Antarctic Explorers: Robert F. Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
1868-1912
Robert
Falcon Scott was born at Outlands on June 6, 1868, to John and Hannah
Scott. Robert's father, John Edward Scott, was the youngest of eight
children. Of John's four older brothers, one died young, two went into
the Indian army and one became a naval surgeon. However, poor health
kept John from the family service tradition. Instead, John inherited
a small brewery in Plymouth which his father and uncle had bought for
£4782 out of prize money received during the Napoleonic wars. The
family home was also inherited from his father, Robert. This was a house
called Outlands near Stoke Damerel, just outside Devonport. The property,
a small country estate, was complete with a nice home, a stream at the
bottom of the garden, three large greenhouses, dogs, a peacock on the
lawn and a small staff of maids and gardeners. In 1861 John Scott married
Hannah Cuming, daughter of William Bennett Cuming of Plymouth, a Lloyd's
surveyor, Commissioner of Pilotage, Commissioner for the Catwater Improvement,
and a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Suffice it to say, this family
was a highly respected, very conservative and rather well-to-do Plymouth
family. The sons of such Devon families took to the sea as birds to
the air and one of Hannah's brothers, Harry Cuming, became a Vice-Admiral.
Thus, there was a significant naval tradition on both sides of Robert
Falcon Scott's parentage. "Con", as his parents called him,
was born into a large family; he had two older sisters, Ettie and Rose,
a younger brother, Archie, and a younger sister, Katherine.
Throughout
Con's childhood, daydreaming was a habit he worked hard to overcome
as everyone, including himself, considered it a flaw. Other weaknesses,
equally shameful in this era, were his uneasiness with the sight of
blood and of suffering in animals. Although he tried hard to conceal
it, he never really overcame these perceived problems.
As
a boy, he was "shy and diffident, small and weakly for his age, lethargic,
backward, and above all, dreamy" as one of his biographers wrote. On
the other hand, he had a happy childhood as the first five children were
born within a nine year period providing plenty of playmates. Although subject
to occasional fits of temper, Con's father, John, was considered an easygoing
father with plenty of patience.
Con's mother, Hannah,
was loved and worshipped by all the Scott children; to Con she was always
"the dear Mother". Not much is known about Hannah but one thing
is certain: she had strong religious principles and never questioned the
teachings of the Church of England. "My own dearest Mother,"
wrote Con on his departure from New Zealand on his last journey in 1910,
"I quite understand and anticipated your anxiety concerning our spiritual
welfare. I read the Church service every Sunday on our voyage to Melbourne
and I propose to do the same with equal regularity throughout the voyage.
You need not have any anxiety on this point".
Robert F. Scott joined
his first seagoing ship in August, 1883, at the age of thirteen. The ship,
HMS BOADICEA, was the flagship of the Cape Squadron, and
in her he served as midshipman for two years. This was the first time
that young Con had earned money, about £30 a year. Midshipmen were
still students with naval instructors as their teachers. Training was
intense for these young men as Admiral Sir William Jameson wrote that
midshipmen were "up aloft in all sorts of weather and away for long
hours in boats under oars and sail. In spite of rigid barriers, young
officers learnt the lower deck point of view in a way which is often difficult
to achieve in these more democratic days". The young men worked in
the rigging 120 feet above deck. They slept in hammocks, bathrooms were
unknown, instructors were strong and intense in their verbal attacks,
and punishment included beatings and extra drill. As a result, survival
created a man, from a boy, with complete suppression of a young boy's
natural feelings of fright, homesickness and lack of self-confidence.
He had to learn to bear pain without flinching, to obey orders directly,
and disregard any immature tendencies. This treatment could be quite traumatic
for a young boy coming from a comfortable home. Con Scott was considered
an excellent example of a student as he learned the lessons thoroughly
while climbing up the lower branches of the navy. After a brief tour with
the HMS LIBERTY , he served a year on HMS MONARCH,
whose captain rated Con a "promising young officer". At the
end of 1886 he joined HMS ROVER and was rated by her captain
as an "intelligent and capable young officer of temperate habits".
Con was 18 when the Royal Navy's Training Squadron, to which the HMS
ROVER belonged, was cruising in the Caribbean. The midshipmen
of the four participating ships raced their cutters across the bay at
St. Kitts in the West Indies. The race was narrowly won by Con and a few
days later young Con was invited aboard the HMS ACTIVE to
dine with the Commodore, Albert Markham. Present at the dinner was Albert's
cousin and guest, a middle-aged geographer named Clements Markham. Clements
was thoroughly impressed by Con's intelligence, enthusiasm and charm and
later wrote "My final conclusion was that Scott was the destined
man to command the Antarctic expedition". Destiny had arrived for
young Scott.
After nine months
on the HMS ROVER , Scott went on to spend the winter of
1887-8 at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and in March 1888 he was
awarded first-class certificates in pilotage, torpedoes and gunnery, coming
in with the highest marks in his class in his year of seamanship. He was
commissioned as a sub-lieutenant and at the end of 1888, he was instructed
to join the cruiser HMS AMPHION stationed near Vancouver,
Canada. He had to make his own way across North America with the last
stage of his trip being a long journey in a tramp steamer from San Francisco
to Esquimault, BC.
After Scott's tour
of service in the Pacific, he joined HMS CAROLINE briefly
in the Mediterranean. The summer of 1891 was spent on leave with his family
at Outlands. This was undoubtedly the most carefree time of Con's life
as his lieutenant's salary of £182 10s a year provided him with independence
allowing him to pay his own expenses. He played golf with his brothers
and played tennis with his sisters. It was a happy time for the twenty-two
year-old.
In September 1891
Con reported to the torpedo training ship HMS VERNON.
He graduated with first-class certificates in all subjects and was appointed
to HMS VULCAN in the Mediterranean. By the end of 1894,
at the age of twenty-five, Con received tragic news from his mother: the
family was virtually bankrupt. John Scott had sold the brewery on Hoegate
Street a few years before and was now enjoying his life of retirement
while working in his greenhouses. Hannah had assumed that interest income
from the sale of the brewery would allow them a comfortable life and one
can imagine her shock when John revealed the necessity to give up Outlands
as he had drawn on the capital and, although never confirmed, likely made
a poor investment which resulted in the loss of their remaining capital.
In questionable health and 63 years old, John Scott had to look for a
job.
John actually did
find a job, as a manager of a small brewery. Outlands was let go and the
family, except for Con's sister Rose, moved to Holcombe House, near Shepton
Mallet, which they rented for £30 a year. Rose had landed a job at
Nottingham Hospital and it wasn't long before the three remaining sisters
began searching for their own careers. The oldest sister, 32-year-old
Ettie, went on to become an actress. Attractive and single, she joined
a touring company whose leading lady was Irene Vanbrugh. The two younger
sisters, Grace (Monsie) and Kate (or Kitty) chose the more conventional
trade of dressmaking.
The financial disaster
of 1894 was bad enough, but three years later, in October 1897, John Scott
died of heart disease at the age of 66, leaving his family without any
support or life insurance. Hannah had to leave Holcombe House and the
family became, briefly, penniless and homeless. Monsie and Kate had moved
to a room over a shop in Chelsea so it was not long before Hannah moved
in with them. The financial burden of Hannah fell upon her two sons who
were struggling themselves on very meager Service pay. At the time, Archie
was in West Africa. After the financial collapse of his family, he had
himself moved from the Royal Artillery to the post of ADC and private
secretary to the Governor of Lagos, Sir Gilbert Carter. The pay was better
and living expenses were less. A year later he transferred to the Hausa
Force which was engaged in bringing law and order to warring tribes of
the interior of the Oil Rivers Protectorate. After his father's death,
Archie contributed £200 a year to his mother's welfare. This was
nearly as much as Con's entire salary but Con still managed to send £70
a year to his mother. This period was extremely difficult for Con. He
had very little money left to cover his personal expenses and enjoying
a mild weekend of shore leave was out of the question. He had to pinch
every penny as even an occasional glass of wine, game of golf, and so
forth were normally too expensive. To take a young woman to dinner would
have been impossible. He was cut off from his friends as he never had
the funds to share in the same enjoyments as his comrades. Poverty, and
real poverty it was, could only have forced Con to withdraw unto himself.
Years later he wrote to his future wife "Do you remember I warned
you that secretiveness was strongly developed in me? Don't forget that
at forty the reserve of a lifetime is not easily broken. It has been built
up to protect the most sensitive spots". The "sensitive spots"
were his lack of self-confidence, his sense of inferiority, of frustration
and isolation, born from his inability to share life's experience with
his peers due to his lack of money. But, self-pity was not among his faults.
There are no complaints in any recorded document written by Con.
