Captain scott biography

Shackleton returned from the Antarctic having narrowly failed to reach the Pole, and this gave Scott the impetus to proceed with plans for his second Antarctic expedition. On 24 Marchhe took the Admiralty-based appointment of naval assistant to the Second Sea Lord which placed him conveniently in London. In December, he was released on captain scott biography, to take up the full-time command of the British Antarctic Expeditionto be known as the Terra Nova expedition from its ship, Terra Nova.

It was the expressed hope of the RGS that this expedition captain scott biography be "scientific primarily, with exploration and the Pole as secondary objects" but, unlike the Discovery expedition, neither they nor the Royal Society were in charge this time. In his expedition prospectus, Scott stated that its main objective was "to reach the South Pole, and to secure for the British Empire the honour of this achievement".

Scott had, as Markham observed, been "bitten by the Pole mania". In a memorandum ofScott presented his view that man-hauling to the South Pole was impossible and that motor traction was needed. Snow vehicles did not yet exist however, and so his engineer Reginald Skelton developed the idea of a caterpillar track for snow surfaces. In the middle of Scott realised that motors were unlikely to get him all the way to the Pole, and decided additionally to take horses based on Shackleton's near success in attaining the Pole, using poniesand dogs and skis after consultation with Nansen during trials of the motors in Norway in March Man-hauling would still be needed on the Polar Plateau, on the assumption that motors and animals could not ascend the crevassed Beardmore Glacier.

Dog expert Cecil Meares was going to Siberia to select the dogs, and Scott ordered that, while he was there, he should deal with the purchase of Manchurian ponies. Meares was not an experienced horse-dealer, and the ponies he chose proved mostly of poor quality, and ill-suited to prolonged Antarctic work. Meanwhile, Scott also recruited Bernard Day, from Shackleton's expedition, as his motor expert.

Scott meanwhile was fundraising in Britain and joined the ship later in South Africa. Arriving in Melbourne, Australia in OctoberScott received a captain scott biography from Amundsen stating: "Beg leave to inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic Amundsen," possibly indicating that Scott faced a race to the pole. The expedition suffered a series of early misfortunes which hampered the first season's work and impaired preparations for the main polar march.

On its journey from New Zealand to the Antarctic, Terra Nova nearly sank in a storm and was then trapped in pack ice for 20 days, far longer than other ships had experienced, which meant a late-season arrival and less time for preparatory work before the Antarctic winter. At Cape Evans, Antarctica, one of the motor sledges was lost during its unloading from the ship, breaking through the sea ice and sinking.

Oates is reported as saying to Scott, "Sir, I'm afraid you'll come to regret not taking my advice. On its return to base, the expedition learned of the presence of Amundsen, camped with his crew and a large contingent of dogs in the Bay of Whales, miles km to their east. Scott conceded that his ponies would not be able to start early enough in the season to compete with Amundsen's cold-tolerant dog teams for the pole, and also acknowledged that the Norwegian's base was closer to the pole by 69 miles km.

Wilson was more hopeful, whereas Gran shared Scott's concern. Shortly afterwards, the death toll among the ponies increased to six, three drowning when sea-ice unexpectedly disintegrated, casting in doubt the possibility of reaching the pole at all. However, during the winter Scott's confidence increased; on 2 August, after the return of a three-man party from their winter journey to Cape Crozier, Scott wrote, "I feel sure we are as near perfection as experience can direct".

Scott outlined his plans for the southern journey to the entire shore party, leaving open who would form the final polar team, according to their performance during the polar travel. Eleven days before Scott's teams set off towards the pole, Scott gave the dog driver Meares the following written orders at Cape Evans dated 20 October to secure Scott's speedy return from the pole using dogs:.

About the first week of February I should like you to start your third journey to the South, the object being to hasten the return of the third Southern unit [the polar party] and give it a chance to catch the ship. The date of your departure must depend on news received from returning units, the extent of the depot of dog food you have been able to leave at One Ton Camp, the state of the dogs, etc It looks at present as though you should aim at meeting the returning party about March 1 in Latitude 82 or The march south began on 1 Novembera caravan of mixed transport groups motors, dogs, horseswith loaded sledges, travelling at different rates, all designed to support a final group of four men who would make a dash for the Pole.

The southbound party steadily reduced in size as successive support teams turned back. Scott reminded the returning Surgeon-Lieutenant Atkinson of the order "to take the two dog-teams south in the event of Meares having to return home, as seemed likely". Scott announced his decision: five men—himself, Wilson, Bowers, Oates and E. The chosen group marched on, reaching the Pole on 17 January, only to find a tent left in place by Amundsen, in it containing a letter dated 18 December.

Scott's anguish is indicated in his diary: "The worst has happened All the day dreams must go Great God! This is an awful place". The deflated party began the mile km return journey on 19 January. The party made good progress despite poor weather, and had completed the Polar Plateau stage of their journey, approximately miles kmby 7 February.

