Letters...

In the 1999 book 'Endurance' by Caroline Alexander, there is this  interesting quote:

A single material record of his (Vincent's) later life is known; an unexpectedly gracious letter that he wrote to Hudson's mother, assuring her that her son-whom he had last see utterly incapacitated by the exposure of frostbite on Elephant Island- was doing very well and had never failed to pull his weight
(Alexander, 1999)

At the beginning of the year I wrote to Caroline Alexander to ask who has possession of the letter and if I could see a copy.

After many months, and I had pretty much given up, but yesterday I received a reply!
As I had thought, the letter was owned by Hudson's son, Richard and she kindly gave me his address.. She also said she might have a copy and will have a look for me, which is very kind.
Sadly, I had already discovered a couple of weeks ago by another source that Richard died a few years ago.
Typical!

I'm hoping to meet more Endurance descendants next week, and fingers crossed one of Hudson's will be there and I'll be able to ask them.

Huberht Hudson was the navigator on the Endurance, and was incredibly ill, both mentally and physically on Elephant Island.

I wonder what it was that compelled Vincent to write to Hudson's mother? Had Hudson asked him to? Did she find his address and write to him? It is well publicized that he was living at 67 Bean Street, Hull at the time, so it is probably that she wrote first. Or did he write from South Georgia?

What ever the reason, a copy of this letter can go a long way to showing that Vincent wasn't wholly bad, just a shame that when he does do something nice, it is not elaborated on...

Script of the Speech I read to the 16th Annual Shackleton Autumn School.
29th October 2016;

I have to confess, I was really nervous, coming here today and speaking to you all. Indeed, I was really nervous of joining the polar community at all.
As a great-granddaughter of John Vincent, bos’un of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition, I was a little apprehensive about how I would be received.
Vilified for being a bully, and apparently not pulling his weight, the history books have never spoken kindly of my Ancestor.

 The denial of a polar medal, which still causes controversy today has only served to compound the accusations against him.

I confess that until recently that’s all I could have said about him myself.  Having grown up with the story, I was sort of proud that my great-grandfather was a bit of a trouble maker, who made his own rules, and was defiant in the face of authority.

However, I recently started wondering what kind of man he was, and what kind of life he had, and doing this research led to me joining the polar community, and I thank you all for the warm welcome I received. 

 It’s not easy to dispute the history books, but the more I found out about John Vincent from talking to family members, and accessing historical records; I realised what a fascinating life he led, and how misleading some of the books are.

 I don’t have time for much detail today, but I’d just like to highlight a few aspects of his character that have never been appreciated before, and perhaps encourage people to think about him again.

The most important thing about him is that he was, first and foremost, a family man. Born in 1884 in Birmingham, he moved to Hull, and in 1910 married; Alice May Parker. They had several children together, Jack (born in 1910), Cath (1912), Jean (1917) and Walter (1920). You’ll notice that two of the children, John and Cath were born before the expedition sailed in 1914.

 I wonder how many people knew he was a husband and father first.

Obviously the story of Endurance has been well documented, and sadly, though working hard, Vincent didn’t cope as well as he should have on the trip. When he did return home, he went straight back to sea. We believe he was working on an armed trawler escort when his ship was torpedoed- sparking another miraculous survival!

In 1923, his wife Alice was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Their fifth child, Richard was born in October. Alice died just 2 weeks later, she was 34 years old and left behind 5 young children. Sadly, two months later, baby Richard also passed away; probably from the same disease that had claimed his mother. Within the space of a few short weeks. John Vincent’s entire life had been turned upside down.

Though he did find happiness again. With Janet, my great-grandmother.

And another five children appeared; Daisy, Roy, Echan, William and Dawn.
Roy is my grandfather, and was born in 1925, but sadly is no longer with us.

 However, my great- Aunt Dawn, John Vincent’s youngest daughter, is currently still living in America.  
Both of them have recorded fond memories of growing up with their father, and you can only imagine how hurtful some comments are to them.
 
