Charles John Green

Cook Endurance 1914-17 Cook Quest - Ernest Shackleton 1921 - 1922 The Endurance ExpeditionGreen was the expedition cook, with the assistance of Perce Blackborow, he worked in the galley, first aboard ship and on the ice, working the longest days of any on the expedition on a regular basis, from early morning till evening, preparing meals for 28 hungry men.When on the ice, they cooked on a stove that was heated by burning seal or penguin blubber, a very smoky fuel which gave them permanently blackened faces and earned them the nicknames of "Potash and Perlmutter".Green was regarded as disorganized and scatterbrained by the rest of the men, though his conscientiousness in his job more than made up for these. He was sometimes called "Doughballs" due to his high squeaky voice and had earlier lost a testicle in an accident.(I am unable to find out why these names were given. "Potash and Perlmutter" were a series of stories written by Montague Glass, a glove salesman in the early 1900's about a pair of Jewish tailors, they became a series of comedies, initially stage plays and then from the mid 1920's films by MGM - any insights appreciated. My guess is that the names for given for their characteristics, rather than appearance)
"Potash and Perlmutter" | Endurance
PersonnelSummaryBakewell, William
Able SeamanBlackborow, Percy
Steward (stowaway)Cheetham, Alfred
Third OfficerClark, Robert S.
BiologistCrean, Thomas
Second OfficerGreen, Charles J.
CookGreenstreet, Lionel
First OfficerHolness, Ernest
FiremanHow, Walter E.
Able SeamanHudson, Hubert T.
NavigatorHurley, James F. (Frank)
Official PhotographerHussey, Leonard D. A.
MeteorologistJames, Reginald W.
PhysicistKerr, A. J.
Second EngineerMacklin, Dr. Alexander H.
SurgeonMarston, George E.
Official ArtistMcCarthy, Timothy
Able SeamanMcIlroy, Dr. James A.
SurgeonMcLeod, Thomas
Able SeamanMcNish, Henry
CarpenterOrde-Lees, Thomas
Motor Expert and StorekeeperRickinson, Lewis
First EngineerShackleton, Ernest H.
Expedition LeaderStephenson, William
FiremanVincent, John
Able SeamanWild, Frank
Second in CommandWordie, James M.
GeologistWorsley, Frank
Captain | | BiographyGreen first went to sea at the age of 21 as a cook in the Merchant Navy, he was the son of a master baker.His return from the expedition in November 1916 provided something of a shock, his parents had presumed him dead, not having heard anything in two years and had cashed in his life insurances. Maybe less surprising, the young lady he had been courting had now married someone else.He enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Cook early in 1917, serving on the Destroyer H.M.S. Wakeful. In November 1918, he was married to Ethel May Johnson of Hull, in the same month he was given the Bronze Polar Medal for his services on the Endurance expedition.In 1919 he resumed his job as a merchant navy cook on various ships around the world.

Shackleton requested in early 1921 that Green join him on what would become the Quest expedition to Antarctica, though this was cut short by the unexpected death of Shackleton from a heart attack in a South Georgia harbour.Back in England it was back to being a cook in the merchant navy. Green now had a set of glass lantern-slides from the Endurance