He was "loaned" from the Royal Navy to command HMNZS Endeavour (1956) on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
He was with the rescue party which found Lincoln Ellsworth and Herbert Hollick-Kenyon when they crashed on a flight in Antarctica.
Under the leadership of Edmund Hillary, Kirkwood landed the New Zealand section of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition along with the material needed to construct Scott Base.
[3] There were arguments between Captain Kirkwood and the crew, including Sir Edmund Hillary, on the crossing to Ross Island.
[5] The nickname seems to stem from an altercation with the crew on the voyage out from England, when most of the sledging ration boxes were badly damaged by seawater from the hold.