While very happy, the family were never well-off, and it was of utmost importance to Vincent that they were well provided for.  In the 1930’s, A Grimsby trawler, by the name of ‘Girl Pat’ had been taken on an unauthorised round-the-world trip, Vincent offered to skipper a mission to retrieve the vessel- as long as the shipping company provided for his wife and family while he was away.

But I would like to point out, how hard working he was.
Out of many tales, two clear incidents, both of which echo the same story, stand out the most about just how hard he was willing to push himself.  

The first, is the Voyage of the James Caird. In 1916- 800 miles in a tiny boat to raise the alarm, Vincent was chosen as one of the crew to accompany Shackleton.

There are those who say that when making the decision on the crew, Vincent was chosen purely because he was a trouble maker. Well, personally, I believe that Shackleton deserves more credit than that. He was not a man to needlessly endanger his men, and if he didn’t believe Vincent couldn’t help him get there, then he wouldn’t have been taken.

Vincent was a skilled sailor, Shackleton needed a strong crew to make the mission a success. While Vincent broke down, both physically and mentally on the journey, I believe he was probably suffering hyperthermia, and was pushing himself hard to not let the rest of the crew down.

Within the space of about week he goes from being described as the fittest member of crew, to one near death. I think that he pushed himself so hard that it nearly killed him.  

The reason for this belief is a second incident which occurred in 1941- during World War 2, while captain of the minesweeping trawler HMT ‘Alfriedian’. He was taken ill with pneumonia while on-board the ship. Still managing to bring the ship into harbour, he was rushed to the local Navy hospital.
Reports stated that had refused rest, insisting on being at the ship’s wheel when he docked. According to the crew he was almost on his knees when he landed ship safely in Grimsby harbour.
Sadly, this time he had pushed himself too far, and passed away a few days later as a result, leaving the family devastated.
Both incidents show how incredibly hard working he was, to the point where it almost -and eventually did- contribute to his death.

I have many more stories about him, but Sadly, I am running out of time…

So I would like to finish with this;

I think that it’s sad that people are willing to believe some of the history books that make him out to be a just bully.

Because, my family knew him as a different man,  
 A man who believed that everyone should do their fair share.
 A Captain who risked his life during the Grimsby air-raids running to the harbour to ensure the crew of his ship was safe.
 A loving husband and father, who worked hard to provide for his family.
 Perhaps it was even the thought of never seeing them again is what contributed to his break-down on the James Caird.

Vincent spoke highly of Shackleton- both before and after the Endurance expedition. Rumours that he never mentioned it again are untrue.  Sadly he was never commended for his role, which is something that I believe should be put right, and I would dearly love to see him recognised for his efforts.   

Without him pushing himself as hard as he did, some members of Endurance descendants may not be here right now.  I certainly would not be standing here talking to you because without him, the future of our family would have been very different.

The people you read in history books were real people, with many dimensions and that perspective needs to be added into the equation.  Sometimes, their story needs to be told.

Family

After so many years of only really having extended family on my mum's side, its nice to finally have found some on my dad's, all thanks to my research, and trying to find out the family history.

John Vincent had a total of 10 children and step-children. Amazing! 5 children with his first wife, (one of whom sadly died as a newborn) and 5 with his second wife, and of course, his children in turn grew up and had their own children (and grand-children, and Great-grandchildren!), and so I have an army of cousins who I'd not known before!

So here are some of our family...



  First picture is Me, my dad and my great aunt, who is the youngest and only child of John Vincent still living. We are by the James Caird boat- the actual boat that sailed that 800 miles from Elephant Isle to South Georgia (currently in Dulwich College!)Aunt Dawn was in England for a holiday from her home in the US.

Next picture is me and my cousin Helen. we met purely by chance at Westminster Abbey, for the 100th anniversary service of the landing on South Georgia. We ended up sitting right next to each other and got talking, discovered we were related to the same crew member! Amazing co-incidence, I think someone was watching over us that day!





