Lionel Greenstreet (20 March 1889 – 13 January 1979) was the first officer of the Endurance and a member of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal. When he died on 13 January 1979, he was the last survivor of the Weddell Sea party within the expedition. Biography Greenstreet was born into a family of officers in the merchant navy of the British Empire; his father Herbert Edward Greenstreet had been granted captain's papers by the New Zealand Shipping Company. At age 15, Greenstreet became a sea cadet, never returning to school. He gained his Master's certificate in 1911. As a young ship's officer, he wrote to the Captain of the Endurance, Frank Worsley in 1914, asking to be considered for a berth. His request arrived just as the ship's named First Officer had thrown up his papers to accept service in World War I, which had just broken out. Greenstreet was told to report to the Endurance in Plymouth Sound for an interview; and upon arrival, after brief inspection by Worsley he was abruptly told that the position of First Officer was his and that he had twenty-four hours to prepare for the departure of the vessel to the Southern Ocean. The fledgling ship's officer recalled that after considerable effort he had settled his affairs and reported aboard the ship, which then sailed 30 minutes after his arrival. The expedition's overall commander was the explorer Ernest Shackleton, and the goal of the Endurance was Vahsel Bay on the coast of Antarctica, from which Shackleton and the shore party hoped to cross the icy continent by dogsled; but on 18 January 1915, a few miles short of this destination, the ship was beset by ice and frozen into heavy pack from which she would not emerge. Greenstreet's duties changed with the new status of his ship; he kept deck watches in an attempt to find a lead of open water through which the ship could extricate itself, and joined a crew assigned to work below-decks in a futile attempt to stop the leaks that the ice was beginning to punch through the ship's hull. Despite the work of Greenstreet and his seamen and fellow ship's officers, Shackleton was forced to issue the order to abandon ship on 27 October. The expedition's 28 members and ship's company had to camp together as castaways on