Lionel Greenstreet
Encyclopedia
Lionel Greenstreet was the first officer
of the Endurance
and a member of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
of 1914-1917, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal
. When he died on 13 January 1979, he was the last survivor of the expedition.
. At age 15, Greenstreet became a sea cadet, never returning to school. As a young ship's officer, he wrote to the Captain of the Endurance, Frank Worsley
in 1914, asking to be considered for a berth. His request arrived just as the ship's named First Officer had thrown up his papers to accept service in World War I
, which had just broken out. Greenstreet was told to report to the Endurance in Plymouth Sound
for an interview; and upon arrival, after brief inspection by Worsley he was abruptly told that the position of First Officer was his and that he had twenty-four hours to prepare for the departure of the vessel to the Southern Ocean
. The fledgling ship's officer later recalled that after considerable effort he had settled his affairs and reported aboard the ship, which then sailed thirty minutes after his arrival.
The expedition's overall commander was the explorer Ernest Shackleton
, and the goal of the Endurance was Vahsel Bay
on the coast of Antarctica, from which Shackleton and the shore party hoped to cross the icy continent by dogsled; but on 18 January 1915, a few miles short of this destination, the ship was beset by ice and frozen into heavy pack from which she would not emerge. Greenstreet's duties changed with the new status of his ship; he kept deck watches in an attempt to find a lead of open water through which the ship could extricate itself, and joined a crew assigned to work below-decks in a futile attempt to stop the leaks that the ice was beginning to punch through the ship's hull. Despite the work of Greenstreet and his seamen and fellow ship's officers, Shackleton was forced to issue the order to abandon ship on 27 October. The expedition's 28 members and ship's company had to camp together as castaways on the frozen, icy surface of the Weddell Sea
.
s, and helped to hunt for fresh meat to supplement the castaways' inadequate supply of food. Shackleton later recalled with gratitude how Greenstreet and his hunting partner, Alexander Macklin
, had killed and brought in a Weddell seal
weighing 800 pounds.
At a slightly later stage of their self-rescue, after the icy campsite of the men of the Endurance had drifted northward into warmer water, the change in water temperature caused their refuge to literally melt out from underneath them, and on 9 April 1916 they were forced to climb aboard the light open boats that they had salvaged from their former vessel. Shackleton and his men had salvaged three lifeboats, and Greenstreet was the fourth-ranking member of the expedition. He accompanied his captain, Frank Worsley, in the Dudley Docker during the eight-day ordeal that marked the progress of the open-boat flotilla to a new and more secure campsite on Elephant Island in the archipelago of the South Shetlands.
Greenstreet, although characterized by Worsley as "a fine seaman", was not chosen to accompany the six-man party that set out from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Instead the former first officer was detailed to a two-man party, working with William Bakewell
, to alter bits and scraps of salvaged ship's canvas
into a jury-rigged canvas deck
to enable the sole remaining sail-worthy lifeboat of the ship's company, the James Caird, to navigate in the open sea. Worsley's, whose life would depend upon the success of this work, describes it as follows:
The sails hoisted, Shackleton, Worsley and the James Caird set out into the Southern Ocean. Greenstreet and his twenty-one fellow castaways encamped on Elephant Island were rescued on 30 August 1916.
After the end of the expedition and with World War I continuing, Greenstreet married the former Mille Baddley Muir and joined the colours, serving in supply barges on the Tigris
in which was then British-occupied Mesopotamia
and rising to the rank of 2nd lieutenant. Soon after the conclusion of the war, Greenstreet and his wife chose shore life, with the former ship's officer becoming a middle-management employee in the marine insurance
industry. He rejoined active service as a reserve lieutenant in World War II
through the Royal Naval Reserve
, served on coastal tugboat
s, married a second time, and resumed his insurance work prior to retirement.
