The Expedition needed these men, but it needed them to work together. It was the 27th December 1915, 5 days earlier, Shackleton, having learned that they were drifting slowly north and were now 250 miles from land at Paulet island, initiated the effort to cut the distance to the island. Since then, the party had man hauled their boats, mounted on sledges, across increasingly rough ice. Warm temperatures added to their misery, melting the top layers into porridge. The toll on the boats was mounting, and, increasingly concerned about their condition and, perhaps voicing the opinions of the other men, McNish had had enough. Never a man to mince his words he stopped and refused to continue.
The confrontation that followed involved Shackleton, Worsley and McNish. The others watched with baited breath.
Why did this professional seaman, a man who was well used to and who understood the importance of discipline at sea react in this way? To answer that question, we need to look closely at the man, McNish and where he was from.
Henry McNish was born in the town of Port Glasgow on the Renfrewshire side of the River Clyde. Port Glasgow sits at the head of the firth (Scots word for estuary) where the river starts to broaden. The Firth of Clyde is one of the most beautiful parts of the coastline of Great Britain, there’s a colossal feeling to the landscape which is set off by the most spectacular skies, the presence of the great ship building cranes along the Renfrewshire side of the firth (the south bank). Port Glasgow was originally the village of Newton. In the late 18th century it was renamed Port Glasgow. The city of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest, is up river from Port Glasgow. As trade began to flow into Great Britain, at the dawn of the Empire, larger and larger ports were needed to cater for the incoming resources and the outgoing products. The River Clyde isn’t particularly large when compared to the Thames for example, this limited the size of ship which could make it up river to Glasgow. Newton became Port Glasgow.
mutiny on the ice!
The situation for the men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was desperate. Their ship, the Endurance, trapped in pack ice and eventually crushed, 1000 miles from habitation and 200 miles from land. They had their stores, themselves, 3 ship's boats, some sledges, some dogs and a banjo. 28 men were stranded on the sea ice. It was 1915 and there were no radios powerful enough to summon help.
If they were going to escape from this predicament they needed to pull together, more importantly, they needed three key individuals to perform at their peak: the leader, Sir Ernest Shackleton, an energetic Anglo-Irishman and the most extraordinary leaders of men in extemis; Frank Worsley, the excitable New Zealander who was Master of the Endurance whose small boat handling skills and navigation skills have gone down in legend; Harry 'Chippy' McNish, Ship's Carpenter of consummate skill and a man of incredible creativity in his craft, able to conjure miracles from scraps with only basic tools.
Main Photo: The Firth of Clyde looking towards Dunoon and Cowal- photo R Palmer
36.
Words: Richard Palmer
Pictures: Frank Hurley; R.Palmer; courtesy of Seb Coulthard , Photos published with the kind permission of The National Library of Australia Frank Hurley Collection. & The National Library of New Zealand Alexander Turnbull Library
Illustration: Pete Vassiliakos