Margot Morrell
Oct 18, 20231 min
In 1995, on my way to Antarctica for the first time, I stopped by the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, NZ to take a look at their Endurance material. While flipping through the carpenter Harry McNeish's journal, I came across this 1915 journal entry...
"Saturday May 22nd ... Myself & Dr McIlroy & the Chief Engineer scrubed out the ritz as three of us do it in turns every Wednesday & Saturday then we went for a walk..."
Exhausted from traveling for over 24 hours, this diary entry made me sit up straight.
Why were these three, unlikely characters, working together? The mild-mannered engineer, Lewis Rickinson, the sophisticated surgeon, James McIlroy, and the perpetually grouchy carpenter Harry McNeish. While transcribing the Endurance journals over the next few years, I realized, Shackleton arranged these ongoing work parties alphabetically - one of his tools to create camaraderie among the crew.
But, not only did this group work together, they played together - "then we went for a walk." That is evidence of a highly functioning team. Trapped in the Antarctic ice in winter! In, of all places, the journal of the grumpy, chronically negative, carpenter!
McNeish's journal entry glowed like a beacon in darkness. For the first time, I was positive I was on to something really valuable about Shackleton's leadership and his extraordinary Endurance expedition. The detour to Wellington had been worth every minute of the extra traveling.