Worsley, who had chosen Greenstreet on very short notice to join the fateful expedition, repeatedly paid tribute to him in his memoirs. During the first open-boat journey, "Greenstreet was splendid, never losing hope and always ready to crack some appalling sailor-joke." On Elephant Island Worsley's last sight of Greenstreet prior to the Southern Ocean trip was his former First Officer, "cheerfully profane as ever", helping to bag stones to be loaded onto the James Caird as ballast.
Chief Mate
A Chief Mate or Chief Officer, usually also synonymous with the First Mate or First Officer , is a licensed member and head of the deck department of a merchant ship...
of the Endurance
Endurance (1912 ship)
The Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition...
and a member of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition , also known as the Endurance Expedition, is considered the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent...
of 1914-1917, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal
Polar Medal
The Polar Medal is a medal awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It was instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal and renamed the Polar Medal in 1904.-History:...
. When he died on 13 January 1979, he was the last survivor of the expedition.
Biography
Greenstreet was born into a family of officers in the merchant navy of what was then the British Empire; his father had been granted captain's papers by the New Zealand Shipping CompanyNew Zealand Shipping Company
The New Zealand Shipping Company was a shipping company whose ships ran passenger and cargo services between Great Britain and New Zealand between 1873 and 1973.-New Zealand Shipping Company:...
. At age 15, Greenstreet became a sea cadet, never returning to school. As a young ship's officer, he wrote to the Captain of the Endurance, Frank Worsley
Frank Worsley
Frank Arthur Worsley DSO and Bar, OBE, RD was a New Zealand sailor and explorer.After serving in the Pacific, and especially in the New Zealand Post Office's South Pacific service he joined Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of...
in 1914, asking to be considered for a berth. His request arrived just as the ship's named First Officer had thrown up his papers to accept service in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, which had just broken out. Greenstreet was told to report to the Endurance in Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a bay at Plymouth in England.Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point on Devon, a distance of about 3 nautical miles . Its northern limit is Plymouth Hoe giving a north-south distance of nearly 3 nautical miles...
for an interview; and upon arrival, after brief inspection by Worsley he was abruptly told that the position of First Officer was his and that he had twenty-four hours to prepare for the departure of the vessel to the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
. The fledgling ship's officer later recalled that after considerable effort he had settled his affairs and reported aboard the ship, which then sailed thirty minutes after his arrival.
The expedition's overall commander was the explorer Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...
, and the goal of the Endurance was Vahsel Bay
Vahsel Bay
Vahsel Bay is a bay about 7 miles wide in the western part of the Luitpold Coast, Antarctica.This bay receives the flow of the Schweitzer Glacier and Lerchenfeld Glacier. It was discovered by the German Antarctic Expedition of 1911–1912, led by Wilhelm Filchner...
on the coast of Antarctica, from which Shackleton and the shore party hoped to cross the icy continent by dogsled; but on 18 January 1915, a few miles short of this destination, the ship was beset by ice and frozen into heavy pack from which she would not emerge. Greenstreet's duties changed with the new status of his ship; he kept deck watches in an attempt to find a lead of open water through which the ship could extricate itself, and joined a crew assigned to work below-decks in a futile attempt to stop the leaks that the ice was beginning to punch through the ship's hull. Despite the work of Greenstreet and his seamen and fellow ship's officers, Shackleton was forced to issue the order to abandon ship on 27 October. The expedition's 28 members and ship's company had to camp together as castaways on the frozen, icy surface of the Weddell Sea
Weddell Sea
The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast, Queen Maud Land. To the east of Cape Norvegia is...
.
Castaway
After the Endurance was abandoned, Greenstreet's duties again changed. He was given brief command of a team of sled dogSled dog
Sled dogs, known also as sleigh man dogs, sledge dogs, or sleddogs, are highly trained types of dogs that are used to pull a dog sled, a wheel-less vehicle on runners also called a sled or sleigh, over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines.Sled dogs have become a popular winter recreation...
s, and helped to hunt for fresh meat to supplement the castaways' inadequate supply of food. Shackleton later recalled with gratitude how Greenstreet and his hunting partner, Alexander Macklin
Alexander Macklin
Alexander Hepburne Macklin OBE MC TD was a British doctor who served as one of the two surgeons on Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917. In 1922 he joined Shackleton on his last expedition on the Quest.-Early life:Alexander Macklin was born in 1889 in...
