Aeneas Mackintosh

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Aeneas Mackintosh

Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh (born July 1, 1879 in Tirhut , Bihar , India , † probably May 8, 1916 , McMurdo Sound , Antarctica ) was a British seaman and polar explorer. He took part in the Nimrod Expedition (1907-1909) led by Ernest Shackleton . During Shackleton's Endurance Expedition (1914-1917) he led the Ross Sea Party . In the course of this venture, Mackintosh and another member of the expedition died while crossing an unsafe ice surface under circumstances that were not clearly understood.

Early life

Mackintosh was born in Tirhut , India (some sources cite 1881 as the year of birth) as one of five sons of a Scottish indigo planter . On his return to Great Britain, he attended Bedford Modern School before leaving early in 1894 and going to sea. After he had enjoyed a commercial training, he hired in 1899 as a junior officer on the RMS Victoria of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company , where he was employed until 1907. In 1908 he was made a second lieutenant in the reserves of the Royal Navy .

Expeditions

Nimrod Expedition 1907–1909

In 1907 Mackintosh joined Shackleton's Nimrod expedition with the Nimrod as second officer . Shortly after arriving in Antarctica, he suffered injuries as a result of an accident while unloading the ship, which resulted in the loss of his right eye . After the first emergency surgery he returned to New Zealand by ship , but returned to the expedition in January 1909 in time to take part in an ill-conceived walk across the ice to Cape Royds , which almost cost him his life. He also helped set up depots for Shackleton's returning team that had tried to reach the South Pole . He was in the starting camp when Shackleton, who had narrowly missed reaching the South Pole, arrived with his men, Frank Wild , Jameson Adams and Eric Marshall , on March 1st, just in time not to miss the returning ship.

Upon his return to England in 1909, Mackintosh was fired by his employer because his eyesight was impaired. He kept in touch with Shackleton, on whose behalf he visited gold mines in the Carpathian Mountains, Hungary, to assess the value of some of the shares that Shackleton wanted to use to raise funds. He also took part in a treasure hunt expedition to the Cocos Islands . In 1913 he finally took over the post of assistant secretary at the Imperial Merchant Service Guild in Liverpool .

The Ross Sea Party, 1914-1917

Early problems

When Shackleton announced his plans to cross Antarctica after landing on the coast of the Weddell Sea , Mackintosh promised to accompany him. Mackintosh was originally intended to be one of the men to accompany Shackleton. However, he subsequently took over command of the Ross Sea Party , which was to advance with the SY Aurora from Australia to Robert Falcon Scott's old base on Ross Island at Cape Evans and from there to create a series of depots on the Ross Ice Shelf on Base of the Beardmore Glacier . These depots were supposed to supply Shackleton's crew on the last part of their journey from the opposite side of the continent. Mackintosh came the end of 1914 in Australia to do his duty, but he found the Aurora unsuitable for work in the Antarctic. A thorough renovation would have been necessary, for which neither the facilities nor the funds were available. There were also problems with Shackleton's financial promises, who had clearly overestimated the Australians' willingness to cooperate. The equipment was also incomplete and partially damaged. Solving these problems weighed down and depressed Mackintosh and resulted in a delay in departing south.

In the Antarctic

The story of the Ross Sea Party in 1915 and 1916 is marked by mishaps and bad luck, but unusual heroism also plays a role. The main points transferred to the accounts of the expedition sufficiently are the hasty sled travel at 80 ° S, because of Mackintosh's insistence and against the advice Ernest Joyce was made soon after the group at Cape Evans had arrived, and the result of the death the bulk of the dogs and the demoralization of the crew was; the loss of the Aurora , ripped from its anchorage during a winter storm and drifted unable to return to sea with most of the equipment and fuel still on board, the result being a demoralized crew and out of supplies Had to gather up the remains of Scott's Terra Nova expedition ; and the deaths of three men, including Mackintosh. The whole effort was ultimately useless, as Shackleton never set out on his voyage after his ship, the Endurance , was trapped and ultimately crushed by the ice of the Weddell Sea . The story of Shackleton's and his men 'return to the civilized world has been hailed as an example of good leadership and bravery, while the experiences of the Ross Sea Party have been largely ignored to this day.

