Harry McNish

Henry McNish , often referred to as Harry McNeish or by the nickname Chippy, was the carpenter on Sir Ernest Shackletons Imperial TransAntarctic Expedition of 19141917. He was responsible for much of the work that ensured the crews survival after their ship, the Endurance, was destroyed when it became trapped in pack ice in the Weddell Sea. He modified the small boat, James Caird, that allowed Shackleton and five men to make a voyage of hundreds of miles to fetch help for the rest of the crew.

Harry Chippy McNish was born in 1874 in the former Lyons Lane near the present site of the library in Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He was part of a large family, being the third of eleven children born to John and Mary Jane McNish. His father was a journeyman shoemaker. McNish held strong socialist views, was a member of the United Free Church of Scotland and detested bad language. He married three times in 1895 to Jessie Smith, who died in February 1898 in 1898 to Ellen Timothy, who died in December 1904 and finally to Lizzie Littlejohn in 1907.

Source: Wikipedia