Finally, myself and my cousin Tracy, who I chat to a lot (and I bet she's reading this because she's the only person who knows about this blog!) We got in touch via our great Aunt and have a fair bit in common, mainly that we are both researching John Vincent. Here we are with John Vincent's cup and boots from the Endurance expedition. They are currently in the archives of Hull Maritime museum, and not normally on display but they were kind enough to bring them out for us to view.


How lucky I am to have such wonderful people around me, and that we've met in such symbolic places. Hopefully I will be able to discover more of us Vincent clan, as time goes on!

A Grave problem.

John William Vincent died in 1941.

He was 57 when he died, just a week before his 58th Birthday.

His grave in Grimsby and his death certificate both say that he was 61.


As a result, every biography written about him states he was born in 1879. 

He was born in 1884.

This is where my problems began.

Why did I start this?!

Well. It was my daughter's fault really,
Or rather the fault of the UK curriculum.

In 2015 my daughter was going into year 4 at school. On the first day she bought home a piece of paper outlining what they would be learning about for the year, and one of the first topics- Shackleton and Polar exploration.

Brilliant!

It has always been well known in the family of our connection to John Vincent, and his role in the Endurance Expedition, but I didn't really know much about him.

At that time, the extent of my knowledge was from the books that said he was a bully, that he had been demoted twice as bos'un, and that he had been denied the polar medal by Shackleton, a blow which still causes arguments today.

A Controversial figure indeed!

I wanted my girl to go into school, and be able to tell everyone all about her great-great-grandfather.

And so, I started researching him more, and realized how misleading some of the comments are.

This blog has become a kind of diary to track my research into him.

Endurance Story

Ernest Shackleton

As mentioned earlier, John Vincent was Bosun of Shackleton's Endurance, so I thought I should do a brief overview of the story; though you are best off reading a book about the story (Some in the bibliography below) as I'm not the best person to tell it, but here goes! 

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton decided to once again try to reach the South Pole. The Pole had already been conquered three years earlier in 1911, by Norwegian man Roald Admunsen. Shackleton's goal this time was not to simply reach the pole, but to cross the Antarctic continent. The title of the mission:

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition!

Endurance Trapped

 The ship chosen for the expedition, the SY Endurance, and Vincent was to be the Bos'un for the journey.

The 27 strong crew left Plymouth in August 1914, heading for Buenos Aires. From there, they headed to Grytvicken whaling station in South Georgia.  Finally Endurance departed South Georgia in December 1914 after a month-long delay.

From there, the mission ran into difficulties. Engulfed in pack ice on the Weddell Sea, Endurance was forced to halt several times and change course. Finally on the 14th February 1915 Endurance became wedged in the pack ice.

The crew were ordered to use pick axes and saws to try and free the ship, but to no avail. Eventually they gave up and decided to make the ship into a 'winter base' hoping that the ice would eventually break up, and free the ship. Sadly this also meant that the ship now drifted with the pack ice, further North and away from their goal.

Shackleton tried to keep those spirits up during those long, dark months, and encouraged exercise such as moonlit walks. Celebrations for Empire day and mid-winters day were observed.
Finally on the 27th of October, and now punctured in several places and listing severely, the order was given to abandon the ship. All of the supplies, and three of the lifeboats were all transferred onto the ice, and over the next few days most of the supplies were salvaged from the dying Endurance.

On the 21st November 1915 the crew watched with horror as Endurance slipped under the ice.

Endurance Sinking

What the ice gets, the ice keeps.

With the loss of their ship, Shackleton decided their next mission was to return home. But with no ship and no means of contacting the outside world, this would not be an easy task. Shackleton decided to aim for Snow Hill Island, or Paulet Island to be seen and picked up by a ship. This proved to be an impossable task, hauling supplies in the three lifeboats over the ice. The largest of the oats weighed two tons when fully loaded, the crew managed to travel just seven and a half miles in seven days.



The crew set up camp on an ice floe, though as the ice began to break-up, on the 8th April 1916, they were forced into the three lifeboats.

