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Morning - relief ship for the
Discovery 1902 |
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Third officer and boatswain
Nimrod 1907-09
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Boatswain (Bosun), R.N.R.
Terra
Nova 1910 - 13
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Third officer Endurance
Endurance 1914-17
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Alf Cheetham was an old hand on
Antarctic expeditions when he joined the Endurance at the age of 47,
he was well known for his positive attitude and was a popular member
of crews on which he served.
While on the Terra Nova expedition,
he had volunteered to help search for Scott and his missing south
pole party, but had been turned down as he was a married man with
children.

Alfred Cheetham was born in Liverpool, and the
family moved to Hull around 1877. Hull was a great fishing port and
he ran away to sea as a teenager working in the fishing fleet of the
North Sea. He became a merchant navy boatswain working out of Hull
and a Royal Naval Reservist. Alf married Eliza Sawyer and they produced 13 children.
On return from the Antarctic he
enlisted in the Mercantile Marine and while serving as second
Officer on the S.S. Prunelle on Thursday 22nd August 1918, at the
age of 51, his ship was torpedoed in the North Sea by a German
U-Boat . Alf went down with the ship.
References to
Alfred Cheetham
in Shackleton's book "South!"
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 | Three emperor penguins made their
appearance in a lead west of the ship on May 3. They
pushed their heads through the young ice while two of
the men were standing by the lead. The men imitated the
emperor's call and walked slowly, penguin fashion, away
from the lead. The birds in succession made a
magnificent leap 3 ft. clear from the water on to the
young ice. Thence they tobogganed to the bank and
followed the men away from the lead. Their retreat was
soon cut off by a line of men.
"We walk up to them, talking loudly and assuming a
threatening aspect. Notwithstanding our bad manners, the
three birds turn towards us, bowing ceremoniously. Then,
after a closer inspection, they conclude that we are
undesirable acquaintances and make off across the floe.
We head them off and finally shepherd them close to the
ship, where the frenzied barking of the dogs so
frightens them that they make a determined effort to
break through the line. We seize them. One bird of
philosophic mien goes quietly, led by one flipper. The
others show fight, but all are imprisoned in an igloo
for the night. . . . In the afternoon we see five
emperors in the western lead and capture one. Kerr and
Cheetham fight a valiant
action with two large birds. Kerr rushes at one, seizes
it, and is promptly knocked down by the angered penguin,
which jumps on his chest before retiring.
Cheetham comes to Kerr's
assistance; and between them they seize another penguin,
bind his bill and lead him, muttering muffled protests,
to the ship like an inebriated old man between two
policemen. He weighs 85 lbs., or 5 lbs. less than the
heaviest emperor captured previously. Kerr and
Cheetham insist that he is
nothing to the big fellow who escaped them."
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 | A strong south-westerly wind was
blowing on October 20 and the pack was working. The
Endurance was imprisoned securely in the pool, but our
chance might come at any time. Watches were set so as to
be ready for working ship. Wild and Hudson, Greenstreet
and Cheetham, Worsley and
Crean, took the deck watches, and the Chief Engineer and
Second Engineer kept watch and watch with three of the
A.B.'s for stokers. |
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 | My anxiety, as a matter of fact, was
groundless. I will quote Worsley's own account of what
happened to the Dudley Docker:
"About midnight we lost sight of the James Caird with
the Stancomb Wills in tow, but not long after saw the
light of the James Caird's compass-lamp, which Sir
Ernest was flashing on their sail as a guide to us. We
answered by lighting our candle under the tent and
letting the light shine through. At the same time we got
the direction of the wind and how we were hauling from
my little pocket-compass, the boat's compass being
smashed. With this candle our poor fellows lit their
pipes, their only solace, as our raging thirst prevented
us from eating anything. By this time we had got into a
bad tide-rip, which, combined with the heavy, lumpy sea,
made it almost impossible to keep the Dudley Docker from
swamping. As it was we shipped several bad seas over the
stern as well as abeam and over the bows, although we
were ‘on a wind.' Lees, who owned himself to be a rotten
oarsman, made good here by strenuous baling, in which he
was well seconded by Cheetham.
Greenstreet, a splendid fellow, relieved me at the
tiller and helped generally. He and Macklin were my
right and left bowers as stroke-oars throughout. McLeod
and Cheetham were two good
sailors and oars, the former a typical old deep-sea salt
and growler, the latter a pirate to his finger-tips. In
the height of the gale that night
Cheetham was buying matches from me for bottles
of champagne, one bottle per match (too cheap; I should
have charged him two bottles). The champagne is to be
paid when he opens his pub in Hull and I am able to call
that way. . . . We had now had one hundred and eight
hours of toil, tumbling, freezing, and soaking, with
little or no sleep. I think Sir Ernest, Wild,
Greenstreet, and I could say that we had no sleep at
all. Although it was sixteen months since we had been in
a rough sea, only four men were actually seasick, but
several others were off colour. |
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Landmarks named after Alfred Cheetham
Feature Name:
Cheetham Ice Tongue
Feature Type: glacier
Latitude: 7545S
Longitude: 16255E
Description: A small ice tongue on the E coast of Victoria
Land between Lamplugh Island and Whitmer Peninsula. It projects
eastward into Ross Sea. The tongue appears to be nourished in part
by Davis Glacier and partly by ice draining from Lamplugh Island and
Whitmer Peninsula. First charted by the BrAE, 1907-09, under
Shackleton - Nimrod expedition.
Variant Name(s) - Cheetham Glacier Tongue, Cheetham Ice Barrier
Tongue.Feature Name:
Cape Cheetham
Feature Type: cape
Latitude: 7018S
Longitude: 16242E
Description:
An ice-covered cape forming the NE extremity of Stuhlinger Ice
Piedmont. First charted by members of the BrAE, 1910-13, who
explored this coast in the location assigned on maps of the ANARE (Thala
Dan), 1962. |
Endurance
Personnel
Summary
Bakewell, William
Able Seaman
Blackborow, Percy
Steward (stowaway)
Cheetham, Alfred
Third Officer
Clark, Robert S.
Biologist
Crean, Thomas
Second
Officer
Green, Charles J.
Cook
Greenstreet, Lionel
First Officer
Holness, Ernest
Fireman
How, Walter E.
Able
Seaman
Hudson, Hubert T.
Navigator
Hurley, James F.
(Frank)
Official Photographer
Hussey, Leonard D. A.
Meteorologist
James, Reginald W.
Physicist
Kerr, A. J.
Second
Engineer
Macklin, Dr. Alexander
H.
Surgeon
Marston, George E.
Official Artist
McCarthy, Timothy
Able Seaman
McIlroy, Dr. James A.
Surgeon
McLeod, Thomas
Able
Seaman
McNish, Henry
Carpenter
Orde-Lees, Thomas
Motor Expert and Storekeeper
Rickinson, Lewis
First Engineer
Shackleton, Ernest
H.
Expedition Leader
Stephenson, William
Fireman
Vincent, John
Able
Seaman
Wild, Frank
Second in
Command
Wordie, James M.
Geologist
Worsley, Frank
Captain |