Alfred Cheetham

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alfred Cheetham (left) with Thomas Crean on board the Endurance (circa 1914)

Alfred “Alf” Buchanan Cheetham (born May 6, 1867 in Liverpool , † August 22, 1918 , drowned in the North Sea near Blyth ) was a British sailor and explorer exploring the Antarctic during the so-called Golden Age of Antarctic exploration .

Life

Alfred Cheetham was born in Liverpool to John and Annie Elizabeth Cheetham. When he was about 10 years old, he and his parents moved from there to Hull . He went to sea as a teenager and worked for a fishing fleet in the North Sea. He later became a boatswain and served as a reservist in the Royal Navy . He and his wife, Eliza Sawyer, had 13 children together.

Cheetham took part in four major Antarctic expeditions. During the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) under the direction of Robert Falcon Scott , he was involved on board the ship Morning in the rescue of the expedition participants trapped in the ice on the Hut Point Peninsula . Ernest Shackleton made him the third officer on board the Nimrod during the Nimrod expedition (1907-1909). In Scott's fatal attempt to reach the South Pole during the Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913), Cheetham served as boatswain on the Terra Nova . Since he was a family man at the time, he was passed over in the selection of the team that went to find Scott and his companions. When he was hired again as boatswain and third officer by Shackleton during the endurance expedition (1913-1916), the 47-year-old Cheetham was the expedition member with the greatest Antarctic experience. At the time of the rescue of the group, led by Frank Wild on Elephant Island , he had spent a total of almost six years in Antarctic waters.

Cheetham was considered a joker among his colleagues . Frank Worsley once described him as a "pirate to the fingertips". During their stay on Elephant Island, according to Worsley's account, possession of matches was so valuable that Cheetham offered him a bottle of champagne for a single match . Cheetham Worsley wanted to hand this over to him as soon as he opened his own pub in Hull. But it shouldn't come to that.

Upon his return from the endurance expedition, Cheetham learned that his 16-year-old son, William Alfred, had died while serving on the Crusader Adriatic . Cheetham volunteered for military service in the Merchant Navy and served as the second officer on the steamship Prunelle . He died on August 22, 1918 on the voyage from London to Dundee in the sinking of the ship after it had been torpedoed by the German submarine UB-112 under commandant Wilhelm Rhein (1887–1964) two nautical miles southeast of Blyth .

Cheetham was awarded the silver polar medal for his services on the endurance expedition. In addition, Cape Cheetham and the Cheetham ice tongue are named after him, both of which are located in East Antarctic Victoria Land.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cheetham, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cheetham, Alfred Buchanan; Cheetham, Alf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British sailor and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1918
Place of death North Sea at Blyth (Northumberland)