Wild One and Wild and "Three" Family Shirts

Frank Wild (1873-1939)
Biographical notes

Able seaman Discovery 1901-04
In charge of provisions Nimrod 1907-09
Sledge-primary Aurora 1911-fourteen
2nd in command Endurance 1914-17
second in command Quest- Ernest Shackleton 1921-22

Once wedded to Nature there is no divorce - separate her you may and hide yourself amongst the flesh-pots of London, but the wild volition go along calling and calling forever in your ears. You lot cannot escape the "piddling voices".
- Frank Wild

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Expeditions

John Robert Francis Wild, ameliorate known as Frank Wild is the relatively unknown giant of the "Heroic Historic period" of Antarctic Exploration. He played a meaning role in several of the most important expeditions, being on lath when the Discovery  sailed for McMurdo Sound in 1901 so heralding the start of 20 years of epic exploration and hazard, he was on board the Quest in 1922 when the death of Shackleton at South Georgia signified the finish of the era. No one else was so involved and no other explorer spent so long in Antarctica. He is 1 of only ii men to have been awarded iv Polar Medal each with silver clasps.

He is oftentimes referred to as Shackleton's "right hand man" or the "loyal lieutenant" though he was much more than than this.

In 1901, he volunteered to join Scott's "British national Antarctic Expedition" 1901-04 on lath the Discovery, being involved in the sledging programme.

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Frank Wild

On the Aurora with the Mawson expedition

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Ernest Shackleton, left and Frank Wild, correct camping on the sea ice after the sinking of the Endurance

Frank Wild on the Aurora with the Mawson expedition

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Frank Wild in his bunk at The Grottoes, Aurora expedition

Watson, Wild and Dovers at the Grottoes, Aurora expedition

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Wild and Kennedy setting out to salvage Jones' Party

Wild and Watson

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His showtime equally an Antarctic hero was less than cheering, Douglas Mawson describes the offset time he met Wild in New Zealand on the Nimrod expedition as being when Wild was beingness carried out of a hotel while boozer.

On the Nimrod trek 1907-09 led past Shackleton, he was chosen as one of the men who would manhaul up the Beardmore glacier to the South Pole, coming inside 97 miles of the goal. Discretion became the better office of valour on this occasion and the party turned dorsum at a bespeak where they thought they could render still alive, rather than pressing on to the pole, when they were unlikely to arrive back safely to McMurdo Audio and their base.

In 1911, he joined Douglas Mawson'south  two year long "Australian Antarctic Trek" every bit a sledging expert and was in command of the Western Base of operations experiencing very difficult snow and sledging weather.

Single, Leader of the Western Base Party (Queen Mary Country). He joined the Merchant Service in 1889 and the Navy in 1900, served on an extended sledge journey during the National Antarctic Expedition (Capt. R. F. Scott) of 1901-1904, and was one of the Southern Party of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Expedition from 1907-1909. During the Australasian Expedition he opened up a new tract of country - Queen Mary State.
From Appendix i, Mawson - Centre of the Antarctic

Shackleton selected him over again for the 1914-17 "Imperial Trans-Antarctic Trek" when he was 2d in control to Shackleton himself. His certain handling and steady support proved invaluable when the expedition ship, the Endurance  sank in mid-sea and the party had to brand it across initially solid, just increasingly broken-up ocean-ice to Elephant Island. Wild remained on Elephant Isle for almost four months with the majority of the crew appointed leader by Shackleton who gear up off with a pocket-size party to fetch help.

He returned to England in early 1917 and volunteered for service in World War 1 where he was posted to Archangel in far north Arctic Russia.

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Frank Wild, night shift in the "Grottoes" on the Mawson expedition

With the wreck of the Endurance after she was crushed by ice and earlier the remains slipped beneath the bounding main and ice.

Frank Wild, left on the Nimrod after the farthest south at the time of 97 miles from the South Pole.

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After the war, he went to Southward Africa where he farmed with Francis Bickerton (ex. Mawson trek) and Dr. James McIlroy (too ex-Endurance) They farmed in British Nyasaland in the neighbourhood of Lake Nyasa (Southward Africa) between the terminate of the Starting time Globe War and Wild and McIlroy leaving to join the "Quest" expedition in 1921. They cleared the then virgin wood and planted cotton. They loved the life though suffering intermittently from bouts of malaria. Co-ordinate to Frank Wild, in a letter written in 1920 to his cousin Margaret, they "would have been there all the same if Shackleton had not chosen for united states of america to come on this expedition". They had the full intention to return to their farm in Africa subsequently the expedition; whether they did or non, I do not know.

