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Lionel Greenstreet (1889-1979) - Biographical
notes
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 Lionel Greenstreet
The Endurance Expedition
Lionel Greenstreet served in the merchant navy and
joined the Endurance just 24 hours before it left Plymouth, England.
The original first officer had resigned in order to join the war effort
(1st world war).
Lionel heard of the vacancy of First Officer on the
Endurance from a friend while in Scotland, and wrote to Frank Worsley,
the Captain of the Endurance in this regard. Worsley invited him to
Plymouth where the Endurance was at the time and Greenstreet went for
what he assumed was to be an interview for the position. On arrival,
he was told the job was his and he should go to get his kit, he arrived
back just half an hour before the ship sailed.
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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
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Biography
Lionel, was one of three children, his father, Herbert
E. Greenstreet was a Master Mariner in the Merchant Navy, and a Captain
for The New Zealand Shipping Company.
At around 15 years old, Lionel became a cadet on the
"Worcester", a training ship. He passed out in 1904 with certificates
in Navigation (first class) and Seamanship (first class extra). He served
mainly sailing ships from this time until joining the Endurance.
After the Endurance expedition, Lionel married Mille
Baddeley Muir on 26th September 1917 at Christchurch, Sutton in Surrey.
He served as 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in charge of various
craft during the war. Afterwards he worked as a Technical Officer at
Richborough, Kent, dealing with Continental Cross Channel Tug Services
and Train Ferries. He was also a Berthing Master and Assistant Marine
Superintendent. By 1920 he was working as a marine insurance manager.
In March 1940 Greenstreet had joined the Royal Naval Reserve as a Temporary
Lieutenant, he was 50 years old by the time the war broke out, he served
on rescue Tugs in the Atlantic and North Sea. After the war he returned
to his insurance post and eventually negotiated early retirement when
he went to live in the seaside town of Brixham, in Devon.
He married for the second time on the 18th of October
1955, having been a widower for some years. He never had any children
by either marriage, but was a popular uncle to a number of nephews and
nieces.
There were many reunions and Naval Functions over
the years. Along with Green and How, he attended the commissioning of
the Royal Navy ship, H.M.S. Endurance at Portsmouth in October 1970,
named after Shackleton's Endurance.
Lionel Greenstreet died on 13th January 1979, the last of the Endurance
party. He was cremated at Worthing on a cold winters day with an appropriate
scattering of snow on the ground for the last of the Endurance heroes.
His ashes were scattered in the grounds of the Norwich Crematorium and
a tree planted in his name.
References to Lionel
Greenstreet in Shackleton's book "South!"
buy USA
buy UK
 | The scientists wished to inspect some
of the neighbouring bergs at close quarters, but sledge
travelling outside the well-trodden area immediately around
the ship proved difficult and occasionally dangerous. On
August 20, for example, Worsley, Hurley, and
Greenstreet started off
for the Rampart Berg and got on to a lead of young ice that
undulated perilously beneath their feet. A quick turn saved
them. |
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| Nine p.m. that night, the 27th, saw us
on the march again. The first 200 yds. took us about five
hours to cross, owing to the amount of breaking down of
pressure-ridges and filling in of leads that was required.
The surface, too, was now very soft, so our progress was
slow and tiring. We managed to get another three-quarters
of a mile before lunch, and a further mile due west over
a very hummocky floe before we camped at 5.30 a.m.
Greenstreet and Macklin
killed and brought in a huge Weddell seal weighing about
800 lbs., and two emperor penguins made a welcome addition
to our larder. |
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| 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.
"The temperature was 20° below freezing-point; fortunately,
we were spared the bitterly low temperature of the previous
night. Greenstreet's
right foot got badly frost-bitten, but Lees restored it
by holding it in his sweater against his stomach. Other
men had minor frost-bites, due principally to the fact that
their clothes were soaked through with salt water. . . .
We were close to the land as the morning approached, but
could see nothing of it through the snow and spindrift.
My eyes began to fail me. Constant peering to windward,
watching for seas to strike us, appeared to have given me
a cold in the eyes. I could not see or judge distance properly,
and found myself falling asleep momentarily at the tiller.
At 3 a.m. Greenstreet relieved
me there. I was so cramped from long hours, cold, and wet,
in the constrained position one was forced to assume on
top of the gear and stores at the tiller, that the other
men had to pull me amidships and straighten me out like
a jack-knife, first rubbing my thighs, groin, and stomach.
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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. The staff and
the forward hands, with the exception of the cook, the carpenter
and his mate, were on "watch and watch"—that is, four hours
on deck and four hours below, or off duty. |
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| The main or hand pump was frozen
up and could not be used at once. After it had been knocked
out Worsley, Greenstreet,
and Hudson went down in the bunkers and cleared the ice
from the bilges. "This is not a pleasant job," wrote Worsley.
"We have to dig a hole down through the coal while the beams
and timbers groan and crack all around us like pistol-shots.
The darkness is almost complete, and we mess about in the
wet with half-frozen hands and try to keep the coal from
slipping back into the bilges. The men on deck pour buckets
of boiling water from the galley down the pipe as we prod
and hammer from below, and at last we get the pump clear,
cover up the bilges to keep the coal out, and rush on deck,
very thankful to find ourselves safe again in the open air."
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| A pioneer party with picks and shovels
had to build a snow-causeway before we could get all our
possessions across. By 8 p.m. the camp had been pitched
again. We had two pole-tents and three hoop-tents. I took
charge of the small pole-tent, No. 1, with Hudson, Hurley,
and James as companions; Wild had the small hoop-tent, No.
2, with Wordie, McNeish, and McIlroy. These hoop-tents are
very easily shifted and set up. The eight forward hands
had the large hoop-tent, No. 3; Crean had charge of No.
4 hoop-tent with Hussey, Marston, and Cheetham; and Worsley
had the other pole-tent, No. 5, with
Greenstreet, Lees, Clark,
Kerr, Rickenson, Macklin, and Blackborow, the last named
being the youngest of the forward hands |
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| "October 29...
"This afternoon Sallie's three youngest pups, Sue's Sirius,
and Mrs. Chippy, the carpenter's cat, have to be shot. We
could not undertake the maintenance of weaklings under the
new conditions. Macklin, Crean, and the carpenter seemed
to feel the loss of their friends rather badly. We propose
making a short trial journey to-morrow, starting with two
of the boats and the ten sledges. The number of dog teams
has been increased to seven, Greenstreet
taking charge of the new additional team, consisting of
Snapper and Sallie's four oldest pups. We have ten working
sledges to relay with five teams. Wild's and Hurley's teams
will haul the cutter with the assistance of four men. The
whaler and the other boats will follow, and the men who
are hauling them will be able to help with the cutter at
the rough places. We cannot hope to make rapid progress,
but each mile counts. Crean this afternoon has a bad attack
of snow-blindness." |
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Biographical information
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