Shackleton’s rescue mission to save the lives of his crew, who had become marooned on an island, is regarded as one of the greatest acts of bravery and endurance in the early 20th century.
However, the diaries of Sir James Wordie, Shackleton’s chief scientist on the 1914 expedition, claim Shackleton’s lack of experience and organisation put the lives of his team at risk.
Although previous accounts of the ordeal have been published, a “code of honour” agreed between the men prevented them apportioning blame for their ordeal to Shackleton.
The code is broken in Sir James Wordie: Polar Crusader, to be published next month, for which the author, Michael Smith, was given access to the diaries by Wordie’s descendants, who live in Stirlingshire. They have kept the journal under lock and key since his death in 1962.
“Shackleton was a godlike figure so it is is interesting that Wordie questions his leadership,” said Smith.
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Just one day’s sailing from the continent, Shackleton’s ship Endurance became trapped in ice. After 10 months the crew abandoned it as it was crushed by ice pressure. They drifted for days in dinghies before landing on Elephant Island.
After camping on the ice for almost five months, Shackleton made two open boat journeys — one a treacherous 800-mile ocean crossing to South Georgia Island, considered one of the greatest boat journeys in history. After trekking across the island’s mountains, he reached its remote whaling station from where he organised a rescue team. In his absence, however, his crew suffered failing morale, starvation and mental breakdown.
Daily chronicles by Wordie, the oldest member of the crew, reveal how the men were forced to survive on seals’ brains, rotten penguin legs, fish from animal carcasses and limpets.
Sheltering beneath upturned boats, they drank methylated spirits and smoked seaweed to escape the certainty that they were going to die.
“One of the most delicate subjects was the issue of cannibalism which, according to rumour, involved a plot to kill the unpopular figure of (Thomas) Orde-Lees (one of the crew members),” said Smith. The issue was raised by Orde-Lees himself, who believed the men planned to kill and eat him.
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The disclosures by Wordie reflect his different approach to life compared with Shackleton. “With a flamboyant personality, Shackleton was a maverick, a poet and a romantic, a wonderful man who would lay down his life for you, but not always very organised,” said Smith. “Wordie, a canny Scot, was very different. He was down-to-earth and valued science and rationalism over poetry.”
The chief scientist’s more serious criticism came after disaster hit, when Shackleton set out his plans to drag the boats across ice to the open seas, a tactic that Wordie wrote was “too big a risk”.
Smith said: “Though much has been made of the high morale of the men on Elephant Island, Wordie’s account shows a somewhat different side. The men in his diary are utterly exhausted and suffering from severe mental stress.”
After several days at sea, they landed “half crazy” on Elephant Island, according to Wordie, who recalls how one crew member ran amok, killing 10 seals with an ice axe.
Later he writes of “eight men who had broken down” and of the perils of being led with sick men: “Blackborow has frostbitten feet, Rickinson’s heart has been troubling him; the worst case however is Hudson; in addition to frostbitten hands, a general breakdown has set in.”