His devotion to family
remained constant throughout his life. Once he learned of the financial
crisis in 1894, he applied for a transfer to HMS DEFIANCE,
stationed at Devonport, so that he could help with the sale of Outlands
and assist his mother and sisters in moving to Somerset. When they were
settled, he applied for another seagoing job and was appointed torpedo
lieutenant in HMS EMPRESS OF INDIA, a battleship in the
Channel Squadron. This appointment lasted less than one year but while
in the Mediterranean, he once again encountered Clements Markham and his
cousin.
In the summer of 1897,
Scott was appointed torpedo lieutenant to the flagship of the Channel
Squadron, HMS MAJESTIC. From this ship came a number of
future expedition members on Scott's first trip to the Antarctic aboard
DISCOVERY: Lieutenant Michael Barne, Engineer-Lieutenant
Reginald Skelton, Warrant Officer J. H. Dellbridge, and two petty officers,
Edgar Evans and David Allan. It was at this time, while serving aboard
the HMS MAJESTIC, that his father died. His oldest sister,
Ettie, had married a promising politician, William Ellison-Macartney,
only a few months before John's death. Con felt good about this as certainly
Ettie would be in a much more stable and secure environment than if she
had remained at Outlands with a looming financial crisis. Ettie's husband
helped Monsie and Kate study the fashion industry in Paris by advancing
them a loan. In addition, he contributed a small sum towards his mother-in-law's
support. Meanwhile, Rose took a bold step that same year by taking a nursing
job in the Gold Coast, then known as the White Man's Grave.
Hannah
Scott
In
the autumn of 1898 Archie came home on leave and Con took him for
a cruise off the Irish coast in the HMS MAJESTIC.
Con was extremely proud of his brother and said Archie was "absolutely
full of life and enjoyment and at the same time so keen on his job.
He deserves to be a success. Commissioner, Consul and Governor is
the future for him I feel". A little over a month later Archie
went to Hythe to play golf, contracted typhoid fever and died within
a week. Hannah was devastated and felt fully responsible for his
death. Hannah felt that Archie served in West Africa solely to earn
extra money which he could send home to his financially strapped
mother and sisters. It was there, in West Africa, that Hannah felt
Archie's health deteriorated. Con wrote to her, "Don't blame
yourself for what happened, dear. Whatever we have cause to bless
ourselves for, comes from you. He died like the true-hearted gentleman
he was, but to you we owe the first lessons and example that made
us gentlemen. This thing is most terrible to us all but is no penalty
for any act of yours". Now the whole financial burden of the
family fell on Con, other than what little his brother-in-law could
afford to give. His brother-in-law was not a rich man and soon they
had children. The first of three, Phoebe, was born in 1898.
Rose, still a nurse
in the Gold Coast, worked hard to save her own money and in 1899
she married Captain Eric Campbell of the Royal Irish Fusiliers,
one of her brother Archie's fellow officers in the Hausa Force.
While serving on the
HMS MAJESTIC, the third meeting between Con and Clements
Markham took place. While home on leave in June, 1899, "chancing
one day to be walking down the Buckingham Palace Road, I espied
Sir Clements Markham and accompanied him to his house. That afternoon
I learned for the first time that there was such a thing as a prospective
Antarctic Expedition; two days later I wrote applying to command
it". Scott wrote, in The Voyage of the Discovery, that
"I may as well confess that I had no predeliction for polar
exploration". His sister Ettie confirmed that "he had
no urge towards snow, ice, or that kind of adventure" but had
grown restless with the navy and "wanted freedom to develop
more widely" as he had "developed great concentration,
and all the years of dreaming were working up to a point".
After sending his application, Con returned to duty aboard HMS
MAJESTIC for the best part of a year.
Sir
Clements Markham
In
1894 Markham had invited the Royal Society to join with the Royal
Geographical Society, of which he was President, to finance the Antarctic
project of his dreams. In hindsight, Markham felt this was a mistake
as he was essentially snubbed by the Royal Society as their members
felt the RGS was beneath them. Markham was then put off by the First
Lord of the Admiralty and worse, by the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury,
who "regretted that he was unable, under existing circumstances,
to hold out any hope of HMG embarking upon an expedition of this magnitude".
Markham fought on by lobbying his friends, addressing meetings and
writing papers, all in vain. He became very concerned as he felt other
nations would rush in ahead of them and claim the riches certainly
awaiting the first continental explorers. Markham was furious. In
1895, a wealthy British publisher, George Newnes, put up the money
for Carsten Borchgrevink's
1898 SOUTHERN CROSS EXPEDITION. Here was a penniless
Norwegian schoolmaster in Australia securing good British money
while Markham, with all his influence, was left with empty hands.
Finally, in 1897, the Council of the Royal Geographical Society pledged
£5000. Markham "kept on writing letters to rich people"
and suddenly Mr. Llewellyn Longstaff, a paint manufacturer living
in Wimbledon, pledged £25,000. This generous gift caught the
attention of the Prince of Wales, who had "declined to connect
himself with the expedition until public feeling was manifest",
and soon others followed. In July, 1899, the Government announced
a grant of £45,000, provided that private sources matched it
with an equal amount. At that time Markham had raised £42,000
in pledges so, with a little arm-twisting, he persuaded the RGS to
contribute the additional £3,000.
A
joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society
was formed to plan the expedition, acquire a ship, and assemble the personnel.
This is when the fireworks started. From the very beginning, the two societies
disagreed over the aim of the expedition. The RS saw it as an opportunity
for extensive scientific research; Markham and the RGS declared it an
opportunity for research and advancement in scientific knowledge concerning
magnetism, meteorology, biology and geology. Actually, the real
aim to Markham was twofold: geographical discovery and opportunities for
young naval officers to win distinction in times of peace. The RS felt
the expedition leader should be a scientist while Markham felt he "must
be a naval officer; he must be in the regular line and not in the surveying
branch, and he must be young. These are essentials". Markham was
soon in for a serious struggle as the scientists joined forces with the
"hydrographic clique" to offer their own choice for leadership.
They didn't have a problem with a naval officer commanding the ship, but
they expected him to simply ferry the scientists to the ice, drop them
off for their year of work, and come back the following year to pick them
up and bring them home. Their choice to fill the position of Director
of the Scientific Staff was John Walter Gregory, an eminent geologist.
Although his scientific ability was unchallenged, Markham felt he was
unsuitable as commander of such an expedition. Actually, he was well qualified
as he had not only been on safari in East Africa's Rift Valley when it
was wild, unmapped and dangerous, he had scaled Alpine peaks and explored
Spitzbergen within the Arctic circle.
The joint
committee began searching for an expedition leader the same month that
Markham invited Scott to apply for that same position. Gregory was appointed
Scientific Director in February 1900, four months before Scott was named
the expedition's naval commander. Markham then sent a request to the First
Lord of the Admiralty for the release of two young officers, one to lead
and the other to be second in command:
The work involved
in the stress of contest with the mighty powers of Nature in the Antarctic
regions calls for the very same qualities as are needed in the stress
of battle. Our application is that a young Commander should be allowed
to take charge of its executive work...Youth is essential in polar service.
No efficient leader of discovery in icy seas has ever been over forty,
the best have been nearer thirty.
Markham offered three
names: Commander John de Robeck, aged thirty-eight, Robert F. Scott, aged
thirty-two and Charles Royds, aged twenty-four. Although Robeck's request
was denied, Scott and Royds were approved for release on April 5, 1900.
The joint committee met on April 18, 1900, and Markham informed the committee
that the Admiralty had released Scott and Royds. Sir William Wharton,
of the joint committee, was extremely angry at Markham for going over
the committee's head and assuming authority for naming leadership. Meanwhile,
the remaining committee members were furious and now Scott's appointment
was questionable. At the next meeting, on May 4, another committee was
appointed to settle the issue, six on Markham's side and six on the side
of the "hydrographic clique" who would "strive to secure
a job for the survey department with obstinate perversity". As luck
would have it, at the next committee meeting on May 24, two of the "hydrographic
clique" representatives stayed away which placed the majority with
Markham. The fight was over as Scott's appointment was confirmed. The
next day the committee unanimously approved Scott as the expedition leader.
In December 1900 Professor Gregory arrived in Great Britain from Australia
to organize his side of the expedition. When he arrived in London he was
shocked to learn of his position on the team since he expected the Antarctic
command had been placed under his direction. He expected to lead the expedition
on the ice while Scott wintered over in Melbourne. According to Markham,
instead of going to work on his scientific program, Gregory set about
conspiring with the hydrographers to have Scott's leadership role overturned.
Try as he might, Gregory was unsuccessful in his bid to capture the command.
