The James Caird

“The sledge [was] a great success and its solid construction does the carpenter credit, horrid old man that he is. Now he is raising the gunwale of the James Caird some 10in by the extraordinary expedient of fixing its existing gunwale the upper part of the gunwale of the now derelict motor boat. He certainly is a brilliant workman.”

— Thomas Orde-Lees

“Her planking was Baltic pine, keel & timbers American elm & stem & sternpost English oak.”

— Frank Worsley

McNeish put chafing battens on the James Caird’s bow: “…to keep the young ice from cutting through as she is built of white pine which wont last long in ice.”

— Chippy McNeish

“In lieu of the usual caulking materials—oakum and pitch—McNeish had filled the seams with lamp wick and sealed them over with Marston’s oil paints. The nails he used had been extracted from salvaged timber of the Endurance.”

— Caroline Alexander