Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott was born in 1868 and served as a naval officer after joining the navy at the age of thirteen. At the request of Sir Clements Markham, the former polar explorer and then President of the Royal Geographical Society, Scott commanded the National Antarctic Expedition in Discovery which began in 1901 and during which a new furthest south point was achieved. Scott and Dr Edward Wilson reached 82°17' S on December 31, 1902. Ernest Shackleton did not reach this ‘furthest south’, having been ordered to stay behind with the dogs at 82°15 ' S.
Albert Armitage, Scott's navigator and second-in-command on the trip, whose account claims there was animosity between Scott and Shackleton may have said this because he felt slighted by Scott who had begun to call on Shackleton’s navigational expertise. It is true that Shackleton was sent home early but this may have been only because he was ill, as Scott claimed, rather than because of a strained relationship between the two. What is certain is that Scott and Shackleton both went on to organise and lead subsequent expeditions, which led to competition for experienced personnel and financial support.
It took nearly eight years for Scott to mount a second expedition because of low public interest and financial difficulties in his own family. His ship, Terra Nova, left London on June 1 1910, sailing via Cardiff, which it left on June 15. Scott sailed with the ship only as far as Rotherhithe and then returned to London to continue raising money for the expedition. He found out en route that Roald Amundsen, who had said he was outfitting an expedition heading to the North Pole was instead heading South. It has been suggested that Amundsen did not mean to deceive Scott, but rather Nansen, the man who had lent him the unique ship Fram but specifically for an Arctic, rather than Antarctic journey. In the public mind there was now a 'race to the Pole'.
Scott's expedition had a very large scientific component, including equipment and had a programme of extensive geological and zoological study for the funders. Partly for this reason, and also because his ship Terra Nova did not have the strength of the Fram to withstand the ice further south, he elected to set up his base camp on Ross Island, some 100 km north of Amundsen's who had landed and set up base on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf hundreds of miles from the nearest land.
After a year, a five man party set out. On arriving at the South Pole, Scott found that Amundsen had been there a month earlier.
Scott’s team began to slow down as injury, frostbite, malnutrition and exhaustion took their tool and bad weather further reduced their pace. They were carrying rock samples that Scott refused to leave behind which added to their exhaustion. The first to die was Evans, who was injured in a fall and suffered a swift mental and physical breakdown. Oates, afflicted by frostbite, had lost the use of one foot. One morning he left the tent, stepping out into the blizzard with the memorable words ‘I am just going outside and may be some time’. It was his 32nd birthday. His body was never found.
The tent containing the bodies of the remaining three members of the South Pole party were found six months later. Their final camp was only eleven miles from the One Ton supply depot. Their journals, and their sled still loaded with rock samples, were returned to base. Scott's journal contained the final lines, 'Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman'. Ending with, 'We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. For God's sake, look after our people. R. Scott'.
After the diaries and the rock samples had been retrieved, the tent was collapsed over the bodies. The rescuers knew that the burial site was part of the Ross Ice Shelf, moving north towards the open sea and that ultimately they were committing the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers for burial at sea – a suitable ending for a naval commander.
Other Great Explorers
tenzing, Vancouver, Almagro, Alvarado, Balboa, burton, clark, drake, eriksson, grant, heyerdahl, hillary, humboldt, ingstad, james cook, livingstone, magellan, Piccard, Raleigh, Scott, Shackleton