Frank Worsley

Frank Worsley on board the Endurance

Frank Arthur Worsley , DSO , OBE , RD, RNR (born February 18, 1872 in Akaroa , † February 1, 1943 in Claygate , Surrey ) was a New Zealand polar explorer who served as captain of the Endurance on the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition from 1914 to 1917 ( also known as the Endurance Expedition) led by Ernest Shackleton . Together with Thomas Crean and Frank Wild , he was one of the pillars for Shackleton during this expedition.

Life

Origin and education

Frank Worsley was born in Akaroa, a small port town on the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch , as the second son of Henry Theophilus Worsley and his wife Georgina. His grandfather emigrated to New Zealand from Rugby (Warwickshire) in 1851 .

At the age of 15, Worsley joined the New Zealand Merchant Navy as an officer candidate . In 1888 he took part in a first trip on the Wairoa clipper from New Zealand to London . Through numerous other trips on behalf of the merchant navy, Worsley began to become increasingly interested in navigation . In 1895 he completed his officer's career in the merchant navy with honors and went to work for the New Zealand steamship company. There he became second officer on board the Tutanekai , which was used in shuttle traffic between New Zealand and some islands in the Pacific Ocean .

In 1900 Worsley received his captaincy license . His first command was that of the steamer The Countess of Ranfurly .

Time in England

In 1906 Worsley left New Zealand and went to England, where he found a job with the Allan Line on board a steamship that was used on a regular service between England and Canada . On December 20, 1907, Worsley married his first wife, Theodora Blackden of Tunbridge Wells . In 1914 he was finally promoted to Lieutenant Commander of the Royal Naval Reserve.

Endurance expedition

According to his own account, Worsley became the skipper of the Endurance during Shackleton's second own Antarctic expedition through a strange circumstance. The night before his recruitment, he had dreamed of drifting ice in London's Burlington Street through which he had to navigate his ship. The next morning he went down exactly that street and came across the sign for Shackleton's expedition office. Following a spontaneous suggestion, he then entered the office and, after a brief interview with Shackleton, was hired.

Shackleton initially had doubts about Worsley's leadership skills, but as the expedition progressed he proved to be a competent skipper and exceptional navigator. After the endurance went down in the pack ice , it was Worsley's navigational skills that brought all expedition members safely to Elephant Island in three lifeboats . Its use in the adventurous crossing with the James Caird from Elephant Island to King Haakon Bay in South Georgia is legendary . Together with Shackleton and Crean, Worsley took part under the most adverse circumstances in the subsequent crossing from South Georgia to Stromness , as a result of which the rescue of all expedition members from Elephant Island could be achieved.

First World War

After completing the endurance expedition, Worsley returned to New Zealand for a short time before starting his military service in Chatham , England in April 1917 . As the commander of the PQ61 submarine trap, he sank the German mine-laying submarine UC 33 off the southern Irish coast on September 26, 1917 by ramming it. For this he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order . With Shackleton he was to the British invading forces in in October 1918 Murmansk enable northern Russia, which since June 1918 on the part of whites to the Russian Civil War involved. Soon after, he was posted to Arkhangelsk , where he commanded various gunboats on the Northern Dvina and its tributary, the Pinega . In July 1919 he left Russia with the last British soldiers. For his military services he was awarded the Order of the British Empire .

Later years

In 1920, Worsley divorced his first wife, Theodora. A year later he accompanied Ernest Shackleton again into Antarctic waters during the Quest expedition . After Shackleton died unexpectedly in Grytviken in January 1922, the expedition was canceled a few weeks later with practically no result.

Similar to Shackleton, Worsley ran into financial difficulties. He earned his living as the captain of various ships that were in service between England, Canada and Norway. In addition, he earned extra income with lectures on the endurance expedition. Worsley made the commentary on the documentary South (1919) by Frank Hurley .

In August 1926, Worsley married for the second time. His wife, Maggie Jane Cumming, was around 20 years younger than him. She accompanied her husband to Tafahi in 1934 on a treasure hunt that Worsley originally wanted to tackle with Ernest Shackleton. After two years of fruitless search, Worsley and his wife returned to England in 1936.

At the beginning of World War II, Worsley was already too old to serve. He stayed in France to provide moral support to the British troops and was involved in building a unit of the Red Cross in Norway . He was then appointed as deputy commissioner of a Red Cross training camp in Balham . In August 1941 he was once again given command of a ship. On board the Dalriada , he was responsible for salvaging shipwrecks in Sheerness harbor . In April 1942 he received a teaching position at a vocational school in Hove .

Frank Worsley was a heavy smoker all his life. At the end of January 1943 he was diagnosed with lung cancer , of which he died only a few days later. A memorial service in his honor was held in the chapel of the Royal Naval College with great public sympathy . Its ashes were scattered into the sea at the mouth of the Thames .

According to him, these are in Antarctica Cape Worsley on the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, Mount Worsley and Worsley Beach on South Georgia and the Worsley-ice falls in the Ross Dependency named.

literature

• FA Worsley: The Downfall of Endurance . Ullstein Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-548-35987-6
• FA Worsley: Shackleton's Expedition to Antarctica . Ullstein Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-548-35988-4
• Frank Wild: Shackleton's Last Voyage . Cassell & Co., London 1923 (accessed January 14, 2010).
• John Thomson: Shackleton's Captain: A Biography of Frank Worsley . Hazard Press Publishers, Christchurch 2000. ISBN 1-877161-40-3 (English)

Movie

• Hell trip Antarctica - Shackleton's savior . New Zealand-German TV co-production, documentary 2011. First broadcast on April 21, 2012 at 8:15 pm on arte , focusing on Worsley's performance and importance during and for the endurance expedition. Retrieved from the arte media library on April 22, 2012.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wild, Shackleton's Last Voyage , p.366: RD = Decoration for Officers of the Royal Naval Reserve, RNR = Member of the Royal Naval Reserve.
2. ^ Frank Worsley: Endurance. An Epic of Polar Adventure . Geoffrey Bles, London 1939, p. 224 ff. (English)
3. ^ Frank Worsley: Endurance. An Epic of Polar Adventure . Geoffrey Bles, London 1939, p. 230 ff. (English)