Rhona Schmitz not bad niece of Dr. James McIlroy.
 Letter sent by Frank Wild from S Africa to his Cousin Margaret, 4th August 1920

Shackleton once again requested him to take part in the 1921-1922 Shackleton-Rowett expedition on the Quest which was cut short due to Shackleton's death from a centre assault on South Georgia before the expedition had reached Antarctica proper. Wild took over equally leader and brought the adventure to a conclusion after a brief trip from South Georgia to Antarctica.

Biography

Frank Wild was born in Skelton, Yorkshire, the eldest of 8 sons in a family that also had 3 daughters, his begetter was a school instructor. His mother was a direct descendent of Captain James Cook. At the age of xvi in 1889, he joined the merchant navy, transferring to the Royal Navy in 1900.

He was the recipient of a number of awards for his contributions to exploration and advancing geography, in 1923, he was made a Freeman of the City of London. In June 1923 he returned to South Africa, to continue to farm though was unsuccessful due to a prolonged drought. His savings gone, he took work in a bar and in a mine to support himself and his married woman, over the next few years he tried his hand at various ventures falling into financial difficulties. He was a pop character where he worked and was by no means unique in experiencing difficulties at this time which was the depression years of the belatedly xx'due south and early 30's. He seems to accept had some difficulties with alcohol, the severity of which is unclear and depends on the source of the information, at any rate, there is always some mention of his beingness a drinker.

Frank Wild died on the 19th of Baronial 1939 in Klerksdorp, South Africa where he was employed as a shop human at the Bobrasco Mine, of pneumonia and diabetes. He was cremated on the 23rd of Baronial 1939 in the Braamfontein Cemetery in Johannesburg*

Wild's ashes were found yet in the church in Braamfontein Cemetery in 2011 where they had lain for 72 years. His widow had intended them to be taken to South Georgia to exist laid alongside Shackleton's grave, though state of war broke out a calendar week after her husbands expiry and and then with her passing and no there being children, the ashes were forgotten. Later in 2011 his ashes were taken to Southward Georgia and laid aslope "The Boss", Ernest Shackleton in a ceremony witnessed by descendants of both Wild and Shackleton.

*Frank Wild is widely reported equally dying in Johannesburg, SA. I am indebted to Angie Butler (author of biography "The Quest for Frank Wild") and Luigi Casaleggio for correcting this fault after much inquiry.

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References to Frank Wild by Orde-Lees in "Elephant Isle and Beyond" buy Us   buy UK

• The training of dogs has commenced - soon their services will salve us of a not bad deal of not unpleasant piece of work in bringing in afar seals. Wild, Marston, Crean, Macklin, McIlroy and Hurley are the canis familiaris men: none of them has any preliminary experience to speak of, merely this does not seem at all essential.

• We were lucky plenty to get five crab-eaters and a monster leopard seal over 12 ft. long which Wild shot as he was chasing me round a pocket-sized sparse floe. They are actually unsafe animals and this was the first I had always seen, and it gave me a skillful fearfulness.

• When the terminate was in sight, nosotros all realised the debt of gratitude we owed to our first-class, capable leader, Wild, who by his buoyant optimism, dogged determination, unrivalled feel and calm demeanour, had pulled usa through these trying months of waiting.

  Every man is decumbent to brand errors of judgment at times, and even the all-time of leaders can never hope to exist entirely exempt from this, simply if ever a man worked difficult and conscientiously to keep up the spirits and maintain the general peace and welfare of a customs containing one or two "difficile" members, that man was Frank Wild.

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References to Frank Wild in Shackleton'south volume "South!" buy United states of america   buy Great britain

• Two more emperors were captured on the post-obit day, and, while Wordie was leading one of them towards the ship, Wild came along with his team. The dogs, uncontrollable in a moment, made a frantic rush for the bird, and were almost upon him when their harness caught upon an ice-pylon, which they had tried to laissez passer on both sides at one time. The event was a seething tangle of dogs, traces, and men, and an overturned sled, while the penguin, three yards away, nonchalantly and indifferently surveyed the disturbance. He had never seen anything of the kind before and had no idea at all that the strange disorder might concern him.

• Five teams went out in the dim noon twilight, with a nil temperature and an aurora flickering faintly to the southward. The starting indicate was to be given by the flashing of a calorie-free on the meteorological station. I was appointed starter, Worsley was judge, and James was timekeeper. The bos'due north, with a straw hat added to his usual Antarctic attire, stood on a box near the winning-post, and was assisted by a couple of shady characters to shout the odds, which were displayed on a board hung around his neck 6 to 4 on Wild, "evens" on Crean, 2 to 1 against Hurley, 6 to 1 against Macklin, and 8 to 1 against McIlroy. Canvas handkerchiefs fluttered from an improvised grand stand, and the pups, which had never seen such strange happenings before, sat round and howled with excitement. The spectators could not see far in the dim low-cal, just they heard the shouts of the drivers every bit the teams approached and greeted the victory of the favourite with a roar of cheering that must accept sounded foreign indeed to any seals or penguins that happened to be in our neighbourhood. Wild'southward time was two min. 16 sec., or at the charge per unit of 10 miles per hour for the class.