In May, 1901, Gregory was sent a telegram with a choice to either serve
under Scott's command, or resign. Gregory resigned in disgust. Dr. George
Murray, head of the botanical department of the British Museum, was appointed
in his place on the condition that he go only as far as Melbourne to give
scientific advise and training to the other scientists and then return
to his duties at the museum. Gregory went on to occupy the Chair of Geology
at Glasgow University for twenty-five years. At the age of sixty-eight,
while crossing a river in Peru, he drowned.
The
DISCOVERY Expedition
1901-04
After his meeting
with Markham in June 1899, Scott went back to sea and resumed his duties
aboard the HMS MAJESTIC. On June 9, 1900 Scott received
his letter of appointment and two days later wrote a formal letter of
acceptance to the committee. A follow-up letter arrived on the desk of
the two Presidents shortly thereafter in which Scott wrote:
I must have complete
command of the ship and landing parties. There cannot be two heads.
I must be consulted
on all matters affecting the equipment of the landing parties.
The executive officers
must not number less than four, exclusive of myself.
I must be consulted
in all future appointments, both civilians and others, especially the
doctor.
It must be understood
that the doctors are first medical men, and secondly members of the
scientific staff, not vice versa.
I am ready to insist
on these conditions to the point of resignation if, in my opinion, their
refusal imperils the success of the undertaking.
Scott went on leave
for a few weeks and then started work by taking a course in magnetism
at Deptford. Living with his two sisters and mother over the shop in Chelsea,
Scott started his day by jogging across Hyde Park for exercise. He plunged
himself into the planning of the expedition. Extraordinary details had
to be worked out and even Hugh Robert Mill, distinguished librarian of
the Royal Geographical Society (1892-1900), thought that Scott "if
anyone, could bring order out of the chaos which had overtaken the plans
and preparations".
In October 1900 Scott
and the Markhams went to Christiania (Oslo) to consult Nansen. His vessel,
the FRAM, had just returned intact with her crew after drifting
right across the Arctic from the Siberian sea to emerge, after thirty-five
months, north of Spitzbergen, which proved the Arctic region to be an
ocean rather than a continent. The FRAM was designed like
a saucer so that she would be lifted above the ice floes rather than crushed
by them. It was a revolutionary design but to reach the Antarctic a ship
would have to cross terrible seas and force her way through hundreds of
miles of ice pack, so they thought a whaling vessel would be more suitable.
(Ironically, Amundsen later
borrowed the FRAM from Nansen and sailed her to Antarctica
and right into the Ross Sea.) Scott and Nansen quickly became fast friends.
Of Nansen, Scott wrote to his mother, "He is a great man, absolutely
straightforward and wholly practical, so our business flies along apace.
I wish to goodness it would go as well in England". Later, Nansen
wrote of Scott, "I see him before me, his tight, wiry figure, his
intelligent, handsome face, that earnest, fixed look, and those expressive
lips so seriously determined and yet ready to smile--the features of a
kindly, generous character, with a fine admixture of earnestness and humour".
Nansen told him to get dogs so he did as Nansen and bought them in Russia.
It was suggested that he buy Greenland dogs which were bigger and better,
but they were hard to get as the many Arctic expeditions of the previous
fifty years had taken a toll on the supply of these dogs. Twenty dogs
and three bitches were selected in Archangel and sent to the London zoo
where they were kept until they could be shipped to New Zealand.
The
Crew
On May 29, 1900 Albert
Armitage was appointed to serve as second-in-command and navigator. Armitage,
aged thirty-six, came from the Merchant Navy where he had been an officer
in the P and O fleet. His prior experience came from his participation,
as navigator, with the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic expedition in 1894. The
expedition's primary goal was to determine if Franz Josef Land was part
of a continent which might extend all the way to the North Pole. Armitage,
and seven others, landed at Franz Josef Land and proceeded to spend three
years in a hut within the 80°N circle, shooting polar bears and doing
scientific research. Franz Josef land was simply a series of scattered
islands that had been incorrectly mapped by their discoverer, Julius Payer.
One day Armitage was searching the area with his field glasses when he
spotted someone approaching on skis. The man was covered in oil and grease
and black from head to foot. It was Nansen! Nansen and one companion had
left the FRAM and her crew to make a dash for the North
Pole. Unfortunately, they too soon discovered the impossibility of such
a trek. They wintered in a tiny hut, living on bear meat in a latitude
of 86°13'N, the farthest-north record that stood until Peary
reached the Pole in 1909. Nansen and his companion had been dragging sledges
and two kayaks, having eaten all the dogs by then, across seven hundred
miles of ice, hoping to reach Spitzbergen where whaling vessels occasionally
called. Finding Armitage saved their lives as a trip across the open seas
to Spitzbergen in kayaks would have resulted in certain death. They returned
to civilization in July 1896 in the WINDWARD.
The doctor on the
Jackson-Harmsworth expedition had been Reginald Koettlitz, a six foot
tall man with drooping mustaches of German heritage. At the age of thirty-nine,
Koettlitz received his appointment in 1900. Markham described him as "a
very honest food fellow, but exceedingly short of commonsense". However,
Koettlitz was in agreement with other notable doctors that scurvy, the
plague of all polar expeditions, was caused by a poison resulting from
putrefaction of preserved food. The remedy was absolutely pure food.
The assistant surgeon
was a young man recently qualified at St. George's Hospital. He had a
wonderful talent for drawing and painting in water colors, was a deeply
religious man and had a passion for birds. His name was Edward Adrian
Wilson, son of a Cheltenham doctor. A courageous young man, Wilson spent
too many chilly nights bird-watching, too many long nights with his studies
to make up for time spent in art galleries, too much starving himself
so he could give money to beggars or to buy books, and probably too much
smoking. He ruined his health and contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. After
spending two years in Norway and a Swiss sanitarium, he shook the disease
but as soon as he began his duties as junior house surgeon he contracted
blood poisoning which resulted in a painful abscess in his armpit. When
Scott met him in 1900, his arm was still in a sling. Scott appointed him
on the spot but he still had to pass an Admiralty Medical Board. He failed
the first time and the second exam, only weeks before sailing, reported
"Mr. E. A. Wilson unfit on account of disease in the right lung".
Scott told Markham he must have him and Wilson told Scott "I
quite realize it will be kill or cure, and have made up my mind that it
will be cure". Dr. Wilson's contributions to the expedition were
enormous and his incredible gallery of original artwork left for our enjoyment
is highly prized and very valuable.
Discovery,
by E. A. Wilson
The three naval officers appointed,
at about the same time as Scott, were Charles Royds as first lieutenant,
Michael Barne as second naval lieutenant and Reginald Skelton as
chief engineer. Royd's charge was to deal with the men and internal
economy of the ship. He was serving on HMS CRESCENT,
which was the flagship on the North America station, at the time
of his appointment. Michael Barne had been educated at Stubbington
School in preparation for the navy and later served with Scott on
HMS MAJESTIC. Reginald Skelton also served with Scott
on the HMS MAJESTIC. A Norfolk man, he had joined
the navy as an engineer-student in 1887, served in various ships
on various stations until Scott finally met him when he was appointed
senior engineer on the HMS MAJESTIC.
There were still three scientific positions
to be filled and the first of those, as naturalist, was offered
to a Scot, W. S. Bruce.
Unfortunately he was busy organizing his own Scottish expedition
(the SCOTIA in 1902) and he declined. The position
was then offered to Thomas Vere Hodgson, aged thirty-seven, director
of the marine biological laboratories in Plymouth. ("Young
to have a polished bald head, sometimes needing a skull cap, but
otherwise apparently strong and healthy" as Markham wrote).
The geologist, Hartley Ferrar, aged
twenty-two, had just graduated from Cambridge with an honor's degree.
Born in Ireland and raised primarily in South Africa, Markham felt
he was capable but "very young, very unfledged, and rather
lazy; however, he most likely could be "made into a man in
this ship" by "the young lieutenants".
The physicist was Louis Bernacchi,
aged twenty-five. His appointment was so late in coming that he
had to join the ship in New Zealand. He had spent a very adventurous
childhood on a mountainous island that was uninhabited except for
his family and their dependents. His father was a silk merchant
from Lombardy and had bought the island from the Tasmanian Government
for £20,000. Louis studied physics and astronomy at the Melbourne
Observatory and was the only member of the expedition to have prior
experience in the Antarctic. He had just spent two years with Borchgrevink's
SOUTHERN CROSS expedition and had wintered over in
the hut at Cape Adare. Markham declared him "Always grown up--never
a boy".
