Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition

A polar-exploration book with a definite twist, this tells the story of the Endurance expedition through the eyes of its smallest "shipmate" Mrs Chippy, Carpenter Harry McNeish's (male) cat. The book is brilliantly framed with a (fake) introduction from an eminent Cat biographer Lord Mouser-Hunt, singing the praises of Mrs Chippy as the premier "explorer's explorer" (in a way that offers a surprisingly astute satire on "biographer's-bias") and the text is presented as a series of entries from Mrs Chippy's diary, with footnotes of commentary and additional quotations from the (actual) diaries of other expedition members. It's a lovely little book. Caroline Alexander is clearly a cat lover and she really brings Mrs Chippy to life, both in show more his behaviour - demonstrating "how mice work" to his friend the stowaway turned steward, Blackborow - and in his descriptions of the polar landscape: "the sky mouse-grey, the sea like frozen milk."

The narrative covers the year Endurance spent trapped in the ice so there's a lot of waiting around, and when he's not tormenting the dogs, Mrs Chippy spends a good deal of his time sleeping, sorry "supervising the stores room" and "testing the bunks." But aside from the cuteness of the gimmick - Chippy is written genuinely believing himself a crew member with important supervisory duties on an equal, or even superior, footing to the human explorers - the cat's perspective creates a very egalitarian lens through which to view this quite rigorously hierarchical expedition. In Chippy's eyes lower-class characters like Blackborow and the cook, who are often overlooked in more canonical expedition narratives, really come to take centre stage and the book paints a vivid picture of everyday life below decks. show less

The conceit of this novel is that it is the recovered journal of Mrs. Chippy the (male) ship cat of the Shackleton expedition. At times it verges on excessives cutesyness, and times dull (after all being honest to its source there was a lot of sleeping going on by the narrator). But since I like both cats and the Shackleton expedition I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Especially since the cat saw himself as a vital part of the expedition and a full member of the crew. Interactions with the crew are given a distinctive cat's-eye view, and Mrs. Chippy describes his important watches (ie - resting in the sun on deck) and duties. The end of the book is heartbreaking. I actually had no knowledge of Mrs. Chippy's ultimate fate, and the book show more does not make it explicit, but the last pages before the journal abruptly ends have Mrs. Chippy describing the extra kindness of the crew giving him extra fish and thanking him for coming on board. I found out online that Shackleton ordered that Mrs. Chippy and all the sled dogs be shot before they began their journey over the ice. The ship's carpenter Chippy McNish didn't like that and never forgave Shackleton. After reading this book, it's hard for me to forgive Shackleton. show less

Absolutely fabulous tongue in cheek look at history, telling the story of Shakleton's ill-fated 'Endurance' expedition from the perspective of the ship's cat. I've always been fascinated by the story of Shakleton's feat of endurance, no pun intended, and even bought a facsimile of Mrs. Chippy years ago when my partner and I were on our first holiday away together, and finding and reading this book not only taught us a lot, but brought back memories of those halcyon days.

Highly recommended.

From amazon.com:

"The carpenter has a very fine cat who is known as "Mrs. Chippie"...
-- from the diary of Commander F. A. Worsley, captain of Shackleton's Endurance

When Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance became trapped in the Antarctic ice, all show more twenty-nine members of the crew were pushed to their limits of survival, including Mrs. Chippy, the ship's estimable cat. Fortunately for posterity, Mrs. Chippy left a diary of the ordeal.

Closely based on the true events of Shackleton's heroic journey, and illustrated with authentic photographs taken by Frank Hurley, expedition photographer, Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition is a firsthand account of one of the greatest adventures in history--from a unique point of view.

From Kirkus Reviews
A shaggy-cat tale, in which Alexander (The Way to Xanadu, 1994, etc.) gives us the feline perspective on travel and exploration in turn-of-the-century Antarctica. Mrs. Chippy is a cat--a tomcat, actually, but a very elegant one whose grace and manners and devotion to his master (Harry ``Chippy'' McNeish) inspired the joke that they are as good as married. Chippy McNeish is ship's carpenter aboard the Endurance, which set sail from London on August 1, 1914, on a voyage to the South Pole that was led by Sir Ernest Shackleton and the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Mrs. Chippy has her role to play, of course, and it is no small one: hunting mice, keeping watch on deck, and looking after the general well-being of her master and his crewmates. He tells his story through the pages of his journal, which record the daily rituals of weather, naps, navigation, and meals. Once they find themselves stranded in a sea of ice, however, the expedition is forced to encamp for the duration, hoping that their rations will hold out until the thaws--which, as it turned out, were nearly a year in coming. Mrs. Chippy keeps a more level head than most of his crewmates during this long confinement, and he may actually have been their salvation insofar as he injected a familiar note of domesticity and routine into the hardships of their situation (``I myself am very disciplined by nature and have set myself a strict winter regime: Wake at 2:00 p.m.; stretch, wash, take breakfast by the galley stove, greet shipmates, etc.''). By the end, when the ice floes break and the Weddell Sea is open once more, Mrs. Chippy is more popular than ever. Too cute for comfort: after about 20 pages of this, even cat- lovers may find themselves feeling pretty seasick. (12 b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"Now, I can't vouch for the authenticity of this newly found document, but I can say that Alexander has done a fine job...allowing the cat's (and her own) sense of humor to have full run." -- New York Times Book Review

About The Author
Caroline Alexander was born in Florida, of British parents and has lived in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. She studied philosophy and theology at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and has a doctorate in classics from Columbia University. She is the author of the best-selling The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition which has been translated into thirteen languages. She writes frequently for The New Yorker and National Geographic, and she is the author of four other books, including Mrs Chippy's Last Expedition, the journal of the Endurance's ship's cat." show less

An absolute must for any cat lover. My only deduction is for the very abrupt ending that seemed like the author got the required page number and just quit!

The tale of Mrs. Chippy, a male tabby on Shackleton's last voyage. The story was told from the point of view of the cat. Meh....176 pages barely 3 stars

Shackleton's Antarctica expedition from a cat's point of view.
A cute book, but the ending leaves it unclear exactly what happened to him (yes, him!) at the end.

I loved this book. A fun read from the cat's purrspective. But what a sad ending.