The Endurance_ Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition - Caroline Alexander [90]
Above all, I am grateful to the families of the expedition members and a number of independent scholars. No project I have ever worked on has elicited such generous and unconditional offers of assistance. Diaries and documents that had been safeguarded for many years were made available to me with no strings attached. Others shared the fruits of many years' private labor, or the contents of unpublished works in progress; not one individual ever asked for so much as a printed credit. Without the information and source material provided by these families and scholars it would not have been possible to write this book.
Alexandra Shackleton, the granddaughter of the great explorer, was very generous with her time and family possessions, as well as very entertaining to be with.
Peter Wordie and Mrs. Alison Stancer provided me with a hitherto unseen copy of their father's diary, a fascinating and very precise document that I drew on heavily. They were also extremely forthcoming with other papers and items of interest.
Mrs. Elizabeth Rajala made available the unpublished autobiography of her father, William Bakewell, along with other papers and photographs.
The entire Blackborow family—son, grandson, and great-granddaughter, as well as, incredibly, sister and brother, of Shackleton's stowaway—gave me a warm welcome and provided much information about Perce Blackborow.
Thomas McNeish not only provided information and records about his grandfather, but was also, with his wife, Jessie, a hospitable host of a very enjoyable visit to their home. Isabel and Donald Laws, and Iris Johnstone from other branches of McNish's family, became indefatigable sleuths of that highly interesting if mysterious subject, “Chippy” McNish.
Dr. Richard Hudson graciously received me at his home to see the sextant his father had loaned to Worsley for navigating the Caird, and also let me peruse the numerous papers his father had left.
The Macklin family was generous in their offer to let me use the diary of their father, as well as his voluminous correspondence and related papers. I was also fortunate to have discussed certain members of the crew with the late Jean Macklin, Dr. Alexander Macklin's wife.
Mrs. Doris Warren kindly sent me copies of papers and photographs pertaining to her father, Walter How.
Mrs. Toni Mooy-Hurley and Adélie Hurley were generous with vivid reminiscences about their father, Frank Hurley, and for their permission to quote from his diaries and use his photographs.
Julian Ayer very kindly allowed me access to his grandfather Thomas Orde-Lees's photographic negatives, and filled me in on aspects of his grandfather's history.
I am very grateful to Father Gerard O'Brien for information about his grandfather Tom Crean, and to Crean's godson, John Knightly, for information about the great explorer. The Kerry County Council kindly provided me with copies of documents pertaining to Crean.
Richard Greenstreet gave me biographical material pertaining to his uncle: The quotations from Lionel Greenstreet's diary and correspondence are made with his kind permission.
Roy Cockram provided me with wonderful biographical and anecdotal material about Charles Green, his uncle.
I am grateful to Roland Huntford, both for information and advice given in person at a very early stage of my “discovery” of Shackleton, and for his magisterial works on Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton. Two other distinguished Antarctic historians, Ann Shirley and Margaret Slythe, were very helpful in directing me to people and sources.
I am more grateful than I can say to Margot Morrell for the generous gift of her transcripts of the diaries of Hurley and Orde-Lees.