Endurance The aim of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was to be the first to cross the
Antarctic continent from one side to the other. McNish was apparently attracted by Shackleton's advertisement for the expedition (although there are doubts as to whether the advertisement ever appeared): McNish suffered from
piles and
rheumatism in his legs. He was regarded as somewhat odd and unrefined, but also highly respected as a carpenter
Frank Worsley, the captain of the
Endurance, refers to him as a "splendid shipwright". The pipe-smoking Scot was, however, the only man of the crew that Shackleton was "not dead certain of". His Scots accent was described as rasping like "frayed cable wire". During the initial stage of the voyage to Antarctica from
Buenos Aires, he was kept busy with a number of routine tasks. He worked on the pram dinghy
Nancy Endurance; made a small chest of drawers for Shackleton; specimen shelves for the biologist,
Robert Clark; and instrument cases for
Leonard Hussey, the meteorologist; and put up wind screens to protect the helmsman. He constructed a false deck, extending from the poop-deck to the chart-room to cover the extra coal that the ship had taken on board. He also acted as the ship's barber. As the ship pushed into the pack ice in the
Weddell Sea it became increasingly difficult to navigate. McNish constructed a six-foot wooden semaphore on the bridge to enable the navigating officer to give the helmsman directions, and built a small stage over the stern to allow the propeller to be watched in order to keep it clear of the heavy ice. The pressure from the ice caused
Endurance to start to take on water. To prevent the ship from flooding McNish built a
cofferdam,
caulking it with strips of blankets and nailing strips over the seams, standing for hours up to his waist in freezing water as he worked. He could not prevent the pressure from the ice crushing the ship though and was experienced enough to know when to stop trying. Once the ship had been breached he was put in charge of rescuing the stores from what had been
The Ritz. With McNish in charge it took only a couple of hours to open the deck far enough to retrieve a good quantity of provisions.
On the ice During his watch one night while the crew were camped on the ice, a small part of the
ice floe broke away and he was only rescued due to the quick intervention of the men of the next watch who threw him a line allowing him to jump back to safety. Shackleton reported that McNish calmly mentioned his narrow escape the next day after further cracks appeared in the ice. After the loss of the
Endurance four of the sled dogs and
Mrs Chippy, the cat McNish had brought on board, were shot on Shackleton's order due to his belief that keeping them alive in such harsh conditions would be an unnecessary drain on the crew's scarce resources, they would suffer from being underfed, and the crew could utilize the dog meat. McNish never forgave Shackleton for having his cat killed. McNish proposed building a smaller craft from the wreckage of the ship, but was overruled, with Shackleton instead deciding to head across the ice to open water pulling the ship's three lifeboats. McNish had been suffering with piles and homesickness from almost before the voyage had begun, and once the ship was lost his frustration began to grow. He vented his feelings in his diary, targeting his tent-mates' language: McNish's assertion would have normally been correct: duty to the master (and pay) normally stopped when a ship was lost, but the articles the crew had signed for the
Endurance had a special clause inserted in which the crew agreed "to perform any duty on board, in the boats, or on the shore as directed by the master and owner". Consequently, McNish really had no choice but to comply: he could not survive alone and could not continue with the rest of the party unless he obeyed orders. McNish used the mast from the
Stancomb Wills, to strengthen the Caird’s keel and build up the small 22 foot (6.7 m) long boat, so it would withstand the seas during the 800 mile (1480 km) trip. He caulked it using a mixture of seal blood and flour, and, using wood and nails taken from packing cases and the runners of the sledges, he built a makeshift frame which was then covered with canvas. Shackleton was worried the boat "bore a strong likeness to stage scenery", only giving the appearance of sturdiness. He later admitted that the crew could not have lived through the voyage without it. They landed in
Cave Cove on
King Haakon Bay; it was on the wrong side of the island, but it was a relief for all of them to make land; McNish wrote in his diary: They found
albatross chicks and seals to eat, but despite the relative comfort of the island compared to the small boat, they still urgently needed to reach the whaling station at
Husvik on the other side of the island to fetch help for the men on Elephant Island. It was clear that McNish and Vincent could not continue, so Shackleton left them in the care of
Timothy McCarthy camped in the upturned
James Caird, and with Worsley and Crean made the hazardous trip over the mountains. McNish took screws from the
James Caird and attached them to the boots of the men making the journey to help them grip the ice. He also fashioned a crude sledge from driftwood he found on the beach, but it proved too clumsy to be practical. When Shackleton's party set off on 18 May 1916, McNish accompanied them for a few hundred yards but he was unable to go any further. He shook hands with each of the men, wishing them good luck, and then Shackleton sent him back. Putting McNish in command of the remaining men, Shackleton charged him to wait for relief and if none had come by the end of winter to attempt to sail to the east coast. Once Shackleton's party had crossed the mountains and arrived in Husvik, he sent Worsley with one of the whaler's ships,
Samson, to pick up McNish and the other men. After seeing the emaciated and drawn McNish on his arrival at the whaling station, Shackleton recorded that he felt that the rescue had come just in time for him. == Polar Medal ==