Captain Scott's Lost Photos From South Pole Expedition Unveiled
The Huffington Post UK
Previously unseen photographs from Captain Scott's doomed 1911 expedition to the South Pole have been discovered, some of which were taken by the ill-fated explorer himself.
The photos, which depict scenes from the Terra Nova Expedition as it travelled the Antarctic, were acquired by the Scott Polar Research Institute in spring this year. People have known of the existence of Scott's photographs, but they've been thought to be missing for nearly 100 years.
They have gone on display this week at the University of Cambridge 's Polar Museum
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"I am just going outside and may be some time." Captain Oates  |
Snow goggles, clothing, and equipment
Snow goggles were essential equipment for polar explorers. These goggles belonged to explorer William Laird McKinlay, one of the scientific staff on the disastrous Canadian National Arctic Expedition 1913-1918.
McKinlay told the story of the expedition and his survival for over a year on Wrangel Island in 'The last voyage of the Karluk' published in 1976 when he was 87.
McKinlay's goggles were presented to the National Library of Scotland along with his papers by his family.
Types of snow goggles
Snow goggles were used to protect the eyes and to prevent snow blindness. This was a painful eye condition caused by exposure to sunlight reflected from snow and ice.
Goggles were worn almost constantly by Captain Scott's expedition team. Scott described the variety of goggles available:
'A few men preferred the ordinary wire-gauze type with smoked glass but the drawback to these was their liability to become frosted over. The alternatives were to have a piece of leather with a slit in place of the glass or to have goggles cut from a piece of wood. Personally, I much preferred the latter and in the end invariably used them; mine were very carefully shaped to fit over the nose and eyes, had a considerable cross-shaped aperture, and were blackened outside and in.'
Clothing
Weather conditions in Antarctica are the harshest in the world. Early Antarctic explorers wore clothing made of natural materials, such as wool and fur. Before the British Antarctic Expedition took place, Scott organised for some tests to be carried out on different types of material. This was to find out which were most suitable in terms of insulation, waterproofing, and durability.
The Norwegian expedition team wore more fur clothing than the British team. The Norwegians relied heavily on dog sledges, and the fur helped to protect the men from cold whilst sitting on the sledges. Scott however was more reliant on man-hauling. The men would have been too hot whilst undertaking this strenuous physical activity in fur clothing.
The reindeer fur boots made by the Lapps for the British expedition team were called 'finnesko'. They were lined with felt and insulated with hay called 'seannegrass'.
Each member of the expedition team was responsible for caring for and repairing their own items of clothing. They were able to adapt their kit to suit their own individual preferences and needs. The kit would have included:
Windproof outer layers, such as canvas trousers and hooded smocks
Reindeer fur gloves
Strong boots with canvas wrappings to keep out the wind
Woollen undergarments.
Modern day explorers and travellers have the benefit of lightweight, synthetic, breathable material. You can find out more about modern Antarctic clothing on the Cool Antarctica website.
Sleeping bags and sledges
Scott and his team used sleeping bags made of reindeer fur. This worked well when the men were at base camp and conditions were dry. However, if the sleeping bags got wet or iced up, they soon became stiff and heavy to carry.
Apsley Cherry-Garrad described the sleeping bags in his book 'The worst journey in the world', first published in 1922:
'When we got into our sleeping-bags, if we were fortunate, we became warm enough during the night to thaw the ice: part remained in our clothes, part passed into the skins of the bags … and soon both were sheets of armour-plate'.
The sledges were made of wood, leather, and rope. The conservation team at the Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge
Pony snow shoes
Special snow shoes were made for Scott's team of Siberian ponies. Using a circle of wire for the base, the shoes were created from bamboo, and were fitted to the ponies with leather straps. Enough shoes were transported for all of the ponies. However, before the initial depot laying expedition in 1911, there was not enough time to train the ponies in their use. Scott was not convinced that they would be effective, and only one pair was taken on the journey.
The ponies had great difficulty walking in the snow, and the one available pair of snow shoes proved to be invaluable when tried out on one pony, Weary Willie. Scott regretted having left the other pairs at Cape Evans
Suggested discussion points
Find out the average summer and winter temperature where you live, and compare these with the average temperatures at Scott Base in Antarctica .
Think about the clothes that you wear, and the fabrics that they're made of. Check the labels and list some of the materials. Which of these fabrics help to keep you dry, cool, or warm? Are these materials natural or synthetic?
Find out more about the weather conditions and terrain in Antarctica . What are some of the challenges of living or visiting the continent? What type of clothing and equipment are essential for survival in this type of climate and environment?
Discuss the potential psychological impact of living in or visiting Antarctica . Consider the climate, and also the amount of daylight during the two seasons — summer and winter.
What animals are indigenous to the region, and how have they adapted to living in such harsh conditions?
