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Comment by grumblepeet | Hacker News Reader

My partner’s great uncle Perce (Blackborow) was one of the crew. He was the one you see in the pictures with Mrs Chippy the ship’s cat sat on his shoulder. Originally a stowaway he became steward. Lost quite a few toes to frostbite. When he returned to Newport he declared that he would never leave it again and as far as I know never did.

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Mrs Chippy has a pretty interesting Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Chippy

It even has a picture of the great uncle from the parent comment! :-)

Loved that, thanks. I had a cat that I was told it was a male when given to me only to find out it was a female when the 1st heat came :) I also kept its male name.

Wow the stowaway! That’s pretty amazing and a very unique part of the story. Perhaps more common in those times? Read the book years ago and it’s still the most jaw dropping story.

Every time I read about the tale of Shackleton all I think about is how he risked it he lives and limbs of his crew for personal vanity. I'm sure he was charismatic but I can't help but think he was an complete asshole in absolute terms.

Really? This is the same guy that came back and rescued everyone from the Endurance.

This stuff was dangerous, I think everyone going in knew it, as no one else had done this stuff before.

From the Wikipedia entry:

> Shackleton's concern for his men was such that he gave his mittens to photographer Frank Hurley, who had lost his own mittens during the boat journey. Shackleton suffered frostbitten fingers as a result.

He was also the guy that dared to turn around and say "we'll come back another day" 180km from the south pole, a few years ahead of Amundsen and Scott.

No, you must have mistaken him for Scott. Apart from the fatal final journey, he also sent his men on a pointless trip to collect pengiun embryos during antartic night. Documented in "The worst journey in the world" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Journey_in_the_Wor...

My point is that the quest was pure vanity. They didn't need to be there at all.

Sure. Like so many major (often crazy) milestones the human race has done.

* Climbed Everest * Flew a plane * Make a trip to the Titanic * Freediving * Swam the English Channel * Floated across the Atlantic with no idea where we were headed * Jumped from space without a parachute

People do crazy stuff all the time. It's sort of part of our DNA. Being the first to do something will cause people to go to great lengths and take great risks.

I first read this as the cat becoming a steward and losing toes to frostbite...

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