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JAMES CAIRD SOCIETY JOURNAL NO. 3 PUBLISHED
ATTRACTIVE, DETAILED AND SCHOLARLY JOURNAL
The third James Caird Society Journal was published in spring 2007 and its appearance has been met with general appreciation and acclaim.
A handsome volume printed on quality paper and in A4 format, the Journal runs to 76 pages and is edited by Stephen Scott-Fawcett, FRICS FRGS, who is a member of the James Caird Society Committee. In the initial article he introduces the detailed plans of the Antarctic Heritage Trust Conservation Plan for the preservation and restoration of Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds, Ross Island, which was used by Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1907-9, and also by members of Captain Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition (1910-11), on which all members of the South Polar party died.
Three members of Shackleton's Endurance expedition figure prominently in Journal Number Three: Dr. Jan Piggott reviews Michael Smith's new biography of Sir James Wordie (it will be remembered that Michael Smith contributed a handsome and informative essay on Wordie to JCS Journal Number 2; Wordie went on to found The Arctic Club in 1932, and won renown for his journeys not just to Antarctica with Shackleton, but to Svalbard, East Greenland and Baffin Island); and Wordie's own obituary of both Sir Ernest Shackleton (1922) - recalling that 'it was Shackleton who initiated the Australian Antarctic Expedition (1910-13) finally organized and commanded by Sir Douglas Mawson' and suggesting that Scott, Bruce and Shackleton 'set an example of heroism and created romance for the generations to come' - and Frank Wild (in The Scott Polar Research Institute's journal Polar Record, vol. 3, No. 19, January 1940) are also reprinted.
Frank Wild was born in 1873, went on no less than five Antarctic expeditions and died on 19 August 1939, of pneumonia and diabetes, aged 65) are both included. 'No other Antarctic figure has so impressed himself on the rank and file as Wild', writes Wordie, the Antarctic Circle website recalls 'If Oscars were given out to Antarctic explorers, Frank Wild would surely have picked up a few in the "best supporting" category' and Stephen Scott-Fawcett in his valuable introduction calls Wild 'very much the "unknown giant" of the Heroic Age.' As well as Shackleton's three expeditions, aboard Nimrod, Endurance and Quest, the Yorkshire-born Wild (like Shackleton himself) went on Scott's Discovery expedition, and following the Nimrod Expedition of 1907-9 was sledge-master on Sir Douglas Mawson's Antarctic expedition of 1911-13, assuming command of their Western Base and exploring for the first time Queen Mary Land.
Stephen Scott-Fawcett contributes an article about Endurance member Walter How and reviews Kelly Tyler's book on Shackleton's Aurora crew, The Lost Men. Shackleton himself is a contributor, for included are his 1909 recollections based on an interview 'In the Days of my Youth: My first success,' embracing his early days at sea, his voyage on the Discovery and three-month poleward journey with Scott and Wilson, as well as some amusing anecdotal memories ('What an Explorer Eats', and so on) of the Nimrod expedition, and a tribute to the inventions of Fridtjof Nansen. Shackleton remained on the best of terms with both Nansen and his compatriot Roald Amundsen, as with his Antarctic explorer colleagues from France, Germany and Belgium.
The detailed surveying of South Georgia from the 1950s onwards features in an extended article on Duncan Carse, who died in 2004 aged 90, after whom Mount Carse (2,331 m), the 'highest and most beautiful peak of the Salvesen Range', is named. Carse had himself planned to complete Shackleton's ambitions by leading a Transantarctic Expedition in 1955-8, an ambition which was instead fulfilled at just that same time by Sir Vivian Fuchs. Antarctic-related music is given a scientific treatment in an artile by Craig Vear, and Tina Ferris looks for Polar related implications and references in the work of poet and novelist D.H.Lawrence, reminding us that Shackleton himself was much drawn to literature and poetry, as Jan Piggott revealed in his essay 'A Man of Action, and Yet a Man of Books' (in the catalogue of the Dulwich College Exhibition 'Shackleton, The Antarctic and Endurance').
Read a tribute to Duncan Carse at the Falklands Islands Govt website
Any items for further editions of the James Caird Society Journal should be sent on paper to: Stephen Scott-Fawcett, FRGS, Shackleton House, 2 Burrell Close, Holt, Norfolk NR25 6DT, UK., and should also be sent by email attachment, please, to sdfsurveyor@btopenworld.com
Details of the First and Second James Caird Society Journals, edited by Dr. Jan Piggott, former Archivist of Dulwich College, can be found on the accompanying 'Journals' page. The Second includes a contribution from Henry Worsley, descendant of Shackleton's great navigator and prospective leader of the 2008 Shackleton Centenary Expedition, of a trip to Antarctica, an essay on Shackleton's colleague Dr. Alexander Macklin, a description of Shackleton's 1902 Sledge Journey and amplified extracts from a lecture by Jan Piggott on life on Elephant Island under the leadership of Frank Wild.
Frank Wild's last years are usually adjudged to have been unfulfilling, partly because he was perceived to have 'lost his way' after Shackleton's death. But he also embarked on a change of lifestyle from his gregarious role and leadership achievements in Polar Expeditions. The Antarctic Circle website reports that Lt. Evans was apparently the last of the British Antarctic explorers to see Frank alive: 'Wild's death certificate recorded his occupation as Belasco Mine storekeeper, at Klerksdorp, in the Transvaal. His funeral was a simple, brief service at the Brixton Cemetery in Johannesburg. There was no funeral oration and little ceremonial. A boy bugler sounded the last post. Apart from his wife and her relations, the funeral was attended by officers and sea cadets of the Witwatersrand branch of the Navy League of South Africa, a soldier VC, a farmer from Kenya who had known Wild in Nyasaland and two farmers who had also suffered from the severe drought in Mkuzi. There were wreaths from the South African Geographical Society and the Explorers Club of New York (report in the Rand Daily Mail, 24 August 1939). Wild's body was cremated and the ashes later interred in a grave in the cemetery. On 18 April 1966 Johannesburg daily, The Starreported that Wild's grave could now not be found.'