Ernest
Shackleton
was an unusual choice. He was a Merchant Navy officer, like Armitage, but
no one had invited him to join. Shackleton went to sea at the age of sixteen
as an apprentice in a sailing vessel and his captain considered him "the
most pigheaded, obstinate boy I ever came across". He worked his way
up the ladder and was soon the third officer in a Union Castle liner. He
became engaged to become married and told his future father-in-law "my
fortune is all to make but I intend to make it quickly". He was ambitious
but had no special interest in the polar regions or scientific research,
for that matter. He applied to join the expedition and was promptly turned
down. In Shackleton's case, it was a simple "who-you-know" matter--Llewellyn
Longstaff, who had been the first to pledge financial backing to the expedition,
had a son who was a passenger to Cape Town on the liner in which Shackleton
served. The two men became friends and Shackleton persuaded young Longstaff
to set him up for an interview with Armitage. The second-in-command was
impressed and recommended him to Scott who, in February 1901, appointed
him third lieutenant in charge of holds, stores, provisions and deep sea
water analysis. Armitage wrote "His brother officers considered him
a very good fellow, always quoting poetry and full of erratic ideas".
Shackleton was forced to leave the expedition in 1903 and was replaced by
George F. A. Mulock, who remained with the expedition until conclusion.
Mulock was only twenty-one but had received excellent instruction as a surveyor
in HMS TRITON, and his services provided were invaluable.
This concluded the
complement of primary officers and scientists. The navy also released
three warrant officers and six petty officers, including Edgar Evans and
David Allan from the HMS MAJESTIC.
L
to R: Lt. Armitage, Lt. Mulock, Lt. Shackleton, Dr. Wilson, Lt.
Skelton, Capt. Scott,
Lt. Royds, Dr. Koettlitz, Mr. Bernacchi and Mr. Ferrar on board
Discovery
The DISCOVERY
was built at Dundee. She was the sixth of her name and the first to be
specifically designed and built for scientific work. She had to be a wooden
ship to withstand the pressure of the ice since steel would simply buckle.
She had to be a sailing ship but with auxiliary engines. The ship was
to be exceptionally strong, built from a variety of timbers: English oak
for the frames, eleven inches thick; Riga fir for the lining, eleven inches;
Honduras mahogany, pitch pine or oak for the four-inch-thick lining, all
sheathed with two layers of planking--twenty-six inches of solid wood
in all. Her bow was incredibly strong; some of the bolts running through
the wood were eight and a half feet long. The vessel was 172 feet long
and 34 feet wide, of 485 tons register and a displacement of 1620 tons.
She had to have room to store fuel, oil, 350 tons of coal, fresh water,
dog food, medical supplies, scientific instruments, axes and saws, a sectional
wooden hut, a piano and a library. Invitations for bids were offered but
only two were received. On December 14, 1899 a contract with the Dundee
Ship Building Company was signed. The keel was laid on March 16, 1900
and the final cost, including engines, was £49,277. On March 21,
1901 Lady Markham, with a pair of golden scissors, cut the tape and the
DISCOVERY was launched. Food for the 47 men was stored aboard:
150 tons of roast pheasant, 500 of roast turkey, whole roast partridges,
jugged hare, duck and green peas, rump steak, wild cherry sauce, celery
seed, black currant vinegar, candied orange peel, Stilton and Double Gloucester
cheese, 27 gallons of brandy, 27 gallons of whiskey, 60 cases of port,
36 cases of sherry, 28 cases of champagne, lime juice, 1800 pounds of
tobacco, pemmican, raisins, chocolate and onion powder. While being loaded,
many visitors came to see her. Among them were two former colleagues of
Sir James Clark Ross: Sir Erasmus Ommaney (now aged eighty-seven) who
had sailed with Ross to the Arctic in 1835, and the famous botanist Sir
Joseph Hooker, naturalist in James
Clark Ross's EREBUS and TERROR expedition.
It was upon Hooker's advice that Scott found £1300 to purchase a
balloon for the voyage. With much fanfare and a Godspeed service on board,
the DISCOVERY weighed anchor on July 31, 1901, paused at
Spithead to correct her compasses and proceeded to Cowes to receive the
royal blessing. The new King and Queen, still uncrowned, came aboard.
The Queen's Pekinese fell overboard and one of the sailors had to rescue
it. The next day, August 6, the DISCOVERY passed Needles
on her way to the unknown. As Markham noted, "Truly, they
form the vanguard of England's chivalry. No finer set of men ever left
these shores, nor were men ever led by a finer Captain".
Discovery
launched March 21, 1901
The DISCOVERY
was so heavy in the seas that she could not make more than seven
knots. This became an immediate concern as New Zealand was 14,000
miles away. Her first stop was at Madeira Island where they took
on more coal and sent back considerable mail. After leaving Madeira,
the men were shocked to find that the DISCOVERY was
leaking water into the hold and, as a result, had ruined a significant
amount of food. What could be dried was saved and the rest was thrown
overboard. The ship arrived in Cape Town on October 3, 1901 where
nearly everyone proceeded to get drunk. Owing to the slowness of
the voyage, Scott decided to cut the Melbourne leg of the journey
and sail directly to Lyttleton, New Zealand. As a result of this
decision, Dr. Murray was left in Cape Town so that he could return
to his post at the British Museum.
The DISCOVERY arrived
at Lyttleton at the end of November where the leak at last received
attention. Meanwhile, the hospitality extended to the crew was generous,
at the very least. Royds wrote that there was "Not a single
sober man on board. The men are rushed at as soon as they get ashore
and all good Service feeling is lost and I have awful times. Better
men never stepped a plank whilst they are at sea, but in harbor
they are nothing but brute beasts, and I am ashamed of them, and
told them so, and penitent indeed they are, but only until they
are drunk again". Scott wrote that the drunken men "disgust
me, but I'm going to have it out with them somehow. There are only
a few black sheep but they lend colour to the flock". A few
were discharged and replaced. The men were nearly all bachelors
and the young sailors soon were welcomed right into New Zealand
homes. Skelton lived with the Meares family and eventually married
the youngest daughter, Sybil, while Ferrar went on to meet his future
wife in Christchurch.
While
in New Zealand, Scott was to receive some good news from Markham. The
men had determined that a relief ship would be needed to resupply the
DISCOVERY the following year and, of course, check on their
condition. In May 1901 Mr. Llewellyn Longstaff contributed £5000
which Markham used to purchase the MORGENEN. In September
she sailed from Norway to England where she was refitted and renamed the
MORNING. Lieutenant William Colbeck, RNR, was appointed
her commander. Colbeck had Antarctic experience as he had been the magnetic
observer on Borchgrevink's SOUTHER CROSS EXPEDITION.
On December 21 the
DISCOVERY was escorted by HMS RINGAROOMA and
HMS LIZARD out of the harbor as cheering crowds stood on
the shore waving farewell.
Soon after crossing
the Antarctic Circle they entered the ice pack. Just before midnight on
January 8, 1902, Royds sighted land off the port bow. They headed for
Cape Adare, where Borchgrevink's
party had wintered, and soon landed on the beach. From Cape Adare they
sailed nearly due south along the shore of Victoria Land and eventually
landed at Cape Crozier on the northeastern tip of Ross Island where Royds
and Wilson climbed to 1350 feet and viewed the Great Ice Barrier stretching
as far as the eye could see. From Cape Crozier they steamed along the
eastern edge of the Barrier and on January 30, after emerging from a whiteout
in a snowstorm, the eastern extremity of the Barrier was reached where
patches of rock were determined to rise 2000 feet above them. Scott named
the new discovery King Edward VII Land. Scott turned about and retraced
their route back to McMurdo Sound where they intended to set up winter
quarters. Along the way they stopped long enough for Scott and Shackleton
to take a trip aloft in the balloon. The balloon developed a leak and
was never used again.
After arriving at
their winter quarters, the ship was secured by ice-anchors to an ice-foot
and a 36-foot square hut was built. Two smaller huts were put up to house
the magnetic instruments and the dogs were moved into their kennels.
On February 16, 1902,
the sun slipped below the horizon for the first time. It was too late
in the season for any long-distance sledge trips so Scott planned a few
short practice trips to test the equipment and men. As it turned out,
Armitage and Bernacchi were the only men with a little dog-driving experience.
It was hilarious to watch them but many hard lessons were learned.
The first trip was
a three-day affair to White Island by Wilson, Shackleton and Ferrar. A
hard lesson was learned on this first sledge trip as the three nearly
became the first casualties of the expedition. Distances in the Antarctic
are very deceptive and when plans were made, the three felt the island
could easily be reached in a day and a half of sledging. The men had decided
to haul the sledge themselves. It was two days before they reached the
island whereupon a blizzard set in and frostbite struck their faces and
feet. They were so exhausted from the trip that they could hardly pitch
their tent and cook their meal. The trip taught them how little they actually
knew about the Antarctic.
The next trip was
taken by four officers and eight men with four sledges (Leader Royds,
Quartley, Vince, Weller, Wild, Barne, Skelton, Evans, Heald, Plumley,
Koettlitz and Hare). On the morning of March 4 the men started out for
the penguin rookery at Cape Crozier where they were to leave a canister
containing directions on how to find the expedition's winter quarters.
