The scientific team, made up of some of the most distinguished men in their fields, included representatives from the United States, Denmark, Norway and France, as well as from Britain and its Empire. Only two, however, had previous polar experience: Alistair Forbes Mackay, the expedition's medical officer, had visited Antarctica with Sir Ernest Shackleton's "Nimrod" expedition in 1907–09, and had been one of the party of three to discover the location of the South Magnetic Pole. Another "Nimrod" veteran, the 46-year-old James Murray, was Stefansson's oceanographer. Among the younger scientists were William Laird McKinlay (1889–1983), a 24-year-old science teacher from Glasgow who was recommended by the Scottish explorer William Speirs Bruce, and Bjarne Mamen (1893–1914), a 20-year-old skiing champion from Christiania, Norway, who was taken on as a forester, despite lacking scientific experience.