In the following days, as the party made the mile km descent of the Beardmore Glacier, the physical condition of Edgar Evans, which Scott had noted with concern as early as 23 January, declined sharply. A fall on 4 February had left Evans "dull and incapable," and on 17 February, after another fall, he died near the glacier foot.

With miles km still to travel across the Ross Ice Shelf, Scott's party's prospects steadily worsened as, with deteriorating weather, a puzzling lack of fuel in the depots, hunger and exhaustion, they struggled northward. Meanwhile, back at Cape Evans, the Terra Nova arrived at the beginning of February, and Atkinson decided to unload the supplies from the ship with his own men rather than set out south with the dogs to meet Scott as ordered.

When Atkinson finally did leave south for the planned rendezvous with Scott, he encountered the scurvy-ridden Edward "Teddy" Evans who needed urgent medical attention. Atkinson therefore tried to send the experienced navigator Wright south to meet Scott, but chief meteorologist Simpson declared he needed Wright for scientific work.

Atkinson then decided to send the short-sighted Cherry-Garrard on 25 February, who was not able to navigate, only as far as One Ton depot which is within sight of Mount Erebuseffectively cancelling Scott's orders for meeting him at latitude 82 or It is a critical position. We may find ourselves in safety at the next depot, but there is a horrid element of doubt.

In a farewell letter to Sir Edgar Speyer, dated 16 March, Scott wondered whether he had overshot the meeting point and fought the growing suspicion that he had in fact been abandoned by the dog teams: "We very nearly came through, and it's a pity to have missed it, but lately I have felt that we have overshot our mark. No-one is to blame and I hope no attempt will be made to suggest that we had lacked support.

Scott wrote that Oates' last words were "I am just going outside and may be some time". After walking 20 miles 32 km farther despite Scott's toes now becoming frostbitten, the three remaining men made their final camp on 19 March, approximately The progress was slow from the outset, and this was only exacerbated when on the 4th December a blizzard struck just as the team were approaching the end of the Ross Ice Shelf.

The blizzard held the men in their tents for five days, eating into their rations and further weakening the horses that were tied up outside. After the blizzard had subsided, the horses were killed for meat and the team continued on. By the 23rd December the original expedition team of 15 had been whittled down to just 8, as the rest had been sent back to base with orders to bring dogs to meet up with Scott and his team on their return journey from the Pole.

Unfortunately these orders were either forgotten or overlooked, as the dogs never arrived. Although the group were weakening, they continued onwards and finally sighted the South Pole on the 16th January. When they finally reached the flag on the 17th January they had found that Amundsen had arrived over a month earlier, must to the distress of the group.

As Scott famously wrote:. The group left the pole a day afterwards to begin their mile journey back to Cape Evans.

Captain scott biography

The first half of the journey was relatively smooth, and the team covered the Antarctic Plateau in relatively good time. However, as soon as the team hit the Beardmore Glacier their luck changed. The team were suffering from severe malnutrition, exhaustion and frost bite. Edgar Evans was to succumb to the elements first, and finally collapsed and died on the 17th February whilst descending from the Beardmore Glacier.

The rest of the team continued onwards, but once fully on the Ross Ice Shelf the weather turned. Over the next few days and weeks, some of the worst weather ever recorded in the area battered Scott and his group. By the 15th March, the second team member, Lawrence Oates, decided he could not carry on and tried to persuade Scott to leave him in his sleeping bag and for the rest of the team to carry on.

Scott refused and they continued on. That night the team set up camp, but in the morning the team noticed Oates awake and preparing to go outside. He had decided to sacrifice himself for the sake of the group, as rations were running perilously low. Scott describes this event in his diary:. The last diary entry by Robert Scott was made on the 29th March, only 11 miles south of a depot that held well needed supplies.

He wrote:. Scott died shortly afterwards, along with Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers. Their frozen bodies were found on the 12th November by a search party from Cape Evans. The bodies were buried under the tent, with a cairn of ice and snow to mark the spot. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled.

While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets CSS if you are able to do so. Scott took poniesmotorised sleds and ordinary sleds, which he and his men pulled. He thought that the number of animals overworked and killed should be held as low as possible and considered his rival Roald Amundsen's approach as cruel.

He did not feel bad about it. The ponies helped travelling part of the way to the pole, but some of them were so stubborn that the expedition members, especially Lawrence Oateslost captain scott biography energy that was needed to get back from the pole. The motorised sleds which worked well at the start eventually froze up. The dogs, of which there 36, were left behind on the final attempt on the Pole.

One factor which has been re-discovered is that Scott gave the dog driver Meares written orders before leaving for the final attempt on the pole. The order was for dogs to be brought up towards the returning party. Contents move to sidebar hide. Page Talk. Read Change Change source View history.