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DISASTER AT THE SOUTH POLE

11 February 1913

News reached London last night that Captain Scott and four of his comrades in the expedition which set out for the Antarctic on board the Terra Nova in 1910 have lost their lives. The circumstances in which disaster has befallen the little party of British explorers will serve to intensify the national concern; for the same telegram from Christchurch, New Zealand, which tells of their fate announces also that they had reached the South Pole on January 18 of last year and were returning in triumph to the base. According to the message which we print in another column, signed by Commander Evans, who was second in command of the expedition, the members of the party were but 155 miles from the base in March when they were overtaken by a blizzard, and Captain Scott, Dr. E.A. Wilson, the surgeon, and Lieutenant Bowers died from exposure. Captain Oates had met a similar fate on March 17 – twelve days before the others perished – and Petty Officer Evans had died exactly a month earlier.

The search party who discovered the bodies found also a message from the leader of the expedition in which he gives the causes of the disaster and says:

I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardship, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks – we know we took them. Things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last.

CAPTAIN SCOTT’S PROGRAMME.

The British Antarctic Expedition in the Terra Nova reached its base of operations on the edge of the great ice barrier in December, 1910. Operations were at once begun to carry out the programme which Captain Scott had laid down. When the party had been landed at McMurdo Sound the ship went eastwards along the face of the ice barrier for some 400 miles in order to land a party, if possible, on King Edward VII Land; with a view to the exploration of that side of the Antarctic, which is practically unknown. Unfortunately the party were unable to make a landing, and on their return Commander Evans came across the Fram in Balloon Bay, and so ascertained for the first time the presence and position of Captain Amundsen’s expedition. The news was taken to Captain Scott, who was naturally affected by the presence of his rival so near his own base of operations. But that did not influence in the least his programme, which he carried out to the letter, to the undoing of himself and the four brave men who accompanied him.

The other work which was included in the comprehensive plan of operation was all started before Captain Scott and his party left for the South. The party which was to have landed at King Edward VII Land proceeded to Cape Adaire, whence exploration was to be carried on along the coast on the sea ice. At the base of the expedition arrangements were made for an extensive scheme of scientific operations, which was carried out with exceptional completeness.

THE START FOR THE POLE.

The party under Captain Scott left Hut Point on November 2, 1911, and on December 10 reached the Beardmore Glacier, one of the most formidable obstacles to the progress of a Polar party on that side of the Great Barrier. The party succeeded in overcoming all obstacles, and on December 21 they were on the plateau, 8,600 feet above sea level. Here they sent back their dogs, and Captain Scott and his companions dragged their own sledges all the way to the Pole. The last supporting party left Captain Scott and his companions in excellent health and spirits on January 4, 1912, in 87.35 South, 150 miles from the Pole. The Pole was reached, according to the information which has been received, in 14 days, which was very good travelling in the circumstances. It was on their return from this brilliant exploit that disaster overtook the party.

Captain Robert Scott, a naval officer, had sprung to fame following his first Antarctic expedition of 1901–04, which had discovered the vast plateau that contains the site of the South Pole itself.

When he set off to return in 1910, it was with the aim of reaching the Pole for Britain first, ahead of a Norwegian attempt led by Roald Amundsen. But when Scott gained his goal on 29 January 1912, he found his rival had beaten him by a month.

Scott and the four others with him set off again on foot for their base, 862 miles (1387 kilometres) away. Dogs failed to meet them as he had ordered, and two of the team had died by the time that the remaining three, including Scott, perished in their tent during a blizzard at the end of March 1912. They were 12 miles from the next food depot.

Their bodies were not retrieved until November. As with the Titanic, Scott’s death seemed to a generation to presage wider disaster and comfort was sought in the stoic manner of his sacrifice. His reputation was subsequently savaged by historians writing when new technology had made such journeys seem futile, but more recently his competence has been re-established.