Shakleton’s “Worst Job”
After the Endurance foundered in the Antarctic waters, supplies were running low. Conditions were getting worse, and the crew worried about their food supplies. They were starting to starve. So were the dogs. As beloved as they were to the men, Shackleton decided to shoot the dogs, the puppies born on the expedition, and carpenter McNish’s tomcat, curiously named Mrs. Chippy, rather than let them starve to death.
Shackleton would write in his memoir, “…it was the worst job that we had through the Expedition, and we felt their loss keenly.” This is a significant admission in an age of stoicism and formal writing, this was an emotional missive from a tough Antarctic explorer. McNish never forgave Shackleton for shooting his cat. When McNish died in 1930 in New Zealand, The New Zealand Antarctic Society installed a statue of Mrs. Chippy at the foot of his grave.
