A campaign for the awarding of a posthumous Polar Medal to the carpenter and shipwright who saved the failed Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-16 is gathering strength.
Henry McNish -- who later settled in New Zealand -- helped save the lives of 28 men, but Ernest Shackleton branded him a troublemaker and refused to recommend him for a Polar Medal, an accolade given to most of the explorers.
Bill Wilson, a Scottish National Party MP, has been lobbying for the medal to go to McNish, who is buried in Wellington at Karori Cemetery.
The campaign has the backing of the McNish family who believe their forebear's role has been deliberately overlooked, Britain's Independent newspaper reported.
It described Shackleton's decision not to recommend McNish for a Polar Medal as "the greatest snub in the golden age of exploration".
The omission of McNish -- known as "Chippy" -- "has rankled with polar enthusiasts and, say some, has blemished the reputation of Shackleton himself", the newspaper reported.
Mr Wilson conceded personal differences between the Glasgow-born seaman and his leader did him no favours.
"Chippy was not known for his diplomatic skills, but that's no reason not to acknowledge his contribution," he said. "It is a shame that this brave man never received this honour."
A dispute with Shackleton over his decision to kill the carpenter's cat, a male tabby called "Mrs Chippy" exacerbated the relationship between the men.
In his 1998 book Shackleton's Captain, about New Zealander Frank Worsley, Wellington author John Thomson said Shackleton threatened at one point to shoot McNish.
The standoff took place when McNish argued the sailors no longer had to take orders, after the Endurance was crushed and sank on November 21, 1915.
McNish had questioned Shackleton's order to drag lifeboats across pack ice.
Though Shackleton gave up two days later on dragging the boats, "he paid (McNish) back when he had the opportunity," wrote Thomson.
But it was McNish's skill and ingenuity that made it possible for the men to set sail for Elephant Island in the three small boats, after 16 months trapped on the ice.
And eight days after their arrival, one of the vessels he re-constructed, the six-metre James Caird, sailed for South Georgia island, 1000km away, carrying six men seeking help.
One was McNish, who had devised his own mixture of flour, oil paint and seal blood to caulk the seams of the boats, raised the gunwales to make them safer in the high seas and fitted small decks fore and aft to the Caird.
And when Shackleton and two others set off for the final 36-hour climb over South Georgia's mountain ranges, he made ice crampons out of the boat's 5cm brass screws -- enabling all the expedition to be rescued about six weeks later.
McNish settled in New Zealand in 1925, where he had worked on the Wellington waterfront until he was injured.
Poverty-stricken, he eventually went into a charity resthome, and shortly before his death in 1930, a visiting Antarctic historian said: "He lay there repeating over and over again: `Shackleton killed my cat'."
The New Zealand Government provided him with a naval funeral; his pall bearers were drawn from a Royal Navy ship and the army supplied a gun carriage to carry his coffin.
