James Paton (seaman)

James "Scotty" Paton (1869–1917 or 18) was a Scots-born seaman who sailed to the Antarctic with three major expeditions between 1907 and 1917. His first venture was Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition of 1907–09, when he was a crew member during each of "Nimrod's" two southern voyages. From 1910 to 1913 he was a seaman aboard Captain Scott's "Terra Nova" during her three voyages between New Zealand and Cape Evans, in support of Scott's ill-fated expedition. In 1914 he joined the Ross Sea party section of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition as boatswain on the "Aurora". He was aboard ship on 7 May 1915 when "Aurora" was torn from her Cape Evans moorings, drifting in the pack for nine months before limping back to New Zealand. Paton's last Antarctic voyage was with "Aurora" on the mission to relieve the stranded Ross Sea party in January 1917. After "Aurora"'s return to New Zealand she was sold, and became a coal carrier. Paton signed on as her boatswain, and was aboard when she left Newcastle, New South Wales in June 1917, bound for South America. Her fate is uncertain, but in late 1917 or early 1918 she was lost, either in a storm or through the action of an enemy raider. Paton was lost with her.

Paton's seven Antarctic voyages (two in "Nimrod", three in "Terra Nova" and two in "Aurora") are commemorated by Paton Peak, convert|2531|ft|m, on Beaufort Island in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, at coord|76|56|S|166|56|E.

ources

*Tyler-Lewis, Kelly: "The Lost Men" Bloomsbury Publshing, London 2006 ISBN 978 0 7475 7972 4
*Riffenburgh, Beau: "Nimrod" Bloomsbury Publications, London 2004 ISBN 0 7475 7253 4