Captain Robert Falcon Scott
Born on 6th June 1868 in
Devonport , Robert Falcon Scott became a Naval Cadet at the age thirteen and
during the 1880’s and 1890’s he served on a number of Royal Navy ships.
He was appointed to command the
National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. The expedition - which included
Ernest Shackleton - reached further south than anyone before them and Scott
returned to Britain a national hero. He had caught the exploring bug and began to
plan an expedition to be the first to reach the South Pole and he spent years
raising funds for the trip.
In June 1910 the whaling ship Terra
Nova left Cardiff with the expedition setting off from base in October1910,
with mechanical sledges, ponies and dogs. It quickly became apparent that sledges
and ponies were unable to cope with the conditions and the expedition carried
on without them and by the middle of December the dog teams turned back,
leaving the rest to face the ascent of the Beardmore Glacier and the polar
plateau.
By January of 1912, only Scott,
Wilson, Oates, Bowers and Evans remained. On 17 January, they reached the pole,
only to discover Roald Amundsen and a Norwegian party had beaten them to it.
They began the long return journey, some 1500 km journey back. By then the men
were shattered, Evans died in mid-February. By March, Oates was suffering from
severe frostbite and it is widely suggested that knowing that he was slowing
down his companions, he uttered the famous words that "I am just going outside and may be
some time". ... and walked out into the freezing conditions never to be
seen again. The
remaining three men died of starvation and exposure in their tent on 29 March
1912, their camp and bodies were discovered in November of the same year.
Ironically the trio were in fact only
20 km from a pre-arranged supply depot. Eight months later, a search party
found the tent, the bodies and Scott's diary. Only this month a moving farewell letter
written by polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott in the last few days of
his life was sold at auction for £163,250 , it was amongst the items found with
his camp and the bodies of Scott , Bowers and Wilson ( to read an article on
the auctioned items click on this link http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16199892 ).
We have a number of books relating to
Captain Scott , his expedition and the race for the Antarctic including:-
SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC
For this biography of Scott, author Reginald
Pound has drawn on wholly fresh material. He has researched important
collections and archives in New Zealand and London and has been granted access
to the private papers and letters of Scott's family
EDWARD WILSON OF THE ANTARCTIC
This is the biography of a member of
Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole who, even in the company of
heroic men, stood out because of his quiet courage and stalwart faith.
SOUTH WITH SCOTT
The book tells the story of the 1910
British Antarctic Expedition
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