Robert Falcon Scott was born on the 6th of June 1868. The third of six children
and elder son of John Edward a brewer and magistrate and his mother Hannah
Scott. Robert's story is one of honour leadership and courage a journey and an
adventure like no other, one that would cement his name in history. It's a story
of one man and his mission.
Opening Titles & Music
The Scott family had naval and military traditions Scott's grandfather and four
uncles all having served in the Army or Navy. His father John Scott's prosperity
came from the ownership of a small Plymouth brewery which he had inherited
from his father and subsequently sold. Scott's early childhood years were spent
in comfort, but some years later when he was establishing his naval career, the
family suffered serious financial misfortune. In accordance with the family's
tradition, Scott and his younger brother
Archie, were predestined for careers in the armed services. Scott spent four
years at a local day school before being sent to Stubbington House School in Hampshire,
A cramming establishment that prepared candidates for the entrance examinations
to the Naval Training ship HMS Britannia at Dartmouth. Having passed these exams
Scott began his naval career in 1881 as a 13 year old cadet.
In July 1883 Scott passed out of Britannia
as a midshipman, seventh overall in a class of 26. By October,
he was en route to South Africa to join HMS Boadicea, the flagship of the Cape squadron,
the first of several ships on which he served during his midshipman years.
In March 1888 Scott passed his examinations for sub-lieutenant, with four
first-class certificates out of five. His career progressed smoothly with service
on various ships and promotion to lieutenant in 1889. In 1891, after a long spell in
foreign waters he applied for the two-year torpedo training course on HMS
Vernon an important career step. In 1894 while serving as a torpedo officer on
the depot ship HMS Vulcan, Scott learned of the financial calamity that had
overtaken his family. John Scott having sold the brewery and invested the
proceeds unwisely, had lost all his capital and was now virtually bankrupt this
meant that the whole financial responsibility for the family now rested
firmly on Scott's shoulders. In the Royal Navy however opportunities
for career advancement were both limited and keenly sought after by ambitious officers.
Early in June 1899, while home on leave, he had a chance encounter in a
London street with Clements Markham, who was now knighted and President of
the Royal Geographical Society, and learned for the first time of an impending
Antarctic expedition with Discovery. It was the opportunity for early command
and a chance to distinguish himself. The British National Antarctic Expedition
later known as the Discovery Expedition, was a joint enterprise of the RGS and
the Royal Society. A long-cherished dream of Markham's, it required all of his
skills and cunning to bring the expedition to fruition, under naval
command and largely staffed by naval personnel. Scott may not have been
Markham's first choice as leader but, having decided on him, the older man
remained a constant supporter. There were committee battles over the scope of
Scott's responsibilities, with the Royal Society pressing to put a scientist in
charge of the expedition's programme while Scott merely commanded the ship.
Eventually, however, Markham's view prevailed
Scott was given overall command, and was promoted to the rank of commander before
Discovery sailed for the Antarctic on 6 August 1901. King Edward VII
who showed a keen interest in the expedition, visited the Discovery the day
before the ship left British shores in August 1901, and during the visit
appointed Scott a Member of the Royal Victorian Order, his personal gift.
The expedition had both scientific and exploration objectives; the latter
included a long journey south, in the direction of the South Pole.
This march, undertaken by Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson, took them
to a latitude of 82°17′S, about 530 miles from the pole.
A harrowing return journey brought about Shackleton's physical collapse and his
early departure from the expedition. The second year showed improvements in
technique and achievement, culminating in Scott's western journey
which led to the discovery of the Polar Plateau. This has been described by one
writer as "one of the great polar journeys". At the end of the expedition it
took the combined efforts of two relief ships and the use of explosives
to free Discovery from the ice. Although there was later tension between Scott
and Shackleton, when their polar ambitions directly clashed, mutual civilities
were preserved in public; Scott joined in the official receptions
that greeted Shackleton on his return and the two exchanged polite letters
about their respective ambitions. Discovery returned to Britain in
September 1904. The expedition had caught the public imagination, and Scott became
a popular hero. He was awarded a cluster of honours and medals, including many from
overseas, and was promoted to the rank of captain.
