainly not. What ever he specified...the Caird was not lightweight or springy!!

The Endurance arrived in London in July 1914 making her immediately subject to the new SOLAS regulations, I strongly believe that Worsley and Shackleton had no choice but to equip the ship with a third lifeboat. The smaller cutters were simply too small if one were lost. These new life saving measures had to be fully embodied by September 1916, this date fell short of the estimated ships return to England so - it was a legal requirement to have an additional boat, not just a personal desire for "a springy" double ended whaler.

Frank Worsley

If this is the case (and I will be able to confirm this once I've measured the internal capacity of the replica using Simpson's Rule as per the 1914 regulations) [Ed: we’ll be following this up when we review Seb’s replica in a few months time] then the James Caird is a far more complex vessel than is commonly perceived. If she was built to the new SOLAS regulations, she would have been built as one of the earliest Class 1A SOLAS open-lifeboats with reserve buoyancy. Worsley made comment in his 1931 book that the Muntz brass metal tanks (not copper) were removed from the boat to make more room for the crew and eventually the Southern Ocean journey. I believe these metal tanks were then cut-up and used to patch her hull where the wooden ice-sleds had chafed the turn of her bilge. If you view the original James Caird today, these patches are now missing however, smaller patches of lead sheet can be seen around her bilge area to seal small holes caused by ice shards.

So Shackleton and Worsley had no choice but to commission a lifeboat. Seb and I speculated about why they opted for what appears to be a modified lifeboat rather than building – for example, a bespoke boat. This could have been simply down to budget.

Seb:

There are no originals plans for the Caird, lifeboats where constructed ten-a-penny. It is quite likely that when a ship operator requested the construction of a lifeboat of a certain capacity, a pattern book and offset table where used. The Caird was built by W. J. Leslie of 36 Coldharbour Lane, Poplar, London. Walter West Leslie and John Ashcroft Leslie were recipients of the 1883 International Fisheries Exhibition Silver Medal, awarded to them by Queen Victoria for 'life-boat' design. In my opinion, Shackleton picked them as they were the most reputable boat builder in West India Docks at the time.

Shackleton may have had some influence on the decision regarding which design to purchase. He was very familiar with Norwegian whaling boats and the preferred design for this kind of boat was a double ended hull. This allowed for clean entry into the water if pushed up or down a slipway/beach. The other theory here is that in icy water, it is preferable to have a double ended whaler than a transom ended boat. During my last expedition we hit a large number of growlers (small icebergs which float just above the surface). We managed to deflect every blow bow-on and stern-on thanks to the clean lines of her hull. If you look at photographs of the Dudley Docker and Stancomb-Wills after their arrival on Elephant Island, you can see the damage inflicted by ice to their clinker construction. I believe Worsley even commented that the two other cutters were simply too unsafe...in one comment he said the Docker "looked dangerously small for an open boat".

Now we know Worsley was an experienced boat handler, his training and upbringing on the coast of New Zealand meant that he was an old hand at handling a boat in surf and in a large following sea.

Seb:

If we look at the 1908 Admiralty Manual of Seamanship which remained in service till revised in 1915 , it is almost without doubt that Worsley would have been well acquainted with it, especially the boat handling section. This was practically the Bible of Seamanship to any English speaking sailor.

Chapter VI covers the subject of 'Boat Work' with sub-sections on towing, landing in surf, rowing to seaward, running before a broken sea, or surf, to shore, beaching and landings in surf.

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