Ernest Wild
Henry Ernest Wild ( * 1879, † March 10, 1918 ), known as Ernest Wild, was a British sailor of the Royal Navy and Antarctic explorer. Unlike his more famous older brother Frank who went to Antarctica five times, Ernest Wild made only one expedition, namely the Endurance expedition from 1914 to 1917 as a member of the supporting Ross Sea Party. In recognition of his devotion to duty on this expedition, he was posthumously awarded the Albert Medal for Lifesaving.
Early life
Ernest Wild was one of eight brothers, one of which Frank was the oldest. The family came from Skelton, located near Marton, the birthplace of James Cook, with which the family was allegedly used because Wilds mother Mary nee Cook was. Ernest Frank followed in 1894 in the Navy and remained twenty years in the service, prior to signing on at the Ross Sea Party. While he served in the Mediterranean, in 1908 he took part in rescue operations that followed an earthquake in Messina, Sicily.
Ross Sea Party, 1914-1917
Wild went on the Aurora and under the command of Captain Aeneas Mackintosh to Antarctica. Among the expedition members was also Ernest Joyce, an old comrade of Frank Wild, and the only member of the team with real experience with sled. The group's mandate was to create on the Ross Ice Shelf depots to support the planned crossing of the continent of the main group Shackleton of the Weddell Sea from. After he had taken part in an ill-prepared first depot system drive, game suffered severe frostbite, which resulted in the amputation of part of a toe and the tip of one ear. On May 6, 1915, the Aurora, on which is still the majority of the equipment and supplies of the group were, during a storm driven out of the sea and could not return was. Wild and Ernest Joyce appeared on inventive, when it came to fabricate out of Scott's Terra Nova expedition abandoned goods clothing and equipment as well as to collect enough food to take the main drive to the depot system from 1915 /16 attack. On this ride wild worked with Mackintosh and Arnold Spencer -Smith, the chaplain and photographer of the group. Ernest Joyce, Richard W. Richards and Victor Hayward were the other team. Spencer -Smith soon collapsed and had to be pulled by sled, Mackintosh was weak and could not tackle and the whole group, including game, was attacked by scurvy. Somehow they managed to battered men to fulfill their obligations in the depot system, and fought in schrecklichstem weather back to their base; Wild used Spencer - Smith, who was helpless and eventually died before they reached the safety of an interim storage at Hut Point. Here the weak Mackintosh and Hayward rebounded, but died later than they risked to go early on the pack ice. Wild and the other survivors were rescued in January 1917.
Later life
1917 Wild returned back to the Navy, where he first served on HMS Pembroke and later moved to the HMS Biarritz. He died on 10 March 1918 Navy Hospital in Malta, after he had contracted typhoid fever. In 1923, he was posthumously awarded the Albert Medal for his efforts to save the lives of Mackintosh and Spencer - Smith. He published no diaries or other records of his Antarctic experiences.