![]() Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.’ Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected. Though not the triumph they had envisioned, their mission was complete. Amundsen had beaten them by a month.Ĭrestfallen, Scott and his companions reached the South Pole the next day, and discovered the camp that Amundsen had left behind the day after that. On January 16, amid the endless expanse of white nothingness around them, they spotted something - a black flag fluttering from a sledge runner. Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates, Henry Bowers and Edgar Evans. The dogs were sent back to base, and on January 3, 1912, Scott selected the four men who would join him in the polar party: Chief Scientist Dr. Without them, Scott had to adjust his plan and make the dogs push on. ![]() The sledges broke down after about 50 miles. The group with the motor sledges set out on October 24, 1911. Members of the party would turn back at specific latitudes, leaving a final group of five to reach the pole. An initial party of 16 men would set out across the Great Ice Barrier, carrying supplies with motor sledges, ponies and dogs. When spring finally came, Scott laid out his plan to reach the South Pole. They got three eggs out of the ordeal.Īble seaman Mortimer McCarthy at the wheel of the Terra Nova. Edward Wilson led several men on an outing to retrieve Emperor penguin eggs from a rookery 60 miles away, during which they endured near-hurricane force winds and temperatures as low as -77 degrees Fahrenheit. In the middle of winter, Chief Scientist Dr. Scott continued his calculations and planning for the journey to the pole. The 25 men of the shore party hunkered down in the hut with the beginning of the Antarctic winter in April 1911, passing the time with lectures, scientific studies and the occasional soccer match. Meanwhile, parties of geologists explored the surrounding areas, surveying uncharted regions and collecting samples and specimens. Only two of the eight ponies on the depot-laying mission made it back. The ponies, who had performed much worse than expected, began weakening and dying. The party was held up by fierce blizzards. The mission encountered complications almost immediately. Though dismayed by this development, Scott decided to proceed as planned and begin laying supply depots farther and farther into the interior of the continent in preparation for the push to the pole. The two parties exchanged pleasantries, and Campbell hastened back to camp to inform Scott that his rival had arrived. On the way back to camp, they stumbled upon a surprise - Roald Amundsen’s expedition had arrived and was camped in the Bay of Whales. Conditions were extremely harsh, with temperatures plummeting as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees F).įirst Officer Victor Campbell took six men and sailed the Terra Nova east, hoping to carry out scientific work in King Edward VII Land. In early January 1911, Scott’s men arrived in Antarctica. Men and sled dogs on the Terra Nova, bound for Antarctica. Norwegian Captain Amundsen had an extra incentive, having previously narrowly missed being the first man to set foot on the North Pole. Japan, Norway, Germany, Sweden, France and Belgium were all making attempts at that time. The attempt to reach the most remote spot on earth was in itself brave and ambitious, but international rivalries added to the pressure. Because of the name of the ship, Scott’s mission has been historically referred to as the Terra Nova Expedition. The expedition would use the Terra Nova supply ship to guide them on the initial portion of the journey. Scott’s second in command was Admiral Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans.Įvans was the recipient of numerous honors and decorations for his Antarctic efforts, military service and lifesaving, and in 1913, received the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. The expedition was made up of seamen and scientists, as well as paying guests, who could take up various duties. Scott’s previous Discovery expedition had seen him return as a hero for having reached the furthest south, and he had similar ambitions to reach the Pole first, perhaps at any cost. An Adélie penguin wanders across the pack ice in the Ross Dependency.
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