Lying in Cheapman Bay, near South Georgia, it is a natural monument that honours a remarkable Scot who was frozen out of history by one of the great Boy’s Own heroes.
Sir Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer, created his own mythology and, in doing so, consigned the deeds of Henry “Chippy” McNish, a Port Glasgow-born carpenter, to oblivion. McNish, a dour man who abhorred foul language and was unfazed by great reputations, fell out spectacularly with Shackleton during the failed Imperial Trans- Antarctic expedition of 1914-16.
The hostility resulted in McNish — who helped to save the lives of the 28 men — being branded a troublemaker and being refused a Polar Medal, the supreme accolade for explorers. McNish died in New Zealand, virtually unknown in his own country. But 90 years later, this forgotten hero’s memory is being revived by his Clydeside descendants, who are campaigning to have the Polar Medal awarded posthumously, and displayed in an exhibition at the McLean Museum and Art Gallery in Greenock.
“Chippy’s family have kept his memory,” says John McNish, the explorer’s great-nephew. “He is a forgotten Scot, a hero to others but unknown in his home town.”
Vincent Gillen, the exhibition curator and founder of a petition to have McNish’s exploits formally recognised, adds: “We hope to correct an injustice which consigned a great man to oblivion through the pettiness of a man who regarded himself as great.”
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The story of the bitter fallout between the two men began in January 1914, when Shackleton announced his intention to lead the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition to conquer the continent. Conscious that the other great polar explorer, Captain Robert Scott, had failed in his bid, Shackleton gathered a crack team. McNish was a natural choice: the best shipwright of his day, skilled in wood-, metal- and leatherwork.
Endurance sailed for South America and, in October 1914, embarked from Argentina to South Georgia. By December, the ship was bound for Vahsel Bay in Antarctica. Disaster struck almost immediately; the ship hit pack ice and became entombed within a day’s sail of Antarctica. For months, McNish helped to try and free the vessel from the deadly crush of ice, until no more could be done and Shackleton ordered the crew to abandon ship.
The decision sparked the first confrontation between Shackleton and McNish. Traditionally, a crew’s wages were stopped when a ship went down, but McNish demanded that Shackleton pay them. Shackleton regarded McNish’s action as mutinous. But there was worse. Shackleton earned McNish’s undying enmity by ordering that the ship’s cat, Mrs Chippy, should be shot. Without the protection of the ship, the sledge dogs might have torn the cat to pieces. It was decreed that it would be more humane for the men to kill the cat themselves. McNish was distraught.
The Scot would prove a thorn in Shackleton’s side. He would argue against the decision to haul three lifeboats from Endurance, claiming that dragging them would cause irreparable damage. Shackleton shouted him down, but within 48 hours he realised McNish was right and ordered that they stop hauling the boats. But he did not forgive the Scot for challenging his authority.
The explorer’s cousin, Jonathan Shackleton, claims the confrontations cost McNish his medal. “Shackleton’s authority was questioned, which he would regard as a breach of loyalty. McNish’s contribution was vital, but he threatened unity. Shackleton would have found that hard to forgive,” he says.
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When the drifting floe they were on eventually melted, the 28 men were able to sail the three lifeboats 100 miles north to the desolate Elephant Island, the first dry land they had touched in 16 months, arriving there in April 1916. There they sat for three months waiting for a break in the ice to allow them to launch a lifeboat and attempt to reach South Georgia, 800 miles away.
Faced with impending disaster, Shackleton took five of the men, including McNish, and one of the lifeboats, the James Caird, to South Georgia. The others were left behind waiting to be rescued.
It was McNish’s job to ensure the James Caird would survive the voyage. Bereft of raw materials, he modified the vessel using all his inventiveness. He began by fitting sailing beams to the 23ft craft and set about making it watertight. He created a caulking mixture of flour, water, artist’s oil paints and seal blood to reinforce the boat’s seams.
During the journey McNish used his skills as a tailor to keep the men well clad and warm. He even fashioned boot crampons from brass screws and nails.
McNish’s running repairs kept the James Caird seaworthy and the crew safe during its 17-day journey. The boat reached South Georgia and within weeks had returned to pick up the rest of the team. When they arrived home, 22 months after they left, the explorers received a hero’s welcome. At the time Shackleton conceded that without McNish’s work, the men would not have survived. “We certainly could not have lived through the journey without the James Caird,” he said.
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Unlike Shackleton, who revelled in the glory, McNish shunned the limelight. But the full extent of the enmity between the two men came in a letter Shackleton sent to the Polar Medal Assessment Committee in which he says of McNish, “NOT recommended”.
Nearly a century later it could prove impossible to redress the balance. Polar medals are rarely awarded posthumously because it requires “second guessing”, according to a spokesman for the committee. McNish’s family, however, will continue to try.
They have strong support. “McNish was certainly worthy of it. If anyone deserved it, he did,” says a spokesman for the Cambridge-based Scott Polar Research Institute. Andrew Leachman of the Antarctic Society of New Zealand agrees: “Had McNish possessed diplomatic skills to match his craftsmanship, he would have received the medal.
“The expedition is viewed as one of the greatest epics of survival. Shackleton even conceded they would not have lived but for McNish. By withholding the Polar Medal, Shackleton achieved the final shaming of McNish and displayed a vindictiveness that fell below his own mercurial standards of loyalty.”
Caroline Alexander, who wrote a book, Endurance, about the Antarctic expedition, is another McNish supporter. “Shackleton — very wrongly in my view — denied the Polar Medal to McNish, who was central to the success of the voyage,” she says.
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In all likelihood, McNish would not have cared less. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1925 and settled in Wellington, where he was well respected and worked in the docks, before he was injured and fell on hard times.
He died in 1930 and, on the orders of New Zealand’s minister of internal affairs, was buried with full military honours. A report from the time says: “The remains were borne on a gun carriage provided by the Royal New Zealand artillery, draped in a Union Jack flag and led by a firing party of 12 men from HMS Dunedin with arms reversed.
“The horse-drawn carriage was escorted by four pallbearers either side.”
He lies in Kaori cemetery, Wellington, a hero abroad but forgotten at home in Scotland.
Shortly before his death in 1930, McNish was visited in an old people’s home by New Zealand’s foremost Antarctic historian, Baden Norris — who was then just a child, accompanying his father. Norris recalls: “He lay there repeating over and over again: ‘Shackleton killed my cat.’”
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The exhibition celebrating Henry “Chippy” McNish is at the McLean Museum and Art Gallery, 15 Kelly Street, Greenock, until February. The Polar Medal petition is at www.petitiononline.com/Chippy14/petition.html