Thomas Orde-Lees' Role
Role as Storekeeper
Orde-Lees took on a variety of official and unofficial roles on the expedition. Officially, he was well known for his role as storekeeper, and after the Endurance became stuck in the ice, Lees gradually assumed the position of meticulously tracking and managing the food supply (and, perhaps surprisingly, even cooking!). Lees defied what was no easy feat: supplying adequate food to a frustrated, hungry crew. It cannot be dismissed the importance of this work to the survival of the remaining crew aboard the ship and on Elephant Island. Given that the crew could not have a reasonable estimate as to when they may be rescued, carefully planning the distribution and rationing of food was critical for managing what was a foggy future.
Orde-Lees Diary - Supply of Food
This list of the supply of food for the crew shows how careful and precise Orde-Lees was in tracking food rations and ensuring there was enough for the crew's survival.
To the right is one of Lees’ diary entries in March 1915. The most prominent feature of this page is a list of the food the crew ate for several consecutive days during the month of February. This item allows the viewer to gain a sense of Lee’s daily work after the Endurance became trapped in the ice. Much of the food supply, as can be observed, came in the form of seal meat. This is curious given that, soon after the entrapment of Endurance, he wrote in his diary in January 1915, “we had relied on penguins and seals to eke out our larder and there are none”. It seems as if the supply of seals must have recovered within the short period of time following the quote.
Interestingly, the rations depicted are split up by total supply and not by individual, so there remains the question of how exactly this division may have occurred. Did everyone get the same amount of food, or was it determined by ranking on the ship, for example? On the other hand, could meals have just been “family-style” and not specifically regulated? Regardless of which way it occurred, the fact that Lees maintained his role as storekeeper indicates that he was well-trusted to ration the food fairly and accurately.
Orde-Lees' "Quirky" Personality and Relationship With Shackleton
Perhaps the most impactful contribution of Lees to the expedition occurred well after the party reached safety – that being the thorough depiction of the crew’s journey through Lee’s diary. This account of the expedition stands as one of the most in-depth records among all Arctic voyages. This important legacy of Lees makes it quite easy to visualize his quite “quirky” personality he showcased throughout the expedition. Lees did what likely nobody, perhaps even modern-day Tour de France athletes, would do, which is bringing his bicycle aboard the Endurance and frequently taking it out onto the ice. On one journey where Lees was searching for food out on the ice on Elephant Island, he came face to face with an aggressive leopard seal. This encounter was detailed in Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing in the following quote:
"The beast looked like a small dinosaur, with a long, serpentine neck. After a half-dozen leaps, the sea leopard had almost caught up with Orde-Lees when it unaccountably wheeled and plunged again into the water. By then, Orde-Lees had nearly reached the opposite side of the floe; he was about to cross to safe ice when the sea leopard’s head exploded out of the water directly ahead of him."
Alfred Lansing
Lees’ shrills were heard all the way at camp, and Frank Wild was forced to come to the rescue, shooting the seal at a distance of merely 30 feet from Lees.
His quirky behavior was deemed at the least strange by his fellow crewmates and at the most disruptive. On one of Lees’ biking expeditions, he was away from the ship for two hours, stirring fear among the crew and leading Shackleton to declare a search party to seek out Lees. Lees’ encounter with the leopard seal ended up being the final straw that led Shackleton to claim that he must not leave the camp alone. While this likely put an end to much of the eccentric behavior Lees engaged in, he still owns the legacy of his nickname, “Old Lady”, which was discreetly given to him by Shackleton during the voyage and captures the negative perspectives many of his crewmates held toward him.
It is clear, and quite interesting, to see the tense dynamic between Shackleton and Orde-Lees. Their growing friction is highlighted by the Orde-Lees’ quote:
"I had more experience on ski than any of my colleagues. Believe it or not, Shackleton himself was quite incapable on ski."
Thomas Orde-Lees
I think it’s quite likely this quote, particularly the second sentence, was a subtle dig at Shackleton not for his skiing abilities in particular, but in regards to their overall relationship as the expedition progressed.
The troubled relationship between Shackleton and Lees may have contributed to a sort of disconnect in the spread of information among these individuals. One of the most eye-opening examples revolves around discussions about the consumption of the expedition’s own crew mates. It was already mentioned that “[the crewmembers] voted if they ever had to eat one another that it would have been Orde-Lees first.” However, as an ironic twist, Lees wrote in his diary that, “We shall have to eat the one who dies first [...] there's many a true word said in jest.” While the topic of cannibalism seemed to have surely come up in his presence, what no crewmate dared to mention to Lees was that he would be the first victim. Luckily, no cannibalism was resorted to on this expedition, but this example serves as a fascinating portrayal of the differences in knowledge and experience among actors on this expedition despite being physically and situationally in proximity.
Works Cited
admin. “On This Day – August 30th 1916.” Tom Crean, 30 Aug. 2015, https://tomcreandiscovery.com/day-august-30th-1916/.
Behrendt, John C. “Elephant Island and Beyond: The Diaries of Thomas Orde Lees: By John Thomson Bath, Somerset, U.K.: Bluntisham Books, The Erskine Press, The Bath Press, 2003. 339 Pp. £24.95. ISBN 1852970766.” Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, vol. 36, no. 4, Nov. 2004, pp. 636–636. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1657/1523-0430(2004)036[0636:BR]2.0.CO;2.
Endres, Patrick. “Leopard Seal Stories.” AlaskaPhotoGraphics, 31 Jan. 2014, https://www.alaskaphotographics.com/blog/2014/01/31/leopard-seal/.
NOVA Online | Shackleton’s Voyage of Endurance | Interview with Alexandra Shackleton (2) | PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/1914/alexandra2.html. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.
Thomas Orde-Lees Diary (Original), 1915 - 1916 | Dartmouth Libraries Archives & Manuscripts. https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/19349. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.
“Thomas Orde-Lees.” Wikipedia, 17 Nov. 2024. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Orde-Lees&oldid=1258048283.