An evocative, nuanced narrative describing the famous and
ill-fated 1912 South Pole expediton, lead by Robert
Falcon
Scott. The story begins with an account of Scott's
first
expedition of 1902, sponsored by Britain's Royal
Geographical Society. He sailed to the Antartic in The
Discovery, with a crew of 47 men- including the future
explorer, Ernest Shackleton- and spent two winters
accumulating scientific and geographical data before
returning to Britain with the two ships that had been
sent
to re-supply and escort The Discovery on hemeward
journey.
The success of this expedition, and the public
enthusiasm
it generated, gave Scott the credibility to propose a
second mission, aimed at conquering the South Pole in
the
name of Great Britain. The organization and fund-
raising
involved proved daunting and Scott was also pre-
occupied
with the courting of a free-spirited sculptor named
Kathleen Bruce, who he married in 1908. For a brief
period
it seemed that Shackleton, who set out on his own
expedition in 1907, might reach the pole first but
although
Shackleton's mission was very successful from a
scientific
standpoint, his team turned back ninety-seven miles
from
the pole.
Scott overcame all obstacles and set sail on his second
voyage to the Antarctic, on the Terra Nova, on June
1st,
1910. The route was via South Africa and Australia,
with
additional fund-raising being carried out at both
locations. News, received during the sea journey, that
the
Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, was also launching
an
assault on the South Pole, turned Scott's expedition
into a
unwelcome race. After a more difficult jouney than that
of
Discovery, during which Terra Nova was stuck in pack
ice
for twenty days, she finally landed at Mc Murdo Sound
in
early January.
That winter, three men from the expedition team, set
out on
a grueling sled journey to study the previously
unobserved
egg-hatching practices of the arctic penquin. The
journey,
which took them 60 miles from the base camp, and
required
the men to endure temperatures as low as -77.5 degrees
Farenheit, is decribed in The Worst Journey in the
World,
written by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (one of the three).
The assault on the South Pole was launched on November
1,
1991, with Scott leading a main party of nine men. Two
motorized sledges, ten Manchurian ponies and thirty-two
Siberian sled dogs were also part of the expedition.
The
journey was beset by difficulty almost from the start.
The
two motorized sledges broke down within the first fifty
miles, the ponies proved difficult to manage and the
weather was extreme producing excruciating sledding
conditions.
On January 16th, the party's morale was seriously
compromised by the discovery of black flag indicating
that
Amundsen was ahead. Scott and his party reached the
pole
the following day, their satisfaction muted by
confirmation
that the Norwegian had been there first.
As difficult as the outward journey had been, the
return
proved much harder still. One of the men, Edgar Evans,
died
of cold and exertion. Despite brief periods of respite,
the
weather deteriorated further. A second man, Captain
Oates,
whose advanced frostbite was slowing the team, appears
to
have committed suicide by leaving the shelter of the
tent.
Scott, and his two remaining companions, Henry Bowers
and
Edward Wilson, suffering from exhaustion and
malnourishment, became trapped by a blizzard eleven
miles
from a one of the supply depots stocked with food and
fuel,
established on the outward journey, and died lying
abreast
in their tent. The trio were discovered by a search
party
from their base camp, eight months later, along with a
log
of the land expedition and numerous rs, giving a
detailed account of thier trials.
Although Soott and his men were acclaimed as heroes
back in
Britain, controversy arose over questions of Scott's
competence and judgement. Comparisons were also made
with
Amundsen's effient and successful venture which
employed a
more direct route and relied heavily on sled dogs.
Despite
Soctt's undeniable place amoung Britain's national
heroes,
those contoversies, and differences of opinion, have
never
been definitively resolved.