The death of Mackintosh

During the trip to the depot, Mackintosh was seriously ill with scurvy , and on the way back he collapsed completely, whereupon he was dependent on his comrades. After the men arrived at Hut Point , the five survivors ( Arnold Spencer-Smith had perished) recovered for several weeks with the help of fresh seal meat. Due to the condition of the sea ice they had to cross, they were unable to tackle the last leg of the journey. Finally, on May 8, 1916, Mackintosh and Victor Hayward took the risk of crossing the ice to Cape Evans, against the urgent advice of his comrades . Shortly after they got out of sight of their fellow travelers, a severe blizzard developed that lasted two days. Mackintosh and Hayward disappeared without a trace. It is believed that both collapsed either on the unsustainable ice surface or drifted off into the open sea on an ice floe.

After his death

Mackintosh had married Gladys Campbell in February 1912 and had two daughters, the second of whom was born while in Australia awaiting the departure of the Aurora . He mentions his family in a melancholy goodbye message in his tent on the Ross Ice Shelf, which is very similar to the Scotts. Shackleton helped set up a family fund on his return to civilization. Gladys Mackintosh married Joseph Stenhouse , Aurora's first officer , in 1923 . Mackintosh kept diaries during his polar voyages; those about the Nimrod expedition were published in 1990.

As the only British leader on a polar expedition, Mackintosh was not honored by the British crown or government. However, he was awarded the Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his part in the Nimrod expedition . In addition, Mount Mackintosh ( 74 ° 20 ′  S , 162 ° 15 ′  E ) is named after him.

Historical evaluation of Mackintosh

By and large, Aeneas Mackintosh was not treated kindly by the biographers and Antarctic historians, who above all attested to impetuosity, incompetence, lack of leadership and unpopularity. More recently, his achievements have been rated more positively, for example by Kelly Tyler-Lewis . The two main sources of reports on the Ross Sea Party were Joyce's diaries and the memoirs of Richard Walter Richards , who with Joyce survived the fateful trip to the depot. Joyce's diaries are neither impartial nor very accurate, at least in their published form, and have been described as self-glorifying and vain. You don't describe Mackintosh as a strong and efficient leader. Some of Richards' comments, recorded decades later when all the other members were dead, sharply criticize Mackintosh, even suggesting that his walk across the ice was a voluntary act of suicide. Lord Edward Shackleton, however, the son of Ernest Shackleton, calls Mackintosh (and Joyce) a "hero". Other commentators have also recognized that the situation he encountered upon arriving in Australia was more due to Shackleton's lack of organization. Some of the calamities that befell the Ross Sea Party were evidently the result of bad luck as well as bad decisions. Most accept that Aeneas Mackintosh, for all his mistakes, was a brave man determined to do his duty or to die trying.

See also

Web links

Commons : Aeneas Mackintosh  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fisher, M&J: Shackleton, p. 492
  2. ↑ Welcome to SPRI. Retrieved April 5, 2014 .
  3. ^ Meet the Crew of the Ross Sea Party. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 7, 2014 ; Retrieved April 5, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Riffenburgh: Nimrod, pp. 266-268
  5. ↑ a b http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/library/archives/shackleton/authors/mackintosh.html
  6. ^ Fisher M&J: Shackleton, pp. 397-399
  7. ↑ Since 2000, three new books have described the experiences of members of the Ross Sea Party: Lennard Bickel's Shackleton's Forgotten Men , 2000, McElreas and Harrowfield's Polar Castaways , 2004, and Kelly Tyler-Lewis' The Lost Men , 2006. In addition, Richard W Richards ' The Ross Sea Shore Party reissued. There were also TV documentaries from the BBC and ABC
  8. ↑ Tyler-Lewis, p. 36 (pb)
  9. ↑ Bickel, pp. 169-171
  10. ↑ Tyler-Lewis, p. 271
  11. ↑ Tyler-Lewis, pp. 258-262
  12. ↑ Ross Sea Party ( Memento from January 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Bickel (Shackleton's preface, p. VIII)
personal data
SURNAME Mackintosh, Aeneas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mackintosh, Aeneas Lionel Acton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British sailor and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Tirhut , Bihar , India
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: May 8, 1916
Place of death McMurdo Sound , Antarctica