Race to the South Pole
Until the mid 1890s, almost all polar exploration had taken place in the north of the world. But after Robert Peary made his successful attempt on the North Pole in 1909, interest turned towards the South Pole as it was the last unconquered place on Earth.
Robert Falcon Scott
In 1910 the South Pole had still not been reached despite two attempts. Captain Robert Scott and two companions got to 82° 16’ S on 30th December 1903 and Ernest Shackleton with three companions had reached 88º 23’ S on 9th January 1909. Scott decided to make a further attempt and set out on his second Antarctic expedition in 1910. The attainment of the South Pole was Scott’s public objective.
Scott left London in June 1910, with 65 men, 17 ponies, 30 dogs and 3 motorized sledges. He had no idea that he was about to start a very serious race. Unknown to almost everybody, a very remarkable competitor had just left his own country with the aim of racing against Scott to the South Pole.
Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen was an experienced explorer and had been making preparations to be the first man to the North Pole when he heard that Peary had already claimed it.
So he decided to go south and
become the first man to reach the South Pole. Amundsen
kept his plans secret to prevent Scott from speeding up
his preparations. The first Scott knew of Amundsen’s
plans was a telegram from the explorer which read:
Beg leave to inform you proceeding Antarctica.
Both expeditions arrived in Antarctica in January 1911 and spent the winter either side of the Ross Ice Shelf. Amundsen was better prepared, as he was 110 km closer to the South Pole and had spent time setting up supply depots at stages along the route.
Unlike his rival Amundsen, Scott used ponies as well as dogs to haul the sledges, but the ponies died in the cold and as a result, Scott’s party of five made slow progress. Amundsen and his party used husky dogs to pull their sledges. As food and other provisions were used up and the sledges got lighter, unwanted dogs were shot and eaten, reducing the amount of food required for the expedition. As a result, Amundsen and his team travelled much faster than Scott’s team.
On the 14th December Amundsen and his team reached 90°S – the Pole itself! There was no sign of Scott and they were the first men ever to get to this isolated and barren place.
Meanwhile, Scott was in desperate trouble. Scott and his men had encountered far worse weather than Amundsen and the motorized sledges prove unreliable due to the intense cold, an icy -40°C.
For his final push on the Pole, Scott picked four trusty companions – Edgar Evans, Lawrence Oates, Henry Bowers and Dr Edward Wilson. But on the 16th January 1912, a terrible sight greeted them. They spotted a flag in the distance and knew that Amundsen had beaten them to the end of the earth.
Scott group
The men’s intense disappointment can be seen
in the group photograph taken at the Pole. Scott wrote
in his diary: The Pole, yes, but under very different
circumstances to those expected…
Great God! this is an awful place…
Scott and his men set off to struggle back to their base camp, but they were already weak, undernourished and exhausted as they left the Pole. In addition to the hard work of man-hauling, frostbite, scurvy and snow-blindness were beginning to take their toll.
Amundsen and his party all returned home safely, but Scott and his team all perished, three of them within 18 km of life-saving provisions. The race to the South Pole was over and Amundsen claimed the prize.
Despite being beaten to the Pole, Scott’s last expedition accomplished a great deal of important science. In fact, the push for research had itself played a part in contributing to the party’s destruction, since the men dragged a sledge that carried, amongst other items, 16 kg of geological samples.
Robert Scott
In his `Message to the Public’ Scott said:
We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past…Had we lived I should have had a tail 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…
Ironically it was Scott who became the great hero, rather than Amundsen once the world knew about Amundsen’s incredible achievement. During the First World War (1914 – 18) the story of Scott’s heroic ordeal for the glory of England was told to British soldiers in the trenches of France. When Scott’s wife died, letters were found among her belongings from soldiers saying that Scott’s writings had helped them face the hardships of war.
This epic march to the Geographical South Pole in 1912 was the last Royal Navy expedition to the South Pole until Polar Quest became the modern-day successors of Captain Scott.
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