At the time, trawling was one of the most dangerous of trades, which bred tough men, and Vincent was no exception, in addition, He was a keen amateur boxer and wrestler.

Vincent was originally taken on as the bosun, but after a row with Thomas Orde-Lees and complaints of bullying from members of the fo'c'sle crew, he was called to Shackleton's cabin and demoted to Able Seaman.

Although Vincent was the strongest man in the crew, he fared badly during the voyage to South Georgia: he was almost washed overboard, when chipping ice that had accumulated on the Caird, only just grabbing the main mast in time.

While the rest of the crew busied themselves with preparations for the trip over the mountains which they had to make to reach the whaling station at Husvik, Vincent showed no signs of improvement.

McNish recorded in his diary: While the skipper does the Nimrod & bring home the food Vincent lays down by the fire & smokes some times coming out for more wood while the Boss & Crean looks after the cooking & McCarthy is my assistant.It was clear that neither McNish nor Vincent could continue, so Shackleton left them in the care of Timothy McCarthy and set out on the trip over the mountains with Frank Worsley and Tom Crean.