2. A Love Gained and Lost: The Endurance
Poseidon, the great god… You are the tamer of horse and the saviour of
ships… Help those who sail upon the sea in ships.[1]
Blackborow’s unusual employment brought the
number aboard the Endurance to
twenty-eight. Shackleton’s selection process for some of the others was also unorthodox,
making Perce’s presence seem not so out of place in the motley crew that made
up the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Shackleton gave Leonard Hussey, a
meteorologist, a very short interview before agreeing to hire him. He later
explained that Hussey was taken along because he could play the banjo and
because he ‘looked funny’.[2] In
his selections, Shackleton relied on his gut feelings and trusted his ability
to read a man’s disposition quickly. Orestes, son of Argive Agamemnon, observed
that ‘[t]here’s no effective touchstone to identify a good man. Classifying men’s
natures is a confusing business.’[3]
However, for his polar expeditions, Shackleton seemed to have stumbled on a
good formula.
At first Perce expected to be brought only as
far as South Georgia, but Shackleton was impressed by the young Welshman and he
remained on the Endurance as she
sailed out of Grytviken on 5 December 1914. Perce had to adapt quickly to the
challenge and routine of being a regular crew member, and in this he succeeded.
He had to learn his trade, both through practical engagement and studying, to
make up for his little experience in non-steam vessels. He was an able and
willing young man, perhaps hungry to make an impression on the Boss.[4]
Perce was part of the daily rota for those on
watch, just as everyone else. He got on well with all hands on board and his
easy-going manner was well-liked. Perhaps being the youngest of all the men led
the others to treat him with an equally relaxed fashion. Beneath his calm demeanour,
though, a hint of temper was perceived, with the capability of plainly speaking
his mind.[5]
Along with Green, Perce had a long working day
preparing hot meals for the hungry crew. Green was the son of a master baker in
Richmond, England, but he ran off to sea at age twenty-one and became a
merchant navy cook. He was strong and serious, and, crucially, provided food
for the men, sometimes in very daunting circumstances, all through the
expedition. Ably assisted by Perce, Green baked twelve loaves of bread a day
and prepared any game caught. Perce, as steward, prepared meals, helped cook at
the galley and cleaned pots and plates after meals.[6] He was well-liked by Mrs.
Chippy, the ship’s resident cat and dog-taunter.[7] Blackborow slipped scraps to
the adventurous feline, strengthening the friendship that probably first
bloomed during Perce’s days in hiding. When Orde-Lees temporarily took over from an
injured Green as cook, he had to admit that he knew very little about cooking
and wrote that
Blackborow—our stowaway who is now acting as
pantry boy...is really a most excellent...young fellow. I soon find that he
knows quite a lot about cooking & I confide in him that I know nothing
& that I rely upon him to pull me through.[8]
There was much activity on the Endurance besides the daily running of
the ship. Frank Hurley, the expedition’s photographer, had a keen eye for
spectacular shots. Frank Worsley, the ship’s captain, wrote that Hurley was ‘a
marvel’:
He [Hurley] perambulated alone aloft &
everywhere, in the most dangerous & slippery places he can find, content
& happy at all times but cursing so if he can get a good or novel picture.[9]
Hurley often received the assistance of Perce
when taking his photographs, having Perce operate the camera while he stood in
with others for a shot, or when he wanted a different angle. The photographs of
Hurley with his equipment high up in the ship’s mast were probably taken by
Perce. In later life, Blackborow told his son that when Hurley came looking for
him, he was often busy reading.[10]
Perce read much, making good use of the ship’s well-stocked library to study
and as a way to pass the time. Shackleton told the bright and conscientious
Welshman to study when he could, and took a personal interest in the steward’s
learning. The ship’s copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was
particularly popular and would provide relief for interested and bored sailors
alike. The Boss discussed literature with Blackborow and often talked with
those who shared his personal passion for poetry.[11] Hurley acknowledged that
individual pastimes took various forms. Although the ‘library was fairly
extensive and reading varied’, he noted that ‘[v]ast and purely imaginary sums
were won and lost at dice and cards.’[12]
Life aboard the Endurance was a product of the broad range of personnel in the crew
and how they all mixed together under the always-present Shackleton.