Scott was to lead the party but had to decline as he had injured his knee
in a skiing accident. The dogs did hardly anything but fight, frostbite
attacked, the snow was so soft that they sank in well above their ankles
and progress was so slow that on the second day they only made five miles.
The rations got mixed up in the bag so that a mush of sugar, cheese, butter,
soup tablets and chocolate had to be cooked together. Most of the dogs
went lame and the men were exhausted so on the fourth day Royds decided
to push ahead with Koettlitz and Skelton and send the rest, under leadership
of Barnes, back to the ship. Royds and his men had a terrible struggle
and after five days of hard going, they still hadn't found the rookery.
Royd's decided to give up the search and return to the ship as temperatures
reached -42°F. Royds, Koettlitz and Skelton reached the hut in four
days but the other men had not been so lucky. Barnes and the returning
party, eight members in all, had arrived to within four miles of the ship
at a hill called Castle Rock. When they reached the summit, a blizzard
came up and reduced visibility to nearly nil. They pitched their tents
and since they couldn't get their cookers to work, frostbite began to
set in. An experienced crew would have remained, no matter how uncomfortable,
but the novice crew decided to head out into the storm. They soon found
themselves on a steep slippery slope where Evans stepped on a patch of
bare ice and tumbled out of sight. Barne sat down and slid after him with
Quartley following close behind. All three men miraculously came to a
halt when a patch of soft snow stopped them at the edge of a precipice
with the sea pounding below. A howling dog flashed past and disappeared
over the edge. Frank Wild took charge of leading the remaining five who
were left at the head of the slope. He led them off in the direction of
the ship but suddenly came upon a cliff with the dark sea below; another
step and he would have gone right over the edge. Unfortunately, Vince
could get no grip on the slippery ice and, like the dog, he vanished over
the edge and into the sea. Wild, Weller, Heald and Plumley were able to
fight their way back to the ship. Of the original twelve, only four had
returned. A search party was quickly organized and led by Wild who came
upon Barne, Evans and Quartley wandering about in a daze at Castle Rock.
That evening Royds brought in his party and so it seemed only two men
were lost, Vince and Clarence Hare. Hare had last been seen heading back
to the abandoned sledges to get his ski boots. Two days later a figure
came walking down the hill towards the ship. Incredibly, it was Hare and
without even a trace of frostbite. It seems he had fallen down and simply
gone to sleep. The snow covered and preserved him as he slept for thirty-six
hours!
One more sledging
trip was undertaken before winter set in. On Easter Monday, Scott started
off with Armitage, Wilson, Ferrar and eight men with three sledges and
nine dogs. The objective was to lay depots towards the south for use of
the sledging parties in the spring. The dogs refused to work and the temperature
dropped to -47°F. When they became exhausted, the men crawled into
their sleeping bags. As Wilson put it, "Once in, one can do literally
nothing but lie as one falls in the tent. Reindeer skin hairs get in your
mouth and nose and you can't lift a hand to get them out". At night
the men would sweat which would produce a puddle beneath them and since
nothing could be dried, by morning "you put on frozen mitts and frozen
boots, stuffed with frozen grass and rime. There's a fascination about
it all, but it can't be considered comfort". Two more days of this
and Scott decided enough was enough. They packed up their gear and headed
back to the ship with everyone learning from this experience. On April
23, 1901 the sun sank below the horizon and would not reappear for more
than four months.
A winter routine was
established with each man having his own special task. Royds was in charge
of the seamen and petty officers, who were employed on routine activities
such as "watering ship" every few days by hacking out blocks
of ice and taking them on board to be melted in the boiler. Exercise was
a problem as blizzards and extreme cold kept everybody inside for days
on end. Birthdays were celebrated by special dinners and a religious service
was held each Sunday. The South Polar Times appeared, edited by
Shackleton, and all were invited to contribute; the first copy was formally
presented to Captain Scott. Some men played cards and chess while others
read and carried out scientific studies.
Summer sledging began
on September 2 when Scott and eight others set out to lay a depot. They
were back in three days as the conditions were impossible for both men
and dogs. A typical sledging camp can be best described from descriptions
written in the diaries of the men who fought the extremes. The first step
was to set up a small tent just large enough for three men to lie down
in. Snow was piled up around the outside of the tent in order to hold
it down in case of a blizzard. The sledge would be unloaded and the cooker
set up inside the tent. One had to be careful when grabbing metal as sometimes
your skin would stick right to it. Changing from the day outfit into night
gear was a laborious task, indeed. First you removed your finneskoes,
making sure you left them in the shape of your feet since they froze as
hard as bricks in a few minutes and would be impossible to put on in the
morning until one could find a way to thaw them out. Then you had to unlace
your leggings, which had to be done with bare hands. Needless to say,
a pause was necessary periodically to stuff your hands back in your pants
to keep them from frostbite. Three pairs of socks were pulled on which
had been kept next to the body all day in order to keep them warm. Then
came a long pair of fur boots reaching above the knee, then fur trousers
and finally a loose fur blouse. Day-socks were often tucked inside the
pant leggings in order to keep them warm for the next morning. Then came
supper which consisted of a hoosh made of pemmican, cheese, oatmeal, pea-flour
and bacon. At bedtime it was often discussed whether each man should sleep
in his own bag or if three should try it together. When it's -40°F,
it's certainly much easier to keep warm with three in a bag. Unfortunately,
one could not move without disturbing the others, not to mention the fit
of experiencing a leg cramp, which they often did. Condensation of breath
was another problem. After a few days the inside of the tent became covered
with a layer of ice and every time the wind shook it, a shower of ice
fell on the men sleeping beneath. Also, their breath froze in their beards
and around the necks of their fur coats which produced a collar as stiff
as a board. Shivering fits could last for hours. Next morning, the whole
process would be repeated in reverse. Then, Bernacchi wrote twenty-five
years later, came a ceremony that no one ever talks about. Bathrooms were
ruled out since they took too long to dig and besides, they would just
fill up with snow. So, "feeling like a ham in a sack", each
man took his turn loosening his clothes, going out into the snow, facing
the wind and "watchfully awaiting a temporary lull. It's a ghastly
business". No matter how quick you were, your clothes would fill
with snow and for the next few hours you would walk around with a wet,
cold bottom. Some of the men suffered from dysentery so one can easily
imagine how much misery these men had to sustain when blizzards raged
for days on end.
On September 17, 1902
Scott went on a preliminary reconnaissance with Barne and Shackleton.
On the second night a blizzard came up and nearly took their tent away
as they had neglected to pile enough snow around the outside. Before they
made it back to the ship all had suffered from frostbite.
Many sledging trips
took place over the spring and early summer. On November 2 Scott, Wilson
and Shackleton set forth on their southern journey together with a large
supporting party under Barne. This was to be the centerpiece of the expedition.
Soon after leaving, they were slowed by sticky snow and deep sastrugi.
A two-day blizzard kept them in their tent and on the third day Shackleton
started to cough. Beyond Minna Bluff, they were into the unknown and "already
appeared to be lost on the great open plain". At the 79th parallel,
photographs were taken and half of Barne's supporting party turned back.
The rest pushed on until November 15 at which time the balance of Barne's
party took for home. From the next day, things began to go wrong. The
major problem came with the dogs. Instead of bringing dog biscuit to feed
them, dried stockfish was brought. The stockfish had become tainted as
the DISCOVERY sailed through the tropics and now the dogs
wouldn't eat it. From November 16 onwards Scott's diary makes sad reading,
with the dogs daily losing heart and condition, and the men's hopes of
making a heroic journey slowly fading away. There was nothing they could
do but to press on as far south as they could and when the dogs could
do no more hauling, they simply would do the hauling themselves. They
would have been better off just killing the dogs and depoting the meat
as they sledged south but they went on hoping somehow the dogs would revive.
On November 25, the party became the first to cross the 80th parallel,
beyond which all maps were blank. "It has always been our ambition
to get inside that white space and now we are there so the space can no
longer be a blank; this compensates for a lot of trouble". Hunger
now became a problem with the men as rations were significantly reduced
in order to preserve what little food they had left. "We cannot stop,
we cannot go back, and there is no alternative but to harden our hearts
and drive", Scott wrote. "Certainly dog driving is the most
terrible work one has to face in this sort of business". On December
5 Scott wrote, "The events of the day's march are now becoming so
dreary and dispiriting that one longs to forget them when we camp; it
is an effort even to record them in a diary. Our utmost efforts could
not produce more than three miles for the whole march". Five days
later the first dog died. The other dogs pounced on the fallen animal
and ate the corpse. They decided to try and save the best nine dogs by
feeding them the flesh of the others. Wilson volunteered for the job of
butchering as Scott considered the job "a moral cowardice of which
I am heartily ashamed". The victim was led away, with tail wagging,
as the others howled in anticipation of the meal to come. Scott wrote,
"We can only keep them on the move by constant shouting; this devolves
on me. Stripes and Brownie doing absolutely nothing and vomiting. Poor
old Grannie pulled till she could pull no longer and lay down in the snow;
they put her on a sledge and she soon died. The dogs take away all idea
of enjoying the marches".
