Perce Blackborow

Perce Blackborow wasborn  in 1896.

Blackborow and William Bakewell sailed aboard the Golden Gate, which was wrecked on the shore of Montevideo.

The friends travelled to Buenos Aires looking for new employment. Bakewell was taken on as an Able Seaman by Endurance. Blackborow however was not hired, and fearing that Endurance was shorthanded, William Bakewell and Walter How helped Blackborow to sneak aboard and hid him in a locker. On the third day at sea he was discovered. Unable to stand, he had to remain seated in a chair when he met Ernest Shackleton for the first time.

Apparently in a fit of genuine rage, Shackleton subjected the stowaway to a most severe and terrifying tirade in front of the entire crew. Blackborow proved an asset to the ship as a steward and was eventually signed on.

The crew of Endurance's entrapment and crushing relocated to Elephant Island.  On April 14 the rescue party set sail in the James Caird for South Georgia,hoping to return in weeks. The rest of the crew resigned themselves to waiting. Blackborow had contracted gangrene and was Macklin's greatest medical concern. On June 15 with Shackleton and the James Caird crew away for more than a month,