Epic Story Of Survival
While Ernest Shackleton’s fateful Antarctic expedition is legendary, it is not widely known that one of the Endurance crew, the ship’s doctor, lived in Whalley, writes Jan Woolley
A century after polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance sank beneath the ice, a new documentary film has been released charting the discovery of the shipwreck.
Shackleton’s leadership and perseverance is well documented – he kept his crew of 27 men alive for more than a year, despite the loss of the ship and living in sub-zero conditions. Among those men, was the ship’s doctor Alexander Macklin, who lived in Whalley in the Ribble Valley.
ENDURANCE, from National Geographic Documentary Films, follows a team of modern-day explorers, archaeologists and scientists who set out on the SA Agulhas II, a polar research vessel, in order find Shackleton’s sunken wooden ship more than 3,000m under the ice. The team on the award-winning Endurance22 Expedition, which was organised and funded by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, used Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in their quest to find the shipwreck, which they did in March 2022, when they used laser scanners on the AUVs to produce a 3D model and images of the wreck and its debris field.
Expedition leader Dr John Shears described the moment the submersible’s cameras first landed on the ship’s brass stern plate as ‘jaw dropping’.
Directed by Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and Natalie Hewit, ENDURANCE tells the inspirational story behind Shackleton’s landmark expedition and also tracks the present-day explorers in their amazing quest.
In the film, commentator Dan Snow, who was on board the Agulhas II, says: “We are still talking about Shackleton. It is the greatest tale of survival in history.”
The documentary includes unique footage of Shackleton and his men, including Macklin, on their doomed expedition.
Macklin, who lived in King Street, Whalley, was born in India where his father was a doctor and when the family moved to England, his father set up practice at The Croft.
Young Macklin became an enthusiastic and proficient boat handler, attending Plymouth College and after a short period as a deckhand, he attended university in Manchester where he qualified as a doctor and went on to work at Blackburn Hospital.
Soon after, he heard about Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and was invited on the expedition as one of the ship’s two surgeons.
In 1914, the Endurance set sail for Buenos Aires and from there proceeded to South Georgia where a whaling station team warned Shackleton against going any further due to perilous conditions.
Forever the optimist, Shackleton continued in his quest and the Endurance reached the Weddell Sea, one the harshest and most treacherous environments in the world, in October 1915: “The crew had to cut their way through the ice. The ship went for miles, going slower and slower, in the middle of nowhere – then they realised the Endurance was being crushed,” explains Whalley historian Jean Lord.
The Endurance became trapped forcing Shackleton and his men to abandon ship with provisions, lifeboats and the 100 sledge dogs that had been on board. They set up camp on the ice which over time, had lifted the ship out of the sea and as the seasons changed and the ice began to break up, the ship crashed down, sinking into the freezing water.
Having saved what they could from the Endurance, the crew put the dogs into action – Macklin who had been assigned a team of sledge dogs, was able to bring back seals that had been shot for food and he also returned to the base camp, established where the ship had sunk, to recover more supplies.
After camping, trekking and sledging for more than five months, taking as many provisions as they could carry, the crew reached open water and sailed in lifeboats to Elephant Island where they again set up camp.
Meanwhile, Shackleton and four men took one of the lifeboats in a bid to find help in South Georgia: “They had to leave as no one was going to come and find them. You can’t imagine how they must have felt. The men were starving, they had to do something so they had to strike out and try to find the whaling station.”
Shackleton had estimated that it would take him 18 days to reach South Georgia in order to return to rescue his men. But the journey was to take them four-and-a-half months.
When he and his team landed, they were faced with huge, mountainous crags to navigate: “They ascended numerous times but each time they were forced back due to perilous drops.” explains Jean.
“Shackleton finally told the men they were going to sledge down – there was no other way.”
With Shackleton at the front of the sledge, the men took off into the unknown and after a fearsome ride down the craggy, icy slopes, they landed in a bank of snow and, in the silence that followed, they could hear the whistles of the whaling station.
Keen to rescue his men back on Elephant Island, Shackleton commissioned a Chilean ship and set sail. On his approach to the island, through binoculars he began to count the men, including Macklin, that he could see frantically waving on the coastline. He rescued them all. Later in a letter to his wife Shackleton wrote, ‘Not a life lost and we have been through hell’.
When Shackleton and his crew returned to the UK the Great War was still ongoing and many of them joined the war effort including Macklin, who joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in France, Russia and Italy.
In 1918 Macklin was awarded the Military Cross for bravery, tending the wounded under fire. The previous year he had been awarded the Polar Medal.
In 1921 Shackleton invited Macklin along with some of the original Endurance crew members to join him on the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition – a challenge which Macklin accepted. In 1922 on board the Quest, they headed once again for South Georgia.
However, during the voyage Shackleton was troubled with heart pain and when the ship landed in South Georgia, he went on to have a fatal heart attack.
As the Quest’s doctor, Macklin was with Shackleton when he died.
On his return to the UK, Macklin set up a medical practice and in WWII served in the Army Medical Corps in East Africa as a Lieutenant Colonel receiving Territorial Decoration and went on to be awarded the OBE. His brother was also awarded the Military Cross and another brother features on Whalley’s war memorial.
Alexander Macklin died in March 1967.
“What a life he had!” adds Jean, who recently approached Ribble Valley Borough Council, asking if they would name a street in Whalley after Macklin.
“We have managed to get a blue plaque put on the gates of The Croft but it would be nice to get Macklin properly recognised. Other Endurance crew members have been recognised in their respective towns and cities with plaques and statues, but RVBC say it is not their policy to name streets after people.”
ENDURANCE National Geographic Documentary Films is available to stream on Disney+