Photograph of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's team finding Amundsen's tent at the South Pole
Captain Scott’s party suffered terribly, while the Norwegian group led by Amundsen mastered the elements
A farewell letter from polar explorer Captain Scott in which he pledged that his team would "die like gentlemen" is expected to sell for £150,000 at auction. The letter, which was found on Scott's body in November 1912, was written on March 16 of that year to financier Sir Edgar Speyer, honorary treasurer of the fund-raising committee for the ill-fated trip. Scott wrote, "We have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen."
Picture: Kirsty WigglesworthFarewell letter from Captain Scott pledged Antarctic team would 'die like gentlemen'
A farewell letter from polar explorer Captain Scott in which he pledged that his team would "die like gentlemen" is expected to sell for £150,000 at auction.
10:24AM GMT 20 Dec 2011 / http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/robert-falcon-scott/8967968/Farewell-letter-from-Captain-Scott-pledged-Antarctic-team-would-die-like-gentlemen.html
The letter, which was found on Scott's body in November 1912, was written on March 16 of that year to financier Sir Edgar Speyer, honorary treasurer of the fund-raising committee for the ill-fated trip.
In it, Scott expresses his great concerns for his family and the families of his companions and asks that the nation provide for their future.
Sensing that the position was hopeless, Scott wrote, "I fear we must go...but we have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen - I regret only for the women we leave behind. If this diary is found it will show how we stuck by our dying companions and fought this thing out to the end.
"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 lacked support."
The letter was at one time owned by the famous American polar explorer, Rear Admiral Richard E Byrd, and was presented to him at a dinner in his honour in 1935 by Sir Edgar Speyer's widow.
The recipient of the letter, Edgar Speyer, was a well known business, political and philanthropic figure before the First World War. He had played a major role in raising funds for Scott's expedition and Mount Speyer in the Arctic was named in his honour by Scott.
American born to a wealthy German family, Speyer 30 in 1892. A great patron of the arts, particularly music, he personally funded the Proms for many years and single- handedly secured their long tem future. Richard Strauss dedicated his opera Salome to him.
Scott need not have worried about the future of the team's widows and orphans. Once the contents of his final letters became known, there was a huge outpouring of public sympathy resulting in enough money not only to pay off the expedition's debts but also to settle annuities on the families of those who died and to endow the Scott Polar Research Institute.
The letter, which has an estimate of £100,000 -£150,000 is for sale at Bonhams Polar Sale in London
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“Gieves, the naval taillor, had been the main supplier of Royal Navy officers' uniforms since the late 18th Century and Scott was just one of its customers, who wore the then-standard "Reefer No. 5," a high-buttoning, close-fitting, double-breasted jacket worn by all ranks from lieutenant up. It is this garment that is largely considered the original pattern for the classic navy blazer.” (…) By Nick Sullivan on March 23, 2012 / http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/robert-falcon-scott-gieves-jacket-032312 |
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Scott outlined his plans for the southern journey to the entire shore party, but left open who would form the final polar team. Eleven days before Scott's teams set off towards the pole, Scott gave the dog driver Meares the following written orders at 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 The march south began on 1 November The deflated party began the 800-mile ( Meanwhile back at With After walking a further We took risks, we knew 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 ... Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for. Scott is presumed to have died on 29 March 1912, possibly a day later. The positions of the bodies in the tent when it was discovered eight months later suggested that Scott was the last of the three to die |
Captain Scott: a second-rate hero?
After a lifetime's research, Roland Huntford thinks he has finally nailed the myth of Scott of the Antarctic: far from being a national hero, the explorer was an amateur whose incompetence condemned his men to death
John Crace
The Guardian, Monday 27 September 2010 /
It was hard to escape Captain Scott if you were a child growing up in Britain
And then – almost overnight – the Scott myth ended in 1979 with the publication of Roland Huntford's book, Scott and Amundsen. For the first time, the British and Norwegian expeditions to the south pole were forensically examined side by side and Scott was found seriously wanting.
The undisputed facts remained the same – that Amundsen and his team reached the south pole on 15 December 1911 using skis, dogs and sledges, before returning safely to their base camp just over a month later. And that, after Scott's polar party reached the south pole on 17 January 1912 using skis, dogs, sledges and man-hauling, the team died one by one: Edgar Evans died of exhaustion, frostbite and starvation on or around 16 February; Captain Oates, his leg frost-bitten and gangrenous, walked to his death on or around 17 March; and Scott, Wilson and Bowers, too tired to go on, died in their tent out on the Ross Ice Shelf on or around 21 March.