• Some other race took place a few days later on the "Derby." The ii crack teams, driven past Hurley and Wild, met in a race from Khyber Pass. Wild pulling 910 lbs. or 130 lbs. per dog, covered the 700 yds. in 2 min. ix sec., or at the rate of 11.1 miles per hr. Hurley'southward team, with the same load, did the run in 2 min. 16 sec. The race was awarded past the judge to Hurley owing to Wild failing to "weigh in" correctly. I (Shackleton)  happened to be a part of the load on his sledge, and a skid over some new drift within l yards of the winning post resulted in my being left on the snow. It should be said in justice to the dogs that this blow, while justifying the disqualification, could not have fabricated whatsoever fabric divergence in the time.

• The dog teams went off to the wreck early each morning under Wild, and the men made every effort to rescue as much as possible from the send. This was an extremely difficult chore as the whole of the deck forward was under a foot of water on the port side, and most 3 feet on the starboard side.

• Then Wild went out with a dog squad to shoot and bring in the game. To feed ourselves and the dogs, at least one seal a day was required. The seals were more often than not crab-eaters, and emperor penguins were the general rule. On November 5, however, an adelie was caught, and this was the cause of much discussion, as the following extract shows: "The homo on watch from 3 a.m. to 4 a.1000. caught an Adelie penguin. This is the first of its kind that nosotros take seen since January last, and it may mean a lot. It may signify that there is state somewhere near us, or else that great leads are opening upwardly, only it is impossible to form more than a mere conjecture at present."

• On December twenty, later on discussing the question with Wild, I informed all hands that I intended to endeavour and make a march to the west to reduce the distance betwixt usa and Paulet Isle. A buzz of pleasurable anticipation went round the camp, and every one was anxious to get on the move. And so the next solar day I set off with Wild, Crean, and Hurley, with dog teams, to the westward to survey the road. After travelling nigh seven miles we mounted a minor berg, and there as far as we could see stretched a serial of immense flat floes from half a mile to a mile beyond, separated from each other by force per unit area-ridges which seemed easily negotiable with choice and shovel.

• Then that afternoon Wild and I ski-ed out to the crack and found that it had closed upwards once again. Nosotros marked out the track with modest flags every bit we returned. Each day, after all hands had turned in, Wild and I would go ahead for two miles or so to reconnoitre the side by side day'due south road, mark information technology with pieces of wood, tins, and small flags. We had to pick the road which though it might exist somewhat devious, was flattest and had least hummocks.

• Ii seals were killed to-24-hour interval. Wild and McIlroy, who went out to secure them, had rather an heady fourth dimension on some very loose, rotten water ice, three killer-whales in a lead a few yards away poking upwardly their ugly heads equally if in anticipation of a feast.

• Worsley and Wild realized that the attempt must be made, and they both asked to exist allowed to back-trail me on the voyage. I told Wild at once that he would have to stay behind. I relied upon him to concord the party together while I was away and to make the all-time of his manner to Deception Isle with the men in the spring in the consequence of our failure to bring help. Worsley I would take with me, for I had a very high opinion of his accurateness and quickness as a navigator, and especially in the snapping and working out of positions in difficult circumstances an opinion that was only enhanced during the bodily journey. 4 other men would be required, and I decided to call for volunteers, although, every bit a affair of fact, I pretty well knew which of the people I would select. Crean I proposed to leave on the island as a right-hand man for Wild, simply he begged so hard to be allowed to come in the boat that, later consultation with Wild, I promised to accept him.

• I saw a little figure on a surf-browbeaten stone and recognized Wild. Equally I came nearer I called out, "Are you all well?" and he answered, "Nosotros are all well, boss," then I heard three thanks. As I drew close to the rock I flung packets of cigarettes ashore; they fell on them like hungry tigers, for well I knew that for months tobacco was dreamed of and talked of. Some of the hands were in a rather bad way, only Wild had held the party together and kept promise alive in their hearts. At that place was no time and so to exchange news or congratulations. I did not fifty-fifty go upwards the beach to run across the camp, which Wild assured me had been much improved.

