Joseph Stenhouse
Encyclopedia
Joseph Russell Stenhouse, DSO
, OBE
, DSC
(1887–1941) was a Scottish-born seaman, Royal Navy
Officer and Antarctic navigator, who commanded the expedition vessel SY Aurora
during her 283-day drift in the ice while on service with the Ross Sea Party
component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
1914-17. After Auroras escape from the ice he brought her safely to New Zealand
, but was thereafter replaced as the vessel's commander. He later served with distinction in the Royal Navy during both World Wars.
Grammar School. After a short spell as a junior clerk with Lloyd's Register of Shipping, he served a Merchant Officer's apprenticeship on tall ships rounding Cape Horn. He then joined the British India Steam Navigation Company before receiving a last-minute appointment as First Officer on the Aurora, which was then in Australia awaiting refit. Stenhouse sailed for Australia aboard SS Ionic on 18 September 1914. Before departing, he was commissioned Sub-Lieutenant RNR.
, left Hobart
for Antarctica on 24 December 1914 and arrived in McMurdo Sound
, with the Ross Sea Party
, on 14 January 1915. The party's main mission was to lay depots across the Ross Ice Shelf
for Shackleton's expected transcontinental party. When Mackintosh left to take charge of depot-laying operations, Stenhouse took over command of the ship, with the task of finding a suitable winter anchorage. He had two problems here; first, he was inexperienced in these waters; secondly he was handicapped by Shackleton's prior instruction to Mackintosh that the ship be anchored somewhere north of the Glacier Tongue, to reduce the risks of its being trapped in the frozen seas around Hut Point - the fate of Captain Scott's RRS Discovery
in 1902-04. Since Discovery, no ship had attempted to winter in the Sound - Nimrod and Terra Nova had returned to New Zealand - and the number of sheltered anchorages north of the tongue was very limited. Stenhouse manoeuvred the ship for many weeks before deciding to anchor at Cape Evans
, site of Scott's Last Expedition headquarters, 1910-13. On 14 March the ship was made fast and its engines were subsequently decommissioned for winter maintenance.
Despite great care being taken over the anchorage the winter storms around Cape Evans proved too much, and on the night of 6 May she was wrenched from her moorings and taken out to sea with the ice. Aboard were 18 men, and most of the shore party's clothing, equipment and food. Ashore, stranded, were ten men, including Mackintosh.
with no means of control, unable to raise steam, and with weather conditions likely to worsen. They were wholly isolated, despite the repeated efforts of wireless operator Lionel Hooke to make radio contact with Cape Evans and other, more distant stations. During the succeeding perilous weeks, as the ice-bound Aurora drifted northwards, roughly parallel to the coast in the direction of Cape Adare
, Stenhouse twice came close towards ordering abandonment of the ship and risking a dangerous sledging journey on the ice. The ship survived, however, and continued its drift into the Southern Ocean. Throughout the drift, Stenhouse endeavoured to keep up his crew's morale, and for scientific purposes maintained regular observations of the behaviour of the ice and direction of drift. By February 1916, without sign of release, Stenhouse contemplated the possibility of another year in the ice, but on 12th of that month the ice around her suddenly broke away and she was free. Stenhouse ordered the engines started, and cautiously worked the ship out of the loose pack into the open sea. After a 1000-mile voyage through rough seas to New Zealand, and with assistance in the final stages from a tug, he brought Aurora into Port Chalmers
on 3 April 1916.
after his own extended adventure and escape, nor his proxy, should lead the relief, and appointed their own choice, Captain John King Davis
. The politics of the situation were largely kept from Stenhouse, who was shocked to learn of King's appointment on 4 October, and initially refused to recognise its validity. However, when Shackleton, who had arrived in New Zealand on 12 December, grudgingly concurred with King's appointment, Stenhouse had no choice but to step down. He then returned to England.
PQ61. On 26 September 1917 the ship engaged and sank a U-boat in the Irish sea, an action which earned Stenhouse a Distinguished Service Cross
(DSC). After promotion and a spell in command of the schooner HMS Ianthe
, he joined Shackleton on a mission to Murmansk
, to equip and train the North Russian (anti-Bolshevik) army. After the 1918 armistice he received the Distinguished Service Order
(DSO), and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire
(OBE) in 1920.
Joseph Stenhouse is commemorated by Stenhouse Bluff in the South Shetland Islands
at 62°04′S 58°24′W
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, DSC
Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...