More problems appeared
as Dr. Wilson noticed that Shackleton's gums were swollen, the first sign
of scurvy. Portions of seal meat were increased but "hunger is gripping
us very tightly". On December 20 Wilson lay awake all night from
sheer hunger. On December 26 snow-blindness was bothering Wilson's eyes
so badly that he finally told Scott. The next day he hauled his sledge
blindfolded as Scott described to him the mountains that were coming into
view. Within sight was a huge peak which was larger than any mountain
they had seen thus far. They estimated its height at 13,000 feet and named
it Mt. Markham. Scott decided to turn for home on December 31, having
reached 82°17'S. They had traveled 300 miles farther south than anyone
before them and were only 480 statute miles from the Pole.
A dog a day was dropping
dead or being slaughtered. Bismark was killed on January 4, Boss dropped
behind and was never seen again, and when Kid died, they gave up trying
to drive the rest and instead set them free to follow behind. When they
were down to one day's ration, Scott pulled out his telescope and spotted
the depot left on the outward march. Meanwhile, Shackleton's scurvy symptoms
had reappeared; his throat was congested, his breath short, his gums were
red and swollen and he started to spit blood. Now there were only two
men to pull the sledges as Shackleton could only walk beside them in order
to avoid too much exertion. On January 18, 1903, Shackleton completely
gave out which forced them to camp for a number of days. Finally, on January
28 they reached Depot A, only sixty miles from the ship. "At length
and at last we have reached the land of plenty". With Shackleton
aboard one of the sledges, the team set off the next day and sledged fifteen
miles. On February 2, White Island came into view and Scott wrote,"We
are as near spent as three persons can be". On February 3, Skelton
and Bernacchi came out and greeted them. Soon they were back on the ship
with handshakes and congratulations coming from all. They had been gone
for ninety-three days and had covered 960 statute miles.
L to R: Shackleton, Scott, Wilson
The MORNING, commanded by William Colbeck, had left
Lyttleton on December 6, 1902. On January 24, 1903 she made fast
with ice-anchors to the flow off Hut Point. A party from the MORNING
delivered bags of mail; Royds alone had sixty-two letters and a
cake. But all the talk was whether the eight or nine miles of ice
that penned in the DISCOVERY would break up and be
carried out to sea in time for her to return with the MORNING
to Lyttleton. Colbeck could not risk leaving any later than the
end of February and by February 10 it appeared the DISCOVERY
would not break free as new ice was forming. On February 22 they
tried blowing holes in the ice with explosives to crack the floes
but this didn't work. By the 25th Scott accepted the fact that the
MORNING would have to leave without them or risk being
trapped itself. Fourteen tons of stores were offloaded onto the
ice along with twenty tons of coal. The crew of the MORNING
sledged them half way at which point they met the DISCOVERY
crew who finished the sledge back to Hut Point.
The
MORNING had one other primary purpose to fulfill:
to remove any members of the expedition who wished to return to
civilization. Eight men applied to return with the MORNING
but Scott struggled with how to handle Shackleton. In his diary,
Scott wrote that "On board he would have remained a source
of anxiety, and would never have been able to do hard out-door work".
Dr.
Koettlitz then put his opinion in writing: "Mr. Shackleton's breakdown
during the southern sledge journey was undoubtedly, in Dr. Wilson's opinion,
due in great part to scurvy taint. I certainly agree with him; he has now
practically recovered from it, but referring to your memo: as to the duties
of an executive officer, I cannot say that he would be fit to undergo hardships
and exposure in this climate". Shackleton went home. There is much
controversy over this decision as rumors were in circulation that Scott
had other reasons for sending Shackleton home. Armitage disagreed with Scott's
decision and bitterness towards Scott grew through the years that followed.
Before the departure of the MORNING, Scott went so far as
to suggest that Armitage go home to be with his wife and a child that he
had never seen. Armitage was offended and insulted and later wrote, "I
had been told that Sir Clements Markham intended to make the expedition
a great Royal Navy one only, but all went well with me for the first
year, when Scott thought that he had enough experience to go on his own--he
had not --then he endeavoured to rid himself of all the Merchant Service
element. When he, in a most kindly manner, suggested that I should return
in the MORNING, I absolutely refused. But he never forgave
me, as not only did I destroy the RN idea, but he feared that I would obtain
kudos which he desired". It was in fact Armitage who never forgave
Scott.
Once it was realized
that the MORNING would sail alone, all the men got busy
writing letters. On March 1, 1903 there was a farewell party on the MORNING
which went on for half the night. The next morning the MORNING
set sail. Shackleton shed tears as he watched his friends and shipmates
drop out of sight. In his place, Sub-Lieutenant George Mulock, aged twenty-one,
transferred to the DISCOVERY.
The winter of 1903
set in earlier and was much colder than the year before. Sledging plans
were made for the following season while resentment grew between Scott
and Armitage. Royds wanted to go back to Cape Crozier to look for more
penguin eggs while Armitage wanted to go south across the Barrier, more
or less in Scott's footsteps. Royds wrote, "In my opinion, his sole
wish is to beat the Captain's record. This the Captain wouldn't allow,
though not for that reason by any means". This put Scott in an awkward
position. If he refused, Armitage would charge that Scott wanted to keep
the "farthest south" record to himself and not "let a subordinate
have a go". This raised the question with Scott: are they there to
do scientific and discovery work or are they there to compete for a dash
to the South Pole? Scott clearly felt that it was the first-named objective.
Scott could find no purpose in allowing Armitage to make a dash to the
south as he felt, without dogs, Armitage would be fortunate to get as
far as he had and would only risk death for himself and his party. It
simply made no sense to Scott. Wilson wrote, "The Captain worked
out the possibilities on paper and showed them to me, and I agreed with
him in thinking it was far better to apply all our sledging energies to
new work, rather than covering old ground with the chance of doing so
little at the end of it. The upshot of it all is that Armitage is off
the sledging list for this year altogether, though whether this is due
to himself or anyone else I cannot say". Armitage's resentment only
deepened.
On August 21, 1903
the rim of the sun appeared for the first time over the horizon. The sledging
plans were pinned to the notice board with instructions for everyone to
return and be back on board DISCOVERY by December 15 so
that all hands could work together to free the ship, if possible before
the return of the MORNING. There were to be two major ventures,
each with a supporting party to lay depots and then return. Scott was
to go west up the Ferrar glacier as far as he could get; Barne was to
explore an inlet south of McMurdo Strait. The first to leave the ship,
on September 7, were Royds, Wilson and four men, bound for Cape Crozier.
The journey was rather uneventful as eggs and two live chicks were collected.
On the trip back to the ship the temperature fell to -61°F which
resulted in significant frostbite among the men. They arrived back at
the ship without any further hardship. On September 9 Scott set out with
Skelton and four others to lay a depot in preparation for the ascent of
the western mountains. Meanwhile, Barne's party was out on the Barrier
laying a depot southeast of White Island where the mercury in their thermometer
dropped to -67.7°F and then broke. Scott's team left for their main
journey on October 12. With four sledges, hauling 200 pounds per man,
they reached New Harbor and dragged their loads up Ferrar glacier to a
basin at about 4500 feet. The runners on the sledges became damaged to
the point that the whole team had to turn around and travel eighty-seven
miles back to the ship for repairs. Five days later they started out again
and this time they succeeded in struggling to the top of the mountains
where they were caught in a blizzard that nearly buried them alive. It
was the most miserable week of his life, Scott wrote. They spent twenty-two
out of every twenty-four hours in their sleeping bags for a whole week.
They only climbed out long enough to get the cooker going and eat a hot
meal. On November 14 they reached the summit at 8900 feet where they found
themselves on a flat plain. For the next two weeks they sledged due west.
A constant icy wind produced raw and bleeding lips. Lashly wrote, "The
wind seems to be very troublesome here". On December 1 the team turned
back. Scott wrote, "I don't know where we are but I know we must
be a long way to the west. As long as I live, I never want to revisit
the summit of Victoria Land". He was disappointed to find it an endless
plateau nearly 9000 feet above sea level.
