 Blackborow and his friend, William Lincoln Bakewell, travelled to Buenos Aires looking for new employment.There, Bakewell was taken on as an able seaman by Shackleton's ship "Endurance", which was en route to the Antarctic, but Blackborow was not hired; at age 18, his youth and inexperience counted against him.Fearing that "Endurance" was shorthanded, Bakewell and Walter How helped Blackborow sneak aboard, and hid him in a locker amongst piles of clothing.