As his biographer Michael Smith points out, James Wordie went to Spitsbergen in 1919 and 1920 with the Scottish explorer, William Speirs Bruce, and in 1921 sailed to the desolate Jan Mayen Island where he made the first ascent of Mount Beerenberg. Over the next 17 years Wordie led five more expeditions to the Arctic, including voyages to East Greenland and Baffin Bay. Once he considered attempting to navigate the North West Passage, but chose to turn back. His last major expedition was in 1937, though he made a brief final visit to the ice in 1954 at the invitation of British North Greenland Expedition.
Few expeditions left Britain without first consulting Wordie. When his active Polar career came to an end he became Chairman of the Scott Polar Research Institute in 1937 and held the post for 18 years. During the war, Wordie was instrumental in the Naval Intelligence's top-secret Operation Tabarin, which framed British policy towards the Antarctic and its dependencies like the Falklands and South Georgia. He was responsible for establishing the first permanent British base on the Antarctic continent. In 1951 Wordie became President of the Royal Geographical Society and was thus a key figure in the planning of the successful first climb of Mount Everest.
The National Library of Scotland has amassed an extensive collection of printed materials on exploration and disovery in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic regions. The foundation of this collection is the personal library of Sir James Mann Wordie, the Wordie Collection, which was bequeathed to the Library in 1958. Presented to the Library in 1959, it contains over 4,600 printed items, comprising books, journals (including runs of foreign journals such as Meddelelser om Grønland), around 2,000 pamphlets, 16 maps, and 68 volumes of correspondence and papers, many concerned with the Colonial Office’s Discovery Committee.
Visit the Wordie collection at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) website
The last of the three men specially featured in Journal Number Three is Walter Ernest ('Wallie' or 'Ernie') How (1885-1972). Stephen Scott-Fawcett is well placed to write about How ('an agreeable and competent little chap' according to Alfred Lansing's Shackleton biography), from first-hand information, in that he found himself to be living in the next village to How's daughter, Grace Turzig. How was an able sketcher - some of his lighter-hearted Endurance cartoons doubtless provided as unforgettable entertainment as Hussey's banjo - and both a positive, popular member of the crew and a courageous sailor who, the article reminds us, won two medals during World War I, during which he was blinded in one eye. His gifts as a handyman were confirmed by the handsome model he produced of Endurance. He nearly sailed with aboard Quest, but a last-minute family bereavement put paid to that.
Read about How and other members of the Endurance crew at the Cool Antarctica website
Able Seaman Walter How, Charlie Green (the versatile and capable ship's cook, whom Shackleton specifially invited to join the Quest; Green died in September 1974), and the First Officer, Lionel Greenstreet (who died in January 1979, and was thus by a little over four years the very last crew member) were the final three survivors of the Endurance Party. How, brought up in humble Bermondsey in South London, and like Shackleton and other comrades a seaman from an early age, who married just a year before the Endurance expedition, was complicit in the stowaway Blackborow's concealment and assisted both doctors in the amputation of the unfortunate youth's toes on Elephant Island.
SECOND ISSUE OF JAMES CAIRD SOCIETY JOURNAL PUBLISHED
The second issue of the James Caird Society Journal, edited by the Dulwich College Archivist and JCS Committee Member Dr. Jan Piggott, was first made available in November 2004.
Again, it is a handsome and highly informative publication. 220 copies were issued, of which 55 went to Society members overseas.
In addition to many interesting articles and reviews submitted by various contributers, Henry Worsley & Hannah Mornement described trips to Antarctica; the late David Yelverton wrote on Shackleton's First Sledge Journey of 1902; Jan Piggott adapted and amplified the text of his detailed lecture to the Society on life on Elephant Island after the James Caird left, and paid tribute to leadership of Frank Wild.
Ann Savours wrote on A.H.Macklin, one of the doctors on the Endurance expedition and also aboard Quest, where he attended Shackleton at the time of his death in 1992. Michael Smith wrote about James Wordie's part on the Endurance expedition and his many later achievements.
THE JAMES CAIRD SOCIETY JOURNAL
As an experimental initiative the James Caird Society has just launched a Journal for articles and reviews of books on matters connected with Shackleton and Antarctic Exploration. There is a surplus of good material for the James Caird Society Newsletter, and many good pieces have to be cut to length. The Committee felt that a Journal to supplement the Newsletter would allow the Society to print longer and perhaps more academic pieces.
Volume 1 has now been published. The Journal's Editor is the Keeper of the Archives at Dulwich College, Dr.Jan Piggott, F.S.A., who curated the recent highly praised Shackleton, the Antarctic and Endurance Exhibition at Dulwich College.
It was decided to print about 150 copies of the Journal initially, in A4 format. A copy will be issued, free of charge, to members who fill in and return the slip sent out with the last James Caird Society Newsletter, on a first come, first served basis. Copies can be either collected at Society Meetings or sent out for the cost of postage and packing.
The Editor is keen to solicit items for future publication; please kindly submit any material or articles, or initial enquiries, to : Dr. Jan Piggott, The Common Room, Dulwich College, London SE21 7LD, preferably both as 'hard copy' and on disk.
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