We are those fools who could not rest
In the dull earth we left behind,
But burned with passion for the West
And drank a frenzy from its wind;
The world where small men live at ease
Fades from our unregretful eyes,
And blind across uncharted seas
We stagger on our enterprise.[13]
In the dull earth we left behind,
But burned with passion for the West
And drank a frenzy from its wind;
The world where small men live at ease
Fades from our unregretful eyes,
And blind across uncharted seas
We stagger on our enterprise.[13]
When quoting this St John Lucas poem,
Shackleton changed the ‘West’ of line three to ‘South’. He often altered his
favourite poems, although maintaining their integrity, and interspersed them in
his writings to suit his purpose or feelings at any given time.[14]
After the Endurance became beset by the ice, trapped in by the pack for as
far as the eye could see, on 19 January 1915, Perce experienced the ‘tedious
time of waiting’.[15]
Despite this, Perce and Green remained busy as ever preparing the daily meals.
The days were filled with various activities: exercising and looking after the
dogs, seal-hunting, games of football and hockey on larger ice floes, reading
and indoor games such as cards, checkers and chess. Frank Hurley’s photos show
the many entertainments and distractions that the men engaged in while aboard
the Endurance, as it slowly drifted according to the whims of the ice. There were
lectures, made possible by the ‘excellent projection lantern [which] had been
brought along’ and it used to give ‘illustrated talks on such topics as the
Mawson Expedition and travel in sunny lands.’[16]
The men also enjoyed the performance of plays
and musical evenings for amusement, which also often had a friendly competitive
element. The communal listening to either the gramophone or to Hussey at the
banjo provided welcome distraction. Hurley recorded the result of a singing
competition occurring on the evening of 7 March 1915—’the prize being
unanimously awarded to Sir Ernest. His voice is quaint, vacillating uncertainly
between sharps and flats in a unique manner.’ Despite the many men who entered
the competition, Hurley amusingly recalled that it was ‘astounding the musical
talent we do not possess!’[17]
Further activities included poetry readings, varied conversation on any topic
under the sun and, unusually, a head-shaving contest. The last of these
amusements showed that more than just a hint of cabin fever had broken out
among the crew.[18]
A memory that Perce could later vividly recall
was that of the darkness and monotony of the Antarctic winter, with no sun for
ten weeks—’the long polar night’.[19] The
nights’ amusements provided healthy breaks, but it was a bleak time for all. A
crucial element of leadership for Shackleton, at the point when enthusiasm
turned to stagnation, as landfall for the Endurance
was impossible, was keeping everyone together and as content as could be
expected. As Michael Smith contended, ‘Shackleton’s genius was in his sheer
force of personality.’[20] He
seemed to be everywhere, do all and be the master of everything. He grew to
know his crew further and spent time chatting informally with everyone, which
had a powerful effect in making each feel as important as the next. Macklin
recalled these little chats and their value:
When he came across you by yourself he would
get into conversation and talk to you in an intimate sort of way, asking you
little things about yourself—how you were getting on, how you liked it, what
particular side of the work you were enjoying most—all that sort of thing.
Sometimes when you’d felt he’d been perhaps a bit ruthless, pushing you round a
bit hard, he seemed to have the knack of undoing any bad effect he’d had with these little intimate
talks; he immediately put you back on a feeling of rightness with him.[21]
The impact that this engagement of Shackleton
with his crew was, perhaps, most closely felt by the younger members on board,
such as Perce. Macklin, then only twenty-four, wrote that one would have ‘found
it rather flattering at the time,’ especially when Shackleton spoke about
literature and poetry—’to have him discussing Thackeray, for instance, or
asking you if you’d ever read Browning. I never had, and he would tell me what
I was missing.’ Shackleton used poetry to inspire the men under his command,
and to encourage them to persist, with the ideas and moving lines of his
favourite poets.[22]
Displaying one wonderful example of Shackleton’s
character and enthusiastic leadership, Orde-Lees wrote the following, after
witnessing Shackleton and Worsley—the ‘Boss’ and the ‘Skipper’—dancing on the
ice for the amusement of the others:
This is Sir Ernest all over…he is always able
to keep his troubles under and show a bold front. His unfailing cheeriness
means a lot to a band of disappointed sailors like ourselves.[23]
Months passed as the Endurance was slowly taken further away from the Antarctic coast,
lodged amid their icy entrapment. Despite the crew’s best efforts, the pressure
of the pack ice crushed the ship in mid-October. Her solid oak keel, seven foot
thick, and bow, four foot thick, were not to withstand the pressures from the
ice. Her beams buckled and snapped, growling and booming in the process. The
men worked valiantly in efforts to save their ship but Shackleton ordered for
her to be abandoned on 27 October 1915. ‘The floes,’ he wrote, ‘with the force
of millions of tons of moving ice behind them, were simply annihilating the
ship.’ It produced a ‘sickening sensation’ to watch and hear her destruction.[24]
Hurley recalled that, despite the ship’s destruction, smoke was issuing from
the galley chimney. Before leaving the Endurance,
Green and Perce made one last meal aboard and handed it out to the men as they
contemplated the loss of ‘our little ship’.[25] Hurley continued:
All hands assemble in the ward room to partake
of the last meal aboard the good old ship. The meal is taken in silent gravity,
whilst the crushing is in progress and an ominous sound of splintering timbers
arises from below.[26]
Shackleton knew that it was vital to reassure
his men. He gathered all hands and confidently declared: ‘Ship and stored have
gone—so now we’ll go home’.[27] The
simplicity and boldness of the statement was thoroughly effective at raising
spirits. Perce was greatly moved by this and later remembered Shackleton’s
optimism at times at strain:
I like to think of our leader as I recall him
at this time [after the loss of the Endurance].