He was invited to Balmoral Castle, where King Edward VII promoted him
a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. Scott's next few years were crowded.
For more than a year he was occupied with public receptions, lectures and the
writing of the expedition record, The Voyage of the Discovery. In January
1906 he resumed his full-time naval career. By early 1906 Scott queried
the RGS about the possible funding of a future Antarctic expedition. It was
therefore unwelcome news to him that Ernest Shackleton had announced his own
plans to travel to Discovery's old McMurdo Sound base and launch a bid
for the South Pole from there. Scott claimed in the first of a series of
letters to Shackleton that the area around McMurdo was his own field of work
to which he had prior rights until he chose to give them up, and that Shackleton
should therefore work from an entirely different area. In this he was strongly
supported by Discovery's former zoologist Edward Wilson who asserted
that Scott's rights extended to the entire Ross Sea sector. This Shackleton
refused to concede. Finally, to end the impasse, Shackleton agreed, in a letter to
Scott dated 17 May 1907, to work to the east of the 170°W meridian
and therefore to avoid all the familiar Discovery ground. In the end it was a
promise that he was unable to keep after his search for alternative landing
grounds proved fruitless. With his only other option being to return home,
he set up his headquarters at Cape Royds, close to the old Discovery base. And for
this he was roundly condemned by the British polar establishment at the time.
Scott, who because of his Discovery fame had entered Edwardian society,
first met Kathleen Bruce early in 1907 at a private luncheon party. She was a sculptress,
socialite and cosmopolitan who had studied under Auguste Rodin and whose circle
of friends included Isadora Duncan, Pablo Picasso and Aleister Crowley. Her initial
meeting with Scott was brief, but when they met again later that year, the
mutual attraction was obvious. A stormy courtship followed; Scott was not her
only suitor—his main rival was would-be novelist Gilbert Cannan—and his
absences at sea did not assist his cause. However, Scott's persistence was rewarded
and, on 2 September 1908, at the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, the
wedding took place. Their only child Peter Markham Scott was born on
14 September 1909, he went onto found the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Shackleton returned from the Antarctic having narrowly failed to
reach the Pole, and this gave Scott the impetus to proceed
with plans for his second Antarctic expedition. On 24 March 1909, he took the
Admiralty-based appointment of naval assistant to the Second Sea Lord which
placed him conveniently in London. In December, he was released on half-pay,
to take up the full-time command of the British Antarctic Expedition in 1910, to
be known as the Terra Nova expedition from its ship, Terra Nova.
In a memorandum of 1908, Scott presented his view that man-hauling to the South Pole was
impossible and that motor traction was needed.
Snow vehicles did not yet exist however, and so his engineer Reginald
Skelton developed the idea of a caterpillar track for snow surfaces.
In the middle of 1909 Scott realised that motors were unlikely to get him all
the way to the polethe way to the Pole, and decided additionally to take horse's, dogs and Skis.
On 15 June 1910, Scott's ship, Terra Nova, an old converted whaler, set sail
from Cardiff, South Wales. Scott meanwhile was fundraising in Britain and
joined the ship later in South Africa. Arriving in Melbourne, Australia in
October 1910, Scott received a telegram from Amundsen stating: "Beg leave to
inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic Amundsen," possibly indicating that Scott
faced a race to the pole. The expedition suffered a series
of early misfortunes which hampered the first season's work and impaired
preparations for the main polar march. On its journey from New Zealand to the Antarctic,
Terra Nova nearly sank in a storm
and was then trapped in pack ice for 20 days. Deteriorating weather conditions
and weak, unacclimatised ponies affected the initial depot-laying
journey, so that the expedition's main supply point, One Ton Depot, was laid 35 miles
north of its planned location at 80°S.
Lawrence Oates, in charge of the ponies, advised Scott to kill them for food and
advance to the depot, which Scott refused to do. Oates is reported as saying to Scott,
"Sir, I'm afraid you'll come to regret not taking my advice."
