wake up folks, new Irish Antarctic Explorers stamps dropped
clockwise from top left:
(1820) Edward Bransfield, Ballinacurra, County Cork
Tom Crean, Annascaul, County Kerry
Ernest Shackleton, Kilkea, County Kildare
Robert Forde, Bandon, County Cork
Patrick Keohane, Courtmacsherry, County Cork
Tim and Mortimer McCarthy, Kinsale, County Cork
(Terra Nova Expedition 1910-1913)
Tom Crean, Robert Forde, Patrick Keohane & Mortimer McCarthy
(Ross Expedition 1839-1843) Francis Crozier, Banbridge, County Down
Robert Forde was yet another seaman from the south coast of Ireland. His father was on the staff of a local estate, which may have contributed to his reputation for being handy, helpful, and eager to please. Forde signed up for the Navy at 16 and served with Keohane on a ship stationed in Vancouver, then met Teddy Evans on the HMS Talbot and thereby got selected for the expedition.
Forde was one of the men who helped the ship's carpenter put together the hut at Cape Evans. He led a pony on the Depot Journey and assisted the 1911-12 Western Geological Party, but what he's most famous for (much to his chagrin, I'm sure) is his bad case of frostbite in the Antarctic spring of 1911. Before any of the main parties started for the Pole, Lt. Evans led a group of men out to Corner Camp to dig out and re-mark the depot, making it more visible and accessible after a winter's drifted snow. At least, this was the stated intent – Cherry theorized Teddy's underlying motivation was to prove he was just as hard as the Winter Journey trio. Indeed they did encounter punishingly cold conditions, and somehow in the endeavour Forde got his right hand frostbitten. It was severe enough that, when they got back to base, Atch was afraid he'd have to amputate a couple of fingers – the terminal phalanges had gone gangrenous – but in the end he managed to save them, though the hand was still impaired on the following summer's geological trip.
Silas described him as “very good natured”, even more so than Crean, “but given to complaining about cold feet and hands. Looks after Evans like a child.”
It's interesting, as I go through designing the shore party, to note how often physical features correlate with susceptibility to frostbite: the greater the surface area to volume ratio (Taff's nose, Forde's hands, nearly all of Nelson), the more readily body heat is lost. Some conjecture was put towards some hidden quality that determines vulnerability to cold, but it seems simple anatomical observation might be all you need in most cases.
When the ship came to relieve the shore party in February 1912, Forde was invalided home and replaced by Williamson (who was a very good diarist, but I won't be drawing him for a few years yet). As so many others, he served in WWI, then retired from the Navy in 1920; through this and later life he wore a glove to protect and/or hide his frostbitten hand. After leaving the Navy, Forde took up lodgings at his sister's boarding house back in Cork, where he picked up the bottle and dropped out of the historical record until he died, only a couple months before Cherry, in 1959.
(That's the wrong hand, in that drawing, but it read better on the page that way – the mistake will be avoided in the book!)
Sources:
Great Endeavour: Ireland's Antarctic Explorers by Michael Smith, via J.B. Williams, who I must thank heartily for sharing notes on the lower deck guys and saving me a lot of heavy lifting.
Silas, Wright's diaries and memoir, compiled and edited by Pat Wright and Colin Bull
British Antarctic Expedition, miscellaneous papers, volume 1 (Atkinson)
