Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh was a British Merchant Navy officer and Antarctic explorer. He commanded the Ross Sea party as part of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917. Mackintosh’s competence and leadership skills have been questioned by polar historians.
About Aeneas Mackintosh in brief
Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh was a British Merchant Navy officer and Antarctic explorer. He commanded the Ross Sea party as part of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917. Mackintosh’s competence and leadership skills have been questioned by polar historians. He was born in Tirhut, India, on 1 July 1879, one of six children of a Scottish indigo planter, Alexander Mackintosh, a descendant from the chieftains of Clan Chattan. Aeneas never saw his father again but remained fond of him, writing regularly; his father kept every letter but sadly they were found unopened when his father died. He then followed the same path as Shackleton, leaving school at the age of 16 to go to sea. After serving a tough Merchant Officer’s apprenticeship, he joined the P and O Line, and remained with this company until he was recruited by Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition, which sailed for Antarctica in 1907. He returned in 1909 to participate in the later stages of the expedition; his will and determination in adversity impressed Shackleton. In carrying out the party’s depot-laying task, one man died; Mackintosh barely survived, owing his life to the actions of his comrades who brought him to safety. He took no part in the main events of the main expedition, but returned to England with Nimrod in January 1909, but later returned with the ship’s master, Rupert Nimrod, who had fallen out with the expedition’s captain, Rupert Mackintosh. He died in a shipboard accident on 31 January 1908, not long after Nimrod’s arrival at McMo Sound in Antarctica.
He had been assisting in the transfer of sledging gear aboard ship when a hook swung across his right eye, virtually destroying it. The accident cost Mackintosh his place on the shore party, and required his return to New Zealand for further treatment. He went on to become a captain of the Royal Naval Reserve. He also served as a sub lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve. In 1914 he was appointed to command theRoss Sea party, as a likely candidate for the polar march. His mission was to support the proposed transcontinental march by laying supply depots along the latter stages of its intended route. He and two others died in the course of their duties, although he and a companion disappeared while attempting to return to the base camp by crossing the unstable sea ice. In the face of persistent setbacks and practical difficulties, Mackintosh and his party fulfilled its task, but he and two other men died while carrying out their duties. His son, Lord Shackleton,. identified Mackintosh as one of the Expedition’s heroes, alongside Ernest Joyce and Dick Richards. Its objective was to proceed to the Ross Quadrant of the Antarctic with a view to reaching the Geographical South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole. The reasons for the family rift are unknown, but it was evidently permanent. His father had “Bright’s disease” and remained in India.
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