Ernest Joyce
Ernest Joyce (right) with two Ross Sea party
comrades
Ernest Edward Mills Joyce (c. 1875 – 2
May 1940) was a Royal Naval seaman and ex-
plorer who participated in three Antarctic ex-
peditions during the early 20th century. He
came from a humble seafaring background
and began his naval career as a boy seaman
in 1891. Ten years later he joined Captain
Scott’s Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, as an
Able Seaman. Here he made a favourable im-
pression on Ernest Shackleton, who was
serving as one of Discovery’s junior officers.
In 1907 Shackleton recruited Joyce to take
charge of dogs and sledges on the Nimrod
Expedition, 1907–09. After acquitting himself
well in this role, Joyce was engaged in a sim-
ilar capacity for Douglas Mawson’s Aus-
tralasian Antarctic Expedition in 1911, but
left the expedition, for reasons which are un-
clear, before it departed from Tasmania.
In 1914 Shackleton invited Joyce to join
the
Imperial
Trans-Antarctic Expedition,
1914–17, as a member of the supporting Ross
Sea party, again in charge of dogs and
sledging work. After a series of misfortunes
overtook the Ross Sea party during 1915–16,
Joyce emerged as its de facto leader, and was
later awarded the Albert Medal for saving the
lives of three of his comrades. However, this
expedition marked the end of Joyce’s associ-
ation with the Antarctic, and of his exploring
career, despite his repeated attempts to join
other expeditions.
During his career, Joyce attracted adverse
as well as positive comments. His effective-
ness in the field was widely acknowledged:
"Good old Joyce", wrote Frank Wild of his
comrade’s crucial depot at Minna Bluff, dur-
ing the Nimrod Expedition.[1] To many he
was a "jolly good sort";[2] Dick Richards of
the Ross Sea party described him as "a kindly
soul and a good pal".[3] By contrast Eric Mar-
shall of the Nimrod Expedition found him "of
limited intelligence, resentful and incompat-
ible",[4] while John King Davis, when refusing
to join the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedi-
tion, told Shackleton: "I abso