• The Yelcho had arrived at the correct moment. 2 days earlier she could non have reached the island, and a few hours later the pack may have been bulletproof again. Wild had reckoned that help would come up in Baronial, and every morning he had packed his kit, in cheerful anticipation that proved infectious, every bit I accept no doubt it was meant to be. Ane of the party to whom I had said "Well, you all were packed up ready," replied, "Y'all see, dominate, Wild never gave up promise, and whenever the body of water was at all clear of ice he rolled up his sleeping-bag and said to all hands, "Whorl up your sleeping-bags, boys; the dominate may come to-day.' "

Landmarks named afterwards Frank Wild

Characteristic Name: Betoken Wild
Feature Type: tiptop
Latitude: 61°06'South
Longitude: 054°52'W
Description: A point six mi West of Cape Valentine on the Due north coast of Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands. Named Greatcoat Wild by the Shackleton Endurance expedition 1914-sixteen, merely Bespeak Wild is recommended for this feature because of its minor size and to avoid confusion with Cape Wild on George V Declension.
Variant Name(s) - Cape Wild

Feature Name: Mount Wild
Characteristic Blazon: summit
Latitude: 84°48'Due south
Longitude: 162°twoscore'E
Description: A peak two.5 mi W of Mount Augusta at the SW extremity of the Queen Alexandra Range. Discovered by the BrAE (1907-09).
Variant Name(s) - Wild Mountains

Feature Proper name: Wild Icefalls
Feature Type: glacier
Latitude: 84°55'S
Longitude: 162°25'E
Description:
The extensive icefalls at the caput of Beardmore Glacier, between Mount Wild and Mountain Buckley. Named by the NZGSAE (1961-62) in association with nearby Mountain Wild.

Feature Name: Mount Wild
Feature Blazon: superlative
Peak: 945
Latitude: 64°12'S
Longitude: 058°53'W
Clarification: Sharply defined rock ridge with several summits, the highest 945 thou, standing at the N side of the rima oris of a glacier on the E coast of Trinity Peninsula. First charted by the FIDS in 1945.

Feature Name: Greatcoat Wild
Feature Type: cape
Latitude: 68°23'South
Longitude: 149°07'E
Description: A prominent rock cape on the eastern stop of the Organ Pipe Cliffs. This may be the cape viewed from the ship superior mirage, by the USEE nether Lt. Charles Wilkes, Jan. nineteen, 1840. Wilkes applied the name "Signal Emmons" for Lt. George F. Emmons of the Vincennes. The cape was accurately positioned by the AAE (1911-14) under Douglas Mawson.

Other Crew of the Endurance Expedition

Bakewell, William - Able Seaman
Blackborow, Percy - Stowaway (afterwards steward)
Cheetham, Alfred - Third Officer
Clark, Robert S. - Biologist
Crean, Thomas - Second Officer
Green, Charles J. - Cook
Greenstreet, Lionel - First Officer
Holness, Ernest - Firewoman/stoker
How, Walter E. - Able Seaman
Hudson, Hubert T. - Navigator
Hurley, James Francis (Frank) - Official Photographer
Hussey, Leonard D. A. - Meteorologist
James, Reginald W. - Physicist
Kerr, Alexander. J. - Second Engineer

Macklin, Dr. Alexander H. - Surgeon
Marston, George E. - Official Artist
McCarthy, Timothy - Able Seaman
McIlroy, Dr. James A. - Surgeon
McLeod, Thomas - Able Seaman
McNish, Henry - Carpenter
Orde-Lees, Thomas  - Motor Expert and Storekeeper
Rickinson, Lewis - First Engineer
Shackleton, Ernest H. - Expedition Leader
Stephenson, William - Firefighter/stoker
Vincent, John - Able Seaman
Wild, Frank - 2d in Command
Wordie, James M. - Geologist
Worsley, Frank - Captain

Biographical data - I am concentrating on the Polar experiences of the men involved. Whatever further information or pictures visitors may have will be gratefully received. Delight electronic mail  - Paul Ward, webmaster.

What are the chances that my ancestor was an unsung function of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration?

  Ernest Shackleton Books and Video

South - Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition (1919)
original footage - DVD

Shackleton
dramatization
Kenneth Branagh (2002) - DVD

 
Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure (2001)
IMAX dramatization - DVD

The Endurance - Shackleton'southward Legendary Expedition (2000)
PBS NOVA, dramatization with original footage - DVD

Endurance : Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing (Preface) - Book

South with Endurance: Frank Hurley - official photographer
Book

South! Ernest Shackleton Shackleton's ain words
Book

Shackleton's Style: Leadership Lessons from the Cracking Antarctic Explorer
Book

Shackleton's Boat Journey: The narrative of Frank Worsley
Volume

 
Shackleton
biography by Roland
Huntford
Volume

The Quest for Frank Wild, biography past Angie Butler
Book

The Endurance : Shackleton'south Legendary Antarctic Expedition
past Caroline Alexander
Book

Mrs. Chippy'south Last Trek: The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton'south Polar-Bound True cat
Volume

Shackleton's Forgotten Men
Lennard Bickel
Volume

Elephant Island and Beyond: The Life and Diaries of Thomas Orde Lees Book

 
Shipwreck at the Lesser of the Earth - Jennifer Armstrong
for ages 12 and up
Book

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Source: https://coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/biography/wild_frank.php

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