, had killed and brought in a Weddell seal
Weddell Seal
The Weddell seal , is a relatively large and abundant true seal with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. Weddell seals have the most southerly distribution of any mammal, with a habitat that extends as far south as McMurdo Sound...
weighing 800 pounds.
At a slightly later stage of their self-rescue, after the icy campsite of the men of the Endurance had drifted northward into warmer water, the change in water temperature caused their refuge to literally melt out from underneath them, and on 9 April 1916 they were forced to climb aboard the light open boats that they had salvaged from their former vessel. Shackleton and his men had salvaged three lifeboats, and Greenstreet was the fourth-ranking member of the expedition. He accompanied his captain, Frank Worsley, in the Dudley Docker during the eight-day ordeal that marked the progress of the open-boat flotilla to a new and more secure campsite on Elephant Island in the archipelago of the South Shetlands.
Greenstreet, although characterized by Worsley as "a fine seaman", was not chosen to accompany the six-man party that set out from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Instead the former first officer was detailed to a two-man party, working with William Bakewell
William Lincoln Bakewell
William Lincoln Bakewell was the only American aboard the Endurance during the 1914–1916 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition with Sir Ernest Shackleton. William Bakewell joined the Endurance crew in Buenos Aires, Argentina along with friend Perce Blackborow. Bakewell was hired on as an Able Seaman...
, to alter bits and scraps of salvaged ship's canvas
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...
into a jury-rigged canvas deck
Deck (ship)
A deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull, which both strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface...
to enable the sole remaining sail-worthy lifeboat of the ship's company, the James Caird, to navigate in the open sea. Worsley's, whose life would depend upon the success of this work, describes it as follows:
Frozen like a board and caked with ice, the canvas was sewn, in painful circumstances, by two cheery optimists - Greenstreet, Chief Officer of the Endurance, and Bakewell, a Canadian [sic] AB. The only way they could do it was by holding the frozen canvas in the blubber fire till it thawed, often burning their fingers, while the oily smoke got in their eyes and noses, half-blinding and choking them. Then they sewed, often getting frostbitten and having to use great care that the difficult sewing with cold, brittle sail needles did not break all of our now scanty supply. All the time, while repeating the unpleasant task of thawing a length, and sewing it, 'Horace' [Greenstreet] was irrepressibly cracking his sailor jokes and Bakewell replying.
The sails hoisted, Shackleton, Worsley and the James Caird set out into the Southern Ocean. Greenstreet and his twenty-one fellow castaways encamped on Elephant Island were rescued on 30 August 1916.
Later life and character
After the end of the expedition and with World War I continuing, Greenstreet married the former Mille Baddley Muir and joined the colours, serving in supply barges on the Tigris
Tigris
The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
in which was then British-occupied Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
and rising to the rank of 2nd lieutenant. Soon after the conclusion of the war, Greenstreet and his wife chose shore life, with the former ship's officer becoming a middle-management employee in the marine insurance
Marine insurance
Marine insurance covers the loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport or cargo by which property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and final destination....
industry. He rejoined active service as a reserve lieutenant in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
through the Royal Naval Reserve
Royal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...
, served on coastal tugboat
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
s, married a second time, and resumed his insurance work prior to retirement.
Worsley, who had chosen Greenstreet on very short notice to join the fateful expedition, repeatedly paid tribute to him in his memoirs. During the first open-boat journey, "Greenstreet was splendid, never losing hope and always ready to crack some appalling sailor-joke." On Elephant Island Worsley's last sight of Greenstreet prior to the Southern Ocean trip was his former First Officer, "cheerfully profane as ever", helping to bag stones to be loaded onto the James Caird as ballast.