His hopes and ambitions had all been shattered, yet he was cheerful and went
out of his way to impart some of that cheerfulness to others. He had a genius
for keeping men in good spirits, and need I say more, we loved him like a
father.[28]
Perce was certainly correct to say that
Shackleton felt the ship’s destruction acutely. He wrote that, in the Endurance he had ‘centred ambitions,
hopes and desires’.[29]
However, the new goal for the Boss was to return his men safely to
civilisation. As Hugh Robert Mill, a long-standing friend and trusted
confidante of Sir Ernest, commented in his biography, once the ship was
abandoned
…the soul of Shackleton was enlarged and set
free, doubt and anxiety dropped from him, and he gave himself with all his
might to the simple, straightforward fight for the safety of his people,
putting behind him the shatterings of his own ambitions.[30]
For Blackborow, he then had the right to say
that he had survived two shipwrecks—the Golden
Gate and the Endurance—by age
twenty.
[2] Smith, Shackleton,
p. 289.
[3] Euripides, ‘Electra’, in Medea and Other Plays, trans. J. Marwood (Oxford, 1998), p. 91.
[4] Alexander, Endurance,
p. 56.
[5] Alexander, Endurance,
p. 64.
[6] Alexander, Endurance,
pp. 63-65; Smith, Shackleton, p. 312.
[7] Alexander, Mrs.
Chippy’s Last Expedition: The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton’s
Polar-Bound Cat (New York, 1999), pp. 5, fn. 9.
[8] Alexander, Mrs.
Chippy’s Last Expedition, p. 31, fn. 44.
[9] Alexander, Endurance,
p. 65.
[10] J. Blackborow, ‘1916 May 17th Elephant Island’
[11] For more on Shackleton’s lifelong love and use
of poetry, including his own amateur works, see: Mayer, A Life in Poetry.
[12] Hurley, Argonauts
of the South, p. 163.
[13] Mill, Shackleton,
p. 265; Mayer, A Life in Poetry, pp.
113-114.
[14] For an example of this, see: Mayer, A Life in Poetry, p. 125.
[16] Hurley, Argonauts
of the South, pp. 161-162.
[17] Hurley, Argonauts
of the South, pp. 161-162.
[18] For Hurley’s photographs, see: Alexander, Endurance;
http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/library/pictures/catalogue/itae1914-16/gallery.
[19] ‘A
lecture given by Perce Blackborow’, The James Caird
Society Journal
Vol. 6 (2012), p. 9.
[20] Smith, Shackleton,
p. 291.
[21] M. & J. Fisher, Shackleton (London, 1957), pp. 336-337.
[22] Mayer, A
Life in Poetry, pp. 181-182; Fisher, Shackleton,
pp. 336-337.
[23] Alexander, Endurance,
p. 68.
[24] Smith, Shackleton,
chapter 29.
[25] ‘A
lecture given by Perce Blackborow’, The James Caird
Society Journal
Vol. 6 (2012), p. 9.
[26] Hurley, Argonauts
of the South, p. 187.
[27] Smith, Shackleton,
p. 300.
[28] ‘A
lecture given by Perce Blackborow’, The James Caird
Society Journal
Vol. 6 (2012), p. 10.
[29] Smith, Shackleton,
p. 299.
[30] Mill, Life
of Sir Ernest Shackleton, p. 212.