Harry McNish

Henry McNish was the carpenter on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917. He was responsible for much of the work that ensured the crew’s survival after their ship, the Endurance, was destroyed. He modified the small boat that allowed Shackleton and five men to make a voyage of hundreds of miles to fetch help for the rest of the crew. After the expedition he returned to work in the Merchant Navy and eventually emigrated to New Zealand, where he worked on the docks in Wellington until poor health forced his retirement. He died destitute in the Ohiro Benevolent Home in Wellington.

About Harry McNish in brief

Henry McNish was the carpenter on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917. He was responsible for much of the work that ensured the crew’s survival after their ship, the Endurance, was destroyed when it became trapped in pack ice in the Weddell Sea. He modified the small boat that allowed Shackleton and five men to make a voyage of hundreds of miles to fetch help for the rest of the crew. After the expedition he returned to work in the Merchant Navy and eventually emigrated to New Zealand, where he worked on the docks in Wellington until poor health forced his retirement. He died destitute in the Ohiro Benevolent Home in Wellington. There is some confusion as to the correct spelling of his name. He is variously referred to as McNish, McNeish, and in Alexander Macklin’s diary of the expedition, MacNish. There also is a question regarding McNish’s nickname. ‘Chippy’ was a traditional nickname for a shipwright; both this and the shorter ‘Chips’ seem to have been used. McNish held strong socialist views, was a member of the United Free Church of Scotland and detested bad language. He married three times: in 1895 to Jessie Smith, who died in February 1898, in 1898 to Ellen Timothy, and finally to Lizzie Littlejohn in 1907. The pipe-smoking Scot was the only man Shackleton was “not dead certain of”.

His Scots accent was described as rasping like ‘frayed cable wire’. The Third Officer, Alfred Cheetham, shared the crew’s duties with McNish. He built the quarters where the crew took their meals and where the men could sleep. He also 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 constructed a six-foot wooden stage over the stern to allow the propeller to be watched to keep it clear of heavy ice. The ship was christened as well; McNish shared the Sailors’ Rest with Alfred Chetham, Third Officer of the Third Sailors, by the Third Assisted Sailors. The aim of the Expedition was to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent from one side to the other. He worked on the pram dinghy Nancy Endurance; made a small chest of drawers for Shackleton; specimen shelves for the biologist, Robert Clark; instrument cases for Leonard Hussey, the meteorologist; and put up wind screens to protect the helmsman. He 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’

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Shackleton–Rowett Expedition Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition Australasian Antarctic Expedition Ernest Shackleton