A hellish open boat journey of seven days now followed, many of the crew became ill and suffered from frostbite. John Vincent was actually regarded as one of the crew who fared best on the journey to the island, being regarded as the strongest man on the crew.
On the 14th April they landed on Elephant Island, but conditions were not brilliant, the crew had to move camps to avoid the high tide, and the island was simply an exposed rocky beach, providing little shelter.

After a few days rest, and noticing the deterioration condition of his crew, Shackleton decided his next course of action, to take a small crew, in the largest, strongest boat and get help from South Georgia, 800 nautical miles away.

The boat, named the James Caird was chosen and the crew were, Shackleton himself, Captain Frank Worsley, Officer Tom Crean, Carpenter Harry McNish, Able-Seaman Timothy McCarthy, and Bosun John Vincent.

Launching the James Caird

The James Caird was launched on the 24th April 1916. The journey took a miserable 16 days, the sea they were crossing was, and still is, one of the roughest in the world. Supplies and morale was low, and the water turned brackish, giving the crew a dreadful thirst.
Just as the crew got within sight of South Georgia, a dreadful hurricane started, taking the boat back out to sea.

With waves the tips of waves high enough to be mistaken for clouds, the boat party assumed they had reached the end of their lives, but by some miracle they were finally able to land the boat in King Haakon bay, South Georgia. The wrong side of the island as the whaling station was on the other side, but the crew were on dry land at last.

Discussions were made as to whether to launch the Caird again to reach the other side, but due to the terrible state of Vincent and McNish, Shackleton decided to leave them sheltering under the James Caird, with McCarthy to look after them, while he and Worsley and Crean set off to the other side of the island, over a mountain never before climbed.

It took them 36 hours to reach the Whaling station again, where they had left nearly 2 years before. When they arrived, the manager of the station broke down and wept, at the state of Shackleton, who was unrecognizable. 

A boat was immediately deployed to rescue McNish, McCarthy and Vincent from the other side of the island, and after some food, baths and decent sleeping accommodation the condition of the men started to improve. The three of them were sent home at the end of June, landing in Liverpool on the 1st August 1916.

But the other men still stranded on Elephant Island were in for a longer wait. Shackleton started making plans for their rescue as soon as he reached South Georgia, but putting those plans into practice proved almost impossible. Three times the rescue ship was forced to turn back, and each time Shackleton grew more impatient for news of his marooned crew.

Finally, on the 30th of August 1916, the steam tug Yelcho managed to reach the stranded men. The ice cleared just long enough to pick them up.
All 22 men who had been marooned were safe.

Although the mission itself was considered a failure due to the fact Shackleton never reached the South Pole, the story is now considered one of the greatest feats of survival ever.
____

There is much more to the story than this, as I will detail later on, but here is some further reading in the mean time....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition
http://tomcreandiscovery.com/?page_id=200

South- Ernest Shackleton
Shackleton's Boat Journey- Frank Worsley
Shackleton-Micheal Smith
South with Endurance-Frank Hurley

First Post!

August 2016.

I've decided to start a blog, in order to being documenting my research about my great-grandfather John William Vincent...

In August 2015, I decided to start a bit of family history research. John William Vincent was certainly one of the more colourful 'characters' within my family tree. I have always grown up with the story of how he was the Bos'un of Shackleton's ship SY Endurance, which famously got stuck in the Antarctic Ice. The story always was the same, Vincent was denied the polar medal due to having disagreements with Shackleton with many of the other crew members.

An easy task, I thought, to start documenting a slightly famous historical person, I naively thought there would be LOADS of information.....

How wrong I was.

To make matters worse, what little information I did come across was inaccurate, or inconsistent.

So, I made it my mission to try and rectify that, and find the truth about the man behind my surname.

After months of research that has involved leading me on wild goose chases, undoing crossed wires and often feeling like I am wading through mud, I finally can say I am closest ever to finding the true history of  John Vincent.

I'm just sad that I didn't start this blog a year ago when I began my mission.

But, anyway, here is my first blog post, and I hope to keep updating as I find things out, I doubt anyone will read it, but I'll enjoy a little rant every so often! Enjoy!