(1887–1941) was a Scottish-born seaman, Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
Officer and Antarctic navigator, who commanded the expedition vessel SY Aurora
Aurora (ship)
SY Aurora was a steam yacht built by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd. shipbuilders in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1876, for the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company. Her primary use was whaling in the northern seas, and she was built sturdily enough to withstand the heavy weather and ice that would be...
during her 283-day drift in the ice while on service with the Ross Sea Party
Ross Sea Party
The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier, along the polar route established by earlier Antarctic expeditions...
component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 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...
1914-17. After Auroras escape from the ice he brought her safely to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, but was thereafter replaced as the vessel's commander. He later served with distinction in the Royal Navy during both World Wars.
Early life
He was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, into a prosperous shipbuilding family, and was educated in England at BarrowBarrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
Grammar School. After a short spell as a junior clerk with Lloyd's Register of Shipping, he served a Merchant Officer's apprenticeship on tall ships rounding Cape Horn. He then joined the British India Steam Navigation Company before receiving a last-minute appointment as First Officer on the Aurora, which was then in Australia awaiting refit. Stenhouse sailed for Australia aboard SS Ionic on 18 September 1914. Before departing, he was commissioned Sub-Lieutenant RNR.
In McMurdo Sound
Aurora, commanded by Captain Aeneas MackintoshAeneas Mackintosh
Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh was a British Merchant Navy officer and Antarctic explorer, who commanded the Ross Sea party as part of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17...
, left Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
for Antarctica on 24 December 1914 and arrived in McMurdo Sound
McMurdo Sound
The ice-clogged waters of Antarctica's McMurdo Sound extend about 55 km long and wide. The sound opens into the Ross Sea to the north. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 13,205 feet on the western shoreline. The nearby McMurdo Ice Shelf scribes McMurdo Sound's southern boundary...
, with the Ross Sea Party
Ross Sea Party
The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier, along the polar route established by earlier Antarctic expeditions...
, on 14 January 1915. The party's main mission was to lay depots across the Ross Ice Shelf
Ross Ice Shelf
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica . It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 km long, and between 15 and 50 metres high above the water surface...
for Shackleton's expected transcontinental party. When Mackintosh left to take charge of depot-laying operations, Stenhouse took over command of the ship, with the task of finding a suitable winter anchorage. He had two problems here; first, he was inexperienced in these waters; secondly he was handicapped by Shackleton's prior instruction to Mackintosh that the ship be anchored somewhere north of the Glacier Tongue, to reduce the risks of its being trapped in the frozen seas around Hut Point - the fate of Captain Scott's RRS Discovery
RRS Discovery
The RRS Discovery was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in Britain. Designed for Antarctic research, she was launched in 1901. Her first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, successful...
in 1902-04. Since Discovery, no ship had attempted to winter in the Sound - Nimrod and Terra Nova had returned to New Zealand - and the number of sheltered anchorages north of the tongue was very limited. Stenhouse manoeuvred the ship for many weeks before deciding to anchor at Cape Evans
Cape Evans
Cape Evans is a rocky cape on the west side of Ross Island, forming the north side of the entrance to Erebus Bay.The cape was discovered by the Discovery expedition under Robert Falcon Scott, who named it the Skuary. Scott's second expedition, the British Antarctic Expedition , built its...
, site of Scott's Last Expedition headquarters, 1910-13. On 14 March the ship was made fast and its engines were subsequently decommissioned for winter maintenance.
Despite great care being taken over the anchorage the winter storms around Cape Evans proved too much, and on the night of 6 May she was wrenched from her moorings and taken out to sea with the ice. Aboard were 18 men, and most of the shore party's clothing, equipment and food. Ashore, stranded, were ten men, including Mackintosh.
Adrift
The situation which immediately confronted the inexperienced temporary commander was particularly daunting. The ship, attached to a large ice-floe, was blown out of the Sound and into the Ross SeaRoss Sea
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land.-Description:The Ross Sea was discovered by James Ross in 1841. In the west of the Ross Sea is Ross Island with the Mt. Erebus volcano, in the east Roosevelt Island. The southern part is covered...
with no means of control, unable to raise steam, and with weather conditions likely to worsen. They were wholly isolated, despite the repeated efforts of wireless operator Lionel Hooke to make radio contact with Cape Evans and other, more distant stations. During the succeeding perilous weeks, as the ice-bound Aurora drifted northwards, roughly parallel to the coast in the direction of Cape Adare
Cape Adare
Cape Adare is the northeastern most peninsula in Victoria Land, East Antarctica. The cape separates the Ross Sea to the east from the Southern Ocean to the west, and is backed by the high Admiralty Mountains...
