Shackleton's doomed Trans-Antarctic Expedition

ERNEST SHACKLETON’S doomed Imperial Trans-Antartic Expedition on the Endurance is the stuff of boy’s own adventures.

But what attracted playwright Gail Louw to the story of 28 explorers trapped on the Antarctic ice for 19 months was the heroism demonstrated by a very real character – Shackleton’s shipwright.

Harry McNish’s skills and ingenuity were integral in making sure the story ended with no loss of life. When the ship was trapped in pack ice he constructed shelters for the crew, built goalposts for morale-boosting football games and tried to prevent flooding on board the stuck ship by building a temporary enclosure to keep the water out. Sadly it wasn’t enough and the pressure of the ice eventually crushed the ship, stranding the crew. When they had to plan an escape he converted the lifeboats for a sea voyage which would eventually take the crew off the ice to Elephant Island and South Georgia.

But he never received the Polar Medal for his troubles, and ended his life destitute in a New Zealand wharf, sleeping under a tarpaulin.

It is the unfortunate McNish, played by Malcolm Rennie of Mr Selfridge fame, who narrates the tale from the docked boat he calls home, having awoken from a recurring dream of drowning.

Louw first came across McNish’s story when she spotted Caroline Alexander’s book The Endurance on her coffee table.

“My husband started telling me this story about McNish and how he became destitute on the wharf,” says Louw. “It was such an interesting story I started reading about him.”

McNish appears to have been the only crewman to have questioned Shackleton’s judgement.

Things came to a head when Shackleton ordered both the shooting of Mr Chippy, the cat McNish had brought on board, and set his men the task of dragging the ship’s three lifeboats to open water.

“McNish said if they did it the boats would break, and then they would be stranded,” says Louw. “Shackleton insisted they do it for two days, and then gave up.

“McNish was seen as a pessimist. But what do you call a pessimist who is right?

“Shackleton would never admit he was wrong, and McNish never got the Polar Medal.”

The carpenter wasn’t the only one to suffer after he left the ice.

“I think they all suffered from post-traumatic stress,” she says. “Nobody had been killed, but some people had fingers or toes amputated.

“They didn’t come back to a hero’s welcome – it was the middle of 1916, so people felt they should be on the frontlines. Some were later killed on the battlefield.”

Strong but flawed characters have played a central role in Louw’s plays.

She was presented with an Argus Angel in 2012 for Blonde Poison, her tale of a Jewish Gestapo informer. The one-woman play is now being staged in the US with Star Trek’s Salome Jens in the role of treacherous Stella Goldschlag.

And last year Louw premiered Duwayne, the story of the boy who was with Stephen Lawrence on the night of his murder, and his later political career standing for mayor of Lewisham.This year Louw is bringing a new one-woman show about Marlene Dietrich to the Fringe, set in the last years of the one-time screen icon’s life when she didn’t get out of bed for 11 years.

“It’s not about black or white – it’s about shades of grey that really interest me,” she says.

“How can you relate to someone who is perfect? None of us are.

“I’m always interested in the person on the side, who isn’t so heroic.

“McNish was a difficult bloke, but he was extremely heroic and a brilliant shipwright on one of the greatest navigational journeys in the world. He made it all possible. But he had issues and problems and character flaws that real people have.”