- Alfred Cheetham
Infobox Person
name= Alfred Cheetham
image_size=300
birth_date= birth date|1867|5|6|df=y
birth_place=Liverpool ,England
dead=dead
death_date= death date and age|1918|8|22|1867|5|6|df=y
death_place=North Sea
occupation=Seaman ,Explorer
spouse= Eliza SawyerAlfred Cheetham (
6 May 1867 -22 August 1918 ) was a member of severalAntarctic expeditions. He served asthird officer for both the Nimrod and Imperial Trans-Antarctic expeditions. He died at sea when his ship wastorpedo ed duringWorld War I .Early life
Alfred Buchanan Cheetham was born in
Liverpool ,England to John and Annie Elizabeth Cheetham. His family moved to Hull sometime during his youth (possibly around 1877), and he went to sea as a teenager, working on the fishing fleets of theNorth Sea and farther afield. He married Eliza Sawyer and they had 13 children together. Cheetham worked from his base in Hull as a merchant navy boatswain and a reservist for theRoyal Navy .Antarctic career
During the
Discovery Expedition of 1901-1904 Cheetham made his first visit to the Antarctic when served on the relief ship "Morning". He returned with theTerra Nova Expedition ,Robert Falcon Scott 's ill-fated attempt to be the first to reach theSouth Pole . He served as boatswain aboard the "Terra Nova" and although he volunteered for the search party that was to look for Scott's party he was turned down as he was a family man.He travelled to the Antarctic again, this time under the command of
Ernest Shackleton , on theNimrod Expedition where he wasthird officer and boatswain. By the time of theImperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914, the 47-year-old Cheetham was the crew member with most experience of the Antarctic, having spent almost six years in the seas around the continentHe was Third Officer on board the "Endurance" and was a popular and cheerful member of the crew.
Frank Worsley refers to him as "a pirate to his fingertips". After "Endurance" was crushed in pack ice and the men set up forElephant Island in the three lifeboats, he was part of Worsley's crew in the "Dudley Docker". Worsley mentions that matches had become such precious currency that Cheetham bought a single match from him for the price of a bottle of champagne, to be paid when Cheetham opened hispub in Hull after the war. Cheetham's death in 1918 meant the debt was never paid.For his efforts during the expedition Cheetham was awarded the SilverPolar Medal (Clasp Only).After the "Endurance" expedition
Cheetham returned to Hull after the expedition where he learnt that one of his sons, William Alfred had been lost at sea while Cheetham had been travelling back from Antarctica. His son, who was 16-years-old, was presumed drowned while serving on the "
S.S. Adriatic ". Cheetham enlisted in the Mercantile Marine and was serving asSecond Officer on the "S.S. Prunelle (London) ". On22 August 1918 , he was killed when the ship was torpedoed in the North Sea by a GermanU-boat .References
*cite web|url=http://www.visitandlearn.co.uk/factfiles06/obit4.asp|title=Endurance Obituries: Alfred Buchanan Cheetham|date=2005|author=|publisher=HMS Endurance Tracking Project|accessdate=16 January|accessyear=2007
*cite web|url=http://www.south-pole.com/p000098b.htm|title=Antarctic Explorers: Ernest Shackleton|date=|author=|publisher=South Pole.com|accessdate=16 January|accessyear=2007
*cite web|url=http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/biography/cheetham_alfred.htm
title=Alfred B. Cheetham|date=2001|author=Paul Ward|publisher=Cool Antarctica|accessdate=16 January|accessyear=2007
*cite book|title=South|author=Sir Ernest Shackleton|origdate=1919|date=1999|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Great Britain|id=ISBN 0-14-028886-4|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5199Persondata
NAME= Cheetham, Alfred Buchanan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Alf
SHORT DESCRIPTION=BritishSeaman
DATE OF BIRTH=6 May 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH=Liverpool ,England
DATE OF DEATH=22 August 1918
PLACE OF DEATH=North Sea
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