, Stenhouse twice came close towards ordering abandonment of the ship and risking a dangerous sledging journey on the ice. The ship survived, however, and continued its drift into the Southern Ocean. Throughout the drift, Stenhouse endeavoured to keep up his crew's morale, and for scientific purposes maintained regular observations of the behaviour of the ice and direction of drift. By February 1916, without sign of release, Stenhouse contemplated the possibility of another year in the ice, but on 12th of that month the ice around her suddenly broke away and she was free. Stenhouse ordered the engines started, and cautiously worked the ship out of the loose pack into the open sea. After a 1000-mile voyage through rough seas to New Zealand, and with assistance in the final stages from a tug, he brought Aurora into Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers is a suburb and the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, with a population of 3,000. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast from Dunedin's city centre....
on 3 April 1916.
In New Zealand
His urgent priority after arrival was to get Aurora repaired and to take her back to McMurdo Sound to rescue the stranded men who had by then been marooned for almost a year. He did not find his concerns recognised by immediate action on the part of the authorities. There were questions of cash - Shackleton's expedition funds were exhausted, and the costs of refitting and provisioning a relief expedition were estimated at around £20,000. Now Shackleton's apparently cavalier approach to the original organisation of the Ross Sea Party stood against him. Eventually, the combined governments of New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain agreed jointly to meet the costs of the rescue provided that they exercised full control over the mission. Stenhouse still considered that he was the Auroras commander and assumed that he would lead the relief expedition when the ship was ready to sail, but the representatives of the governments decided that he was too inexperienced. He was also Shackleton's man, and they were adamant that neither Shackleton, who had reappeared in the Falkland IslandsFalkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
after his own extended adventure and escape, nor his proxy, should lead the relief, and appointed their own choice, Captain John King Davis
John King Davis
John King Davis, CBE was an English-born Australian explorer and navigator notable for his work captaining exploration ships in Antarctic waters as well as for establishing meteorological stations on Macquarie Island in the subantarctic and on Willis Island in the Coral Sea.-Early life:Davis's...
. The politics of the situation were largely kept from Stenhouse, who was shocked to learn of King's appointment on 4 October, and initially refused to recognise its validity. However, when Shackleton, who had arrived in New Zealand on 12 December, grudgingly concurred with King's appointment, Stenhouse had no choice but to step down. He then returned to England.
War Hero
On his return to England Stenhouse reported for duty with the Royal Navy and was posted as Gunnery Officer to mystery Q-shipQ-ship
Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, Decoy Vessels, Special Service Ships, or Mystery Ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them...
PQ61. On 26 September 1917 the ship engaged and sank a U-boat in the Irish sea, an action which earned Stenhouse a Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...
(DSC). After promotion and a spell in command of the schooner HMS Ianthe
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, he joined Shackleton on a mission to Murmansk
Murmansk
Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...
, to equip and train the North Russian (anti-Bolshevik) army. After the 1918 armistice he received the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(DSO), and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(OBE) in 1920.
Post-War Life
In 1923 Stenhouse married Gladys Mackintosh, Aeneas Mackintosh's widow, and in 1924 a daughter was born. Between 1927 and 1929 he captained the Discovery on oceanographic and whaling research voyages in Southern Atlantic and Antarctic waters. Thereafter he attempted several business ventures which largely failed, as did an attempt to find treasure in the Cocos Islands. At the outbreak of World War II Stenhouse, now a Commander RNR, signed on for active service and, whilst in the Gulf of Aden in 1940, risked his own life to save that of a crew member after his ship was struck by a mine. On 12 September 1941 he was reported missing, presumed killed, when his ship exploded and sank in the Red Sea.Joseph Stenhouse is commemorated by Stenhouse Bluff in the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
at 62°04′S 58°24′W
Sources
- Sir Ernest Shackleton: South Century Ltd edition 1991, ed. Peter King
- Kelly Tyler-Lewis: The Lost Men Bloomsbury Publications, 2007(pb)
- Lennard Bickel: Shackleton's Forgotten Heroes Pimlico Edition, 2000
- Cool Antarctica, pictures of Antarctica, information and travel guide at www.coolantarctica.com
- http://www.heritage.antarctica.org/AHT/CrewRossSeaParty