Everything else in the story, however, was up for grabs. Where Amundsen's attention to detail made his expedition seem no more demanding than a skiing trip in the Norwegian outdoors, Scott's appeared a disaster almost from the off. According to Huntford's account, he ignored the basic lessons of previous polar expeditions by failing to either take enough dogs or learn how to drive them properly; he took men who barely knew how to ski; he came unprepared for extreme temperatures; he was indecisive, taking an extra person with him to the pole when his supplies had been based on a team of four. Worst was the veiled accusation that because of all this, which had reduced his frost-bitten men to man-hauling in a blizzard, Scott had effectively condemned his team to death.
It was a damning indictment: one from which rehabilitation seemed impossible. And yet, within 25 years or so, serious writers and academics began to rewrite history in Scott's favour again. First came Ranulph Fiennes in 2003, dismissing Huntford for not being an explorer himself; in the same year, Susan Solomon suggested Scott had just been unusually unlucky with the weather.
Huntford, though, has never been one to duck a fight. He has devoted the last 35 years of his academic career to the study of polar exploration – and in particular to the Scott and Amundsen story. Indeed, his own reputation is now inextricably linked to both men. Two years ago he wrote Two Planks and a Passion and this week he publishes Race for the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen. The first of these was a history of skiing, the second the unedited diaries, but the subtext of both was the same: to nail the Scott myth once and for all.
The Expedition Diaries breaks new ground by letting both men live and die side by side in their own words. And so, on the very day Scott is complaining about unexpectedly cold conditions, Amundsen writes that the temperatures are about what he expected and he is making good progress. And on days when Scott is tent-bound in a blizzard, Amundsen is again achieving his expected daily distance, because he has brought proper sledge compasses. This is a story of amateurs and professionals, heightened by entries from the diaries of Olav Bjaaland, Amundsen's lead skier, who makes the whole thing sound like a day in the Norwegian mountains.
Even more damning for Scott's reputation, Huntford has restored all the cuts that Scott's family and literary executors had made to his published diaries. Here we find a man given to blaming his colleagues for his own failings; a man with a strong sense – quite early in the expedition – that his preparations have been inadequate; a man who describes one of his dying colleagues as stupid; a man who, on realising he has missed out on being the first to the pole, writes that he can still salvage his reputation if he can get the news to the outside world before Amundsen. A man eager to mask his failure by playing up his mission's scientific endeavour. A man who at one point writes his expedition is a shambles.
"Before Scott left for the Antarctic, the British public had little interest in him," says Huntford. "He was considered an inferior version of Shackleton [who then held the record for the going the furthest south] and polar exploration wasn't big in the public imagination, being considered the preserve of the Royal Geographical Society and the navy and therefore a hive of mediocrity. Those with the real ability in extreme conditions went into mountaineering; the unwritten story of British polar exploration is the men who didn't go."
Amundsen's success in reaching the south pole was broadcast almost a year before news of Scott's fate reached the outside world. In that time, while some of the British newspapers were a little huffy about Amundsen having concealed from Scott his intention of heading south, the British public were fairly sanguine. Amundsen's UK
All that changed in 1913 when news came through that Scott and his men had died. "There was a public outpouring of grief almost on a par with what we later saw with the death of Princess Diana," says Huntford. "The British have frequently made a virtue of disaster, and have a perverse attraction to romantic heroes who fail rather than to Homeric ones who succeed. Most important of all was that Scott was dead; had he come home alive, he would have been soon forgotten."
Yet even this Diana moment was comparatively short-lived. When Scott's expedition diaries came out towards the end of 1913, the reviews were mixed at best – as if the critics suspected the edited diaries were covering up a truth altogether more uncomfortably prosaic than the legend they had been sold. By the time the first world war started, Scott's memory had been half eclipsed; by the end it had been almost totally so.
It was the aftermath of the first world war that was largely responsible for Scott's revival. "The war was the first fought on an epic scale and it left the country with a vacuum of heroes," says Huntford. "There were no Wellingtons
The publication in 1922 of The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the expedition member who had discovered the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers, put Scott back on a national pedestal, and with the release of the 1947 film Scott of the Antarctic, with its Vaughan Williams soundtrack , his heroic status remained almost untouched for more than 50 years.
By the time Huntford began his research in the mid-70s, the Scott family and the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge
The Scott family were right to be concerned. Huntford had been ruthless in his research, and though Scott did not go undefended, Huntford's version rapidly became widely accepted. And yet the Scott legend refuses to die to this day.
"It's strange," says Huntford. "Shackleton, who didn't lose a man when the Endurance was crushed in the Antarctic ice, remains a footnote in the national psyche, while Scott still has an iconic status. Only in Britain
The Race for the South Pole represents Huntford's final attempt to get Scott and Amundsen's legacies restored to what he believes should be their proper balance. There is simply no more evidence left to find. Will it be enough? Possibly not.
Scott will always have his supporters – and maybe that is as it should be. After all, decline and fall is a paradigm of British life over much of the last hundred years. Perhaps we get the national heroes we deserve.