It was now a familiar
story: hunger, exhaustion, deep sastrugi, fog, snowdrift, frostbite and
snow-blindness. Food ran short and oil was nearly gone. On December 14
Scott faced the fact that they were lost. They had reached the edge of
the plateau and were beginning to descend when Lashly slipped and started
to slide on his back down the slope. In the process, he took the legs
out from under the others and down they went, sledge and all, and when
they came to a halt, they were stunned to find themselves at the head
of the glacier, in familiar territory, only five or six miles from their
depot. Miraculously, there were no broken bones. In Lashly's words, "all
of a sudden the Captain and Evans disappeared down a crevasse and carried
away one of the sledge runners, leaving me on top. It was now my duty
to try and get them up again". Scott and Evans were left dangling
with blue walls of ice on either side and nothingness below. Remarkably,
Scott was able to swing his feet around and grip the wall with his crampons.
Using the last of his strength, Scott was able to climb out to safety
while Lashly pulled Evans up, whose only comment was "Well, I'm blowed".
That night they reached the depot and eight days later, on Christmas Eve,
they reached the ship. In fifty-nine days they had hauled their sledge
725 miles.
Only four men were
at the ship to greet them when they arrived as the others were out on
the ice, ten miles away, sawing and blasting at the ice in the hope of
breaking it up to a point where the DISCOVERY could be freed.
Scott was pleased that all the sledging trips had returned safely. On
the western mountains Ferrar had discovered a fossil leaf. Wilson was
pleased with the results of his "penguin" expedition.
By the end of December,
"twenty miles of ice hangs heavy on me". Scott had to start
preparations for a third winter at Hut Point. On January 5, 1904 a ship
came into view. It was the MORNING and a few minutes later,
Wilson exclaimed, "Why, there's another". Wilson wrote, "We
were dumbfounded". Wilson and Scott set off for the two ships and
were subsequently greeted at the edge of the ice by four men speaking
"such perfect Dundee that we could hardly understand a word they
said". They were from the second ship, the TERRA NOVA .
Soon Wilson and Scott were aboard the MORNING receiving
their mail and questioning their old friend William Colbeck as to why
two relief ships were at anchor in McMurdo Sound.
TERRA
NOVA and
MORNING reach the DISCOVERY
When
the MORNING returned from the Antarctic in 1903, Markham
was delighted with the news of Scott's expedition but clearly a second
relief expedition would be necessary. Unfortunately, there was little
money left so together with Sir William Huggins, Markham appealed
to the Government for a grant of £12,000. Markham knew all along
that a second relief expedition would be necessary but this was a
fact he had concealed from the Government when the original plans
were laid. The Government felt misled and promptly took the matter
out of the hands of the Societies. If left up to Markham and his group,
the Government felt they would find an excuse to leave them on the
ice for yet another year. The Government would take no chances as
the goal would be to get the men home, safe and sound, even if it
meant abandoning the DISCOVERY. On June 20, 1903 the
Government agreed to pay for the relief expedition provided the MORNING
was handed over "absolutely and at once", free of charge,
to the Admiralty. Reluctantly, both societies agreed and the MORNING
now had new owners. Sir William Wharton, the hydrographer, was appointed
by the Admiralty as chairman to the newly formed Antarctic Relief
Committee.
Now
the Government took an odd position. Wharton wrote, "It cannot be considered
as certain that the MORNING could get through single-handed,
and a second vessel, if a suitable one could be found, would be a great
additional safeguard". This decision by the Admiralty came on June
22, 1903 which gave them little more than four months to locate, refit and
get her to Lyttleton by mid November. Wharton investigated resources all
over Europe in an attempt to find a worthy whaling vessel that could accomplish
the goal and it was from St. John's, Newfoundland that the suggestion came
to purchase the TERRA NOVA. She was considerably larger than
the MORNING at 744 tons and 187 feet in length, and she came
at a hefty price. She was purchased on July 6 for £20,000, some £17,200
more than Markham paid for the MORNING and well above her
appraised value. Try as they might, by the time she was ready to sail it
was simply too late in the season for the TERRA NOVA to reach
New Zealand on her own and still leave enough time to make McMurdo Sound.
So, Wharton instructed her to be towed by naval vessels as far as the Persian
Gulf from where she would continue on under her own sail and steam. HMS
MINERVA towed her from Portsmouth to Gibraltar, HMS
VINDICTIVE took her on to Aden and from there HMS FOX
towed her to an area 120 miles off the east coast of Socotra where she was
left on her own for the final leg. The TERRA NOVA abandoned
plans to meet the MORNING in Lyttleton as it was closer to
sail directly to Hobart, Tasmania and meet up with her there. The two ships
met in Hobart on October 31 and together they departed for McMurdo Sound.
Scott and his fellow
officers were not only dismayed, but insulted, by the arrival of the TERRA
NOVA along with the MORNING. They had no idea of
the problems encountered by Markham in England but one thing they knew
for certain: one ship was all that was needed and to send two implied
they were in deep trouble and unable to handle things on their own. Scott
wrote, "It was not a little trying to be offered relief to an extent
which seemed to suggest that we have been reduced to the direst need.
No healthy man likes to be thought an invalid". Scott was very concerned
that his career would be jeopardized. After all, if found an incompetent
commander by his superiors, he might as well forget any promotion upon
their return. Ironically, the Government seemed concerned that the expedition
might be having too good a time. To them it made no sense to have their
officers and men remain indefinitely in the Antarctic on full pay, all
the while feasting on seals and provisions sent at great expense in an
annual relief ship. In July 1903 the Government "could not consent
to the officers and men of the Royal Navy being employed in any further
expedition in the ice, even if sufficient private funds were raised for
such a purpose, and that Commander Scott will receive directions to this
effect". These directions were given to Colbeck, commander of the
TERRA NOVA. To make matters even worse, instructions were
given to Colbeck to have the DISCOVERY abandoned if she
could not be freed from the ice. Scott was furious. In normal conditions
"a sailor would go through much rather than abandon his ship but
the ties which bound us to the DISCOVERY were very far beyond
the ordinary", Scott wrote. She was dearly loved by her crew; she
had been their home for two and a half years. She was considered the finest
ship ever built for such a task and to abandon her would be like a broken
marriage; it may not have been their fault but the men would have returned
"as castaways with the sense of failure dominating the results of
our labours".
Twenty miles of ice
separated the ship from open water in mid January. Captain Mackay of the
TERRA NOVA felt the departure date should not extend beyond
February 25, 1904 and Colbeck agreed. Blasting and sawing proved useless
so nothing was left but to pray for southeasterly gales. Aboard the DISCOVERY
Scott read the Admiralty's instructions to his crew and "There was
a stony silence. I have not heard a laugh in the ship since I returned".
The crew began the
difficult task of transferring all the scientific collections and equipment
to the MORNING and TERRA NOVA. For the next
five weeks the ice slowly began to break up. An all-out attack on the
ice was put into gear. Explosives, saws and everything imaginable was
used in an attempt to free the ship. On January 27 Scott wrote, "I
fear, I much fear, things are going badly for us". Royds wrote, "It
is perfectly sickening. Why doesn't it break up? What the devil is holding
it? The prospects are as cheerless as they could be and I could simply
scream at our absolute helplessness". The thermometer fell to -14°F.
By February 3 Royds wrote, "things look hopeless...everything is
at a standstill". On February 12, Royds wrote, "As I write,
the TERRA NOVA is now only about two miles away and the
ice continues to break away. The ice was simply rushing out in huge lumps
and floes, every blast sending more out, and cracking well behind".
Now they worked harder than ever to free the ship as destiny was in the
balance. St. Valentine's Day saw the break they needed as Scott and others
raced up to Hut Point and noted that "The ice was breaking-up right
across the strait, and with a rapidity which we had not thought possible.
I have never witnessed a more impressive sight; the sun was low behind
us, the surface of the ice-sheet in front was intensely white, and in
contrast the distant sea and its forking leads looked almost black. The
wind had fallen to a calm, and not a sound disturbed the stillness about
us. Yet in the midst of this peaceful scene was an awful unseen urgency
rending that great ice-sheet as though it had been naught but the thinnest
paper...now without a word, without an effort on our part, it was all
melting now, and we knew that in an hour or two not a vestige of it would
be left, and that the open sea would be lapping on the black rocks of
Hut Point".
The relief ships butted
their way, side by side, to the DISCOVERY. The men cheered
as the TERRA NOVA broke through the last sheet of ice at
10:30 p.m. and freed the DISCOVERY. A few days were hurriedly
spent preparing the ships for departure. In memory to George Vince, a
final emotional ceremony was held on the ice and a wooden cross was erected
to mark his grave.
Despite a difficult
departure to open water, the three ships finally were under way, leaving
McMurdo Sound on February 19, 1904. Scott decided to take the DISCOVERY
round Cape Adare and explore to the west along the northern coast of Victoria
Land. The MORNING was to head straight for the Auckland
Islands where the three ships would rendezvous and sail together to Lyttleton.
