Did My Ancestor go to Antarctica in the Heroic Age?

• "Dear CoolAntarctica, there is a family story that Great Uncle Bill went to Antarctica to help rescue Shackleton, is this true? His name was Bill Smith."

Ok, so I've simplified the question a bit, but this is similar in essence to many emails I get from people, naming Shackleton or one of the other expedition leaders of the Heroic Age (1900 - 1922) of Antarctic Exploration.

To start with, see if the name is here, if it is not, then I have no other records to check on, as soon as I am aware of anyone additional who sailed on any of the ships during the heroic age, they are added to this site.

 

• So if their name is not already here, then they didn't sail on those ships?

The lists on this site and other such readily available lists have the names of:

1 - those who wintered in Antarctica
2 - The "officers and gentlemen" who were part of the ships' crews.

They do not generally have the names of the ordinary seamen who sailed the ships, so they are often incomplete.

 

• What are the chances that <insert name of ancestor> really did sail with <insert name of famous Antarctic hero> then?

If there is a tale, then it must have arisen from somewhere and there may be  a chance.

The ships sailed from the country of origin to Antarctica, sometimes crew would join or leave at a port en route, there were many who made part of the journey only.

The ships would also not necessarily winter in Antarctica, the shore/wintering party would be left behind while the ship headed north for the Antarctic winter, usually calling at a southern hemisphere port. The ship would then return the following spring, there may have been three visits in a two year / three Antarctic summer expedition. There also may have been relief ships that were part of the expedition.

There may have been many opportunities therefore for a crew member to sail with an expedition for a part of the time without actually being a part of the expedition. Such crew members were regarded as short-term labour and were generally not included in lists of crew as they may have only served for two or three months with that time being largely spent at sea.

 

• Is there any chance that my ancestor may be an unsung hero?

It's pretty unlikely that your man will have played any particularly significant role without you having found out so far, if he had you will be able to find out very easily on this site or the wider internet. The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration is very well documented in the main.

This doesn't mean that there isn't any point in trying to find out if there was a role that may well have been interesting in its own way. Even the smallest role on a ship in the Heroic Age is to have an identifiable part in Antarctic history and can be a fascinating part of your family or community story.

Human beings have a tendency to exaggerate tales and the importance of an individuals role seems to grow down the years, the chances are if you have got this far, your man won't have had a particularly large part to play.

For a record of an ordinary sailor who doesn't appear on any official lists of expeditioners or crew members, see Bert Lincoln's diary.

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