Ice Captain: The Life of J.R. Stenhouse

Not long after Shackleton watched his ship Endurance become trapped in the ice floes of the Weddell Sea, on the other side of Antarctica the expedition’s second ship, Aurora, suffered an equally terrifying fate. Stenhouse, the Aurora was torn from her moorings and driven out to sea, becoming trapped in pack ice.

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Much has been written on Antarctic explorer, Ernest Shackleton. This is the story of the Endurance expedition's other hero, Joseph Russell Stenhouse (1887-1941) who, as Captain of the SS Aurora, freed the ship from pack ice and rescued the survivors of the Ross Sea shore party, deeds for which he was awarded the Polar Medal and the OBE. He was also recruited for special operations in the Arctic during the First World War, became involved in the Allied intervention in Revolutionary Russia, and was later appointed to command Captain Scott's Discovery. Stenhouse was one of the last men to qualify as a sea captain during the age of sail.