After two years in the ice, the DISCOVERY was far from seaworthy;
water poured into the holds, the pumps wouldn't work, gales came up and
subsequently everyone got seasick since they'd been landlocked for so
long. The rudder was in such poor shape that it was ready to fall off;
they had a spare but it was only half as big. The farther west they went,
the thicker the ice became. Becoming short of coal, the ship turned north
to find open water so they could use the sails. By this time she had lost
touch with the TERRA NOVA. She was pushed so far north that
she missed land altogether and instead rediscovered the Balleny
Islands. On March 14 they reached the Auckland Islands with only 10
tons of coal left aboard. Neither of the other ships were there so while
they waited, some of the crew cleaned and painted the ship while others
went ashore and shot anything that looked edible, including wild cattle
and pigs. The New Zealand Government maintained a depot of emergency supplies
for the use of shipwrecked sailors (called by sealers Sarah's Bosom).
The other vessels showed up a few days later and after three days sailing,
on Good Friday, April 1, 1904, they reached Lyttleton Harbor. There was
a wonderful welcoming party and guests and reporters swarmed the ships.
Unfortunately, a remark made by Scott in a crowd was overheard by a reporter
who took the comment totally out of context and falsely reported the incident.
The men of the DISCOVERY were in total agreement concerning
the absurdity of sending the TERRA NOVA to rescue them.
The story published by a Reuter's reporter made headlines in England:
Commander Scott emphatically protests against the dispatch by the Admiralty
of the TERRA NOVA, which he declares to have been a wasteful
expense of money. He says that had the proper position of the DISCOVERY
been made known, it would have been obvious that she was perfectly safe,
and no assistance beyond that which the MORNING could render
was requisite. Scott felt his goose was cooked when it came to a promotion.
Even Royds commented, "Although it was the truth, he never said it".
Back home, matters
weren't much better. Together with his brother-in-law, Scott was still
supporting his mother. His two sisters were having a difficult time in
the dressmaking industry as his mother wrote, "it is really a bad
season, and no money going". Scott felt if he was not promoted, a
certain life of poverty would return. Scott wrote to his mother from New
Zealand, "If they wait till we get home, then two or three persons
will inevitably leap over my head. The question is whether they will pass
me over in June. It is such a close thing that it must make a great deal
of difference".
Meanwhile, the ship
was in need of repairs and yet money was so tight that Scott only paid
the regular crewmembers while the officers were left to fend for themselves.
Everyone wrote home from Lyttleton. Royds and Wilson wrote to Scott's
mother, Hannah, telling her how proud they were of her son's efforts.
Wilson wrote, "Without a doubt he has been the making of the Expedition
and not one of us will but feel more and more grateful to him for the
way he has acted throughout. Notwithstanding that it is a difficult thing,
at least I imagine it is, for the Captain to make intimate friends with
anyone, I feel as though we were real friends, and I need hardly say I
am proud of it".
The DISCOVERY
was placed in dry dock for two months to complete repairs. Meanwhile,
Scott was wined and dined by dignitaries all over the island. Scott wrote
his mother, "We have had a very good time here but it is high time
we were off, as all our young men are getting engaged. Skelton is actually
caught. I believe the young lady is very nice". The young lady was
Sybil. Others were caught as well: Teddy Evans of the MORNING
and Ferrar among the officers, Blissett and Weller among the men.
Incredibly, Royds
and Scott were taken to court and fined £5 for shooting cattle on
Enderby Island, in the Auckland Islands, while waiting for the other ships
to rendezvous. Although running wild, they had no idea the cattle were
private property.
As for the scientists
work, the collections went to the British Museum of Natural History and
their statistical material to the Royal Society. Upon arrival in England,
all the scientists went their separate ways. Wilson worked on his huge
collection at the Natural History Museum. He never went back to medical
practice. The Service men had no problems with future employment; they
simply slipped back into their regular jobs without any loss of seniority.
Royd's figured it would take ten years before a promotion and he was quite
accurate as he did not reach rank of Captain until 1914. Skelton made
a brilliant career for himself in the Royal Navy. But it was Scott who
pondered his fate as the Discovery sailed from Lyttleton on June
8, 1904. On September 10, over three years after leaving, the Discovery
reached Spithead.
Sir Clements Markham
and his wife were aboard the ship when she steamed into Portsmouth Harbor
where "All the men of war, and a line of boats sent from Whale Island,
gave hearty cheers". It was here that Scott learned of his appointment
as post-Captain which was to take effect the following day. In his welcoming
speech at the East India Docks on September 16, Markham declared, "Never
has any polar expedition returned with so great a harvest of scientific
results". Truly, this had been the most revealing of all Antarctic
exploration as meticulous records were kept on the scientific work. But
Scott could not accept full credit as he proclaimed that "An Antarctic
expedition is not a one-man show, not a two-man show, nor a ten-man show.
It means the co-operation of all...There has been nothing but a common
desire to work for the common good".
Scott now moved his
mother and two sisters to a house they found at 56 Oakley Street, off
the Chelsea Embankment. This was to be Scott's home for four years and
it still stands today marked by a blue commemorative plaque.
Initially, Scott received
royal thanks but his only honor was the appointment to Commander of the
Victorian Order, a step up from the Membership which he already had. Even
the press hounded the Government as they felt he should have at least
received an Order of the Bath, if not a knighthood.
An exhibition at the
Bruton Galleries opened on November 4, 1904, which drew an estimated 10,000
visitors. Inside were a collection of Wilson's drawings, Skelton's photographs,
a model of the DISCOVERY, sledging equipment and rations.
On November 7 Scott gave his first big lecture to 7,000 invited members
and guests of the two Societies at Albert Hall. Now the praise was raining
down on Scott. He was awarded the Patron's Gold Medal of the RGS, was
made a member of the French Legion of Honour and the Russian Geographical
Society, and received medals from the Geographical Societies of Philadelphia,
Denmark and Sweden. What pleased him most was an honorary degree of Doctor
of Science from Cambridge University. When he left London he headed for
Edinburgh for more lectures and the Royal Geographical Society's Livingstone
Medal. Shackleton had arranged this and now the two were on excellent
terms. Scott wrote his mother, "Everyone is very pleased with Shackleton.
He is showing great energy and business capacity". Scott traveled
with Shackleton to Glasgow and Dundee for more speaking engagements. Meanwhile,
Markham pleaded with the Government to retain the DISCOVERY
for future polar work but his remarks fell on deaf ears. She was sold
to the highest bidder, the Hudson's Bay Company, for £10,000, about
one-fourth her original cost.
Scott continued to
travel around the country giving lectures and making preparations to publish
a book about the expedition. Scott wrote, "Of all things I dread
having to write a narrative and am wholly doubtful of my capacity; in
any event if I have to do it, it will take me a long time. I have not...the
pen of a ready writer". By the start of 1905 the book was nearly
completed. On October 12, 1905, in an edition of 3000 copies, the Voyage
of the Discovery was published. An incredible piece of work, the two-volume
edition was profusely illustrated with Wilson's drawings and Skelton's
photographs. Scott needlessly worried about his abilities for writing
as nearly all the critics praised it. The Times Literary Supplement
called it "a masterly work". His former crewmembers each received
a free copy and they all loved it. Scott insisted on sending Wilson a
check for £100 as a fee for reproducing his drawings; Wilson refused
but Scott made him take it anyway. (Today, a single drawing can fetch
$10,000 or more.) The book sold reasonably well; the first edition sold
out immediately so 1500 more copies were printed the following month.
But then the sales fell dramatically; when the book went out of print
in 1919, total sales amounted to 5,272 copies. (Try to find one!) Scott
was a little concerned with Armitage's newly published book, Two Years
in the Antarctic which also came out in the autumn of 1905, but he
wrote nothing derogatory about his former leader.
Scott was single and
thirty-seven years old when, in April 1906, he announced at an RGS meeting
that "I am sorry to say that my lines are cast in such places that
in all probability I shall not return to those regions". But there
was a great deal of emotion as in the same speech he touched on "those
fields of snow sparkling in the sun, the pack-ice and bergs and blue sea,
and those mountains, those glorious southern mountains, rearing their
heads in desolate grandeur. The movements of the pack, those small mysterious
movements with the hush sound that comes across the water, and I hear
also the swish of the sledge...I cannot explain to you, they will always
drag my thought back to those good times when these things were before
me". Bernacchi wrote years later, "Those were golden days and
their memories are fraught with joy". Michael Barne, with frostbitten
fingers, was already trying to raise money to finance his own expedition.
Later in April, Scott was saying that "in all probability" he
would return to the Antarctic as London society expected him to make a
dash for the Pole. In September, Scottish playwright J. M. Barrie wrote
to Scott, "I chuckle with joy to hear all the old hankerings are
coming back to you. I feel you have to go out again, and I too keep an
eye open for the man with the dollars". By early 1907 , Scott had
made up his mind to lead a second expedition to the Antarctic.
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