Four ponies died during this journey either from the cold or
because they slowed the team down and were shot. On its return to base, the
expedition learned of the presence of Amundsen, camped with his crew and a large
contingent of dogs in the Bay of Whales, 200 miles to their east. Scott conceded
that his ponies would not be able to start early enough in the season to
compete with Amundsen's cold-tolerant dog teams for the pole, and also
acknowledged that the Norwegian's base was closer to the pole by 69 miles.
Shortly afterwards, the death toll among the ponies increased to six, three
drowning when sea-ice unexpectedly disintegrated, casting in doubt
the possibility of reaching the pole at all. Scott outlined his plans for the
southern journey to the entire shore party, leaving open who would form
final polar team, according to their performance during the polar travel.
Eleven days before Scott's teams set off towards the pole, Scott gave the dog driver Meares
the following written orders at Cape Evans dated 20 October 1911 to
secure Scott's speedy return from the pole using dogs. The march south began on
1 November 1911, a caravan of mixed transport groups motors, dogs, horses,
with loaded sledges, travelling at different rates, all designed to support
a final group of four men who would make a dash for the Pole. The southbound party
steadily reduced in size as successive support teams turned back.
Scott reminded the returning Surgeon-Lieutenant Atkinson of the order "to take the two
dog-teams south in the event of Meares having to return home, as seemed likely"
By 4 January 1912, the last two four-man groups had reached 87°34′S.
Scott announced his decision: five men—
himself, Wilson, Bowers, Oates and Edgar Evans would go forward,
the other three Teddy Evans, William Lashly and Tom Crean would return.
The chosen group marched on, reaching the Pole on 17 January, only to find
that Amundsen had preceded them by five weeks. Scott's anguish is
indicated in his diary: "The worst has happened All the day dreams must go
Great God! This is an awful place" The deflated party began the 862 mile return journey
on 19 January. "I'm afraid the return journey is going to be dreadfully
tiring and monotonous", wrote Scott on that day. The party made good progress
despite poor weather, and had completed the Polar Plateau stage of their journey,
approximately 300 miles, by 7 February. In the following days, as
the party made the 100 mile descent of the Beardmore Glacier, the physical
condition of Edgar Evans, which Scott had noted with concern as early
as 23 January, declined sharply. A fall on 4 February had left Evans
"dull and incapable," and on 17 February, after another fall, he died
near the glacier foot. With 400 miles still to travel across the Ross
Ice Shelf, Scott's party's prospects steadily worsened as, with deteriorating
weather, a puzzling lack of fuel in the depots, hunger and exhaustion, they
struggled northward. On the return journey from the Pole, Scott reached the 82°S
meeting point for the dog teams, 300 miles from Hut Point, three
days ahead of schedule, noting in his diary for 27 February 1912,
"We are naturally always discussing possibility of meeting dogs, where and when, etc.
It is a critical position. We may find ourselves in safety at the next depot,
but there is a horrid element of doubt." On 2 March, Oates began
to suffer from the effects of frostbite and the party's progress slowed as he
was increasingly unable to assist in the workload, eventually only able to drag
himself alongside the men pulling the sledge. By 10 March the
temperature had dropped unexpectedly to below −40 °C In a farewell letter to
Sir Edgar Speyer, dated 16 March, Scott wondered whether he had overshot
the meeting point and fought the growing suspicion that he had in fact been
abandoned by the dog teams: "We very nearly came through, and it's a pity to
have missed it, but lately I have felt that we have overshot our mark. No-one is to blame
and I hope no attempt will be made to suggest that we had lacked support."
On the same day, Oates, whose toes had become frostbitten, voluntarily left
and walked to his death. Scott wrote that Oates' last words were "I am just
going outside and may be some time". After walking 20 miles farther despite Scott's
toes now becoming frostbitten, the three remaining men made their final
camp on 19 March, approximately 12.5 miles short of One Ton Depot.
The next day a fierce blizzard prevented their making any progress.
During the next nine days, as their supplies ran out, and with storms still
raging outside the tent, Scott and his companions wrote their farewell letters.
Scott gave up his diary after 23 March, save for a final entry on
29 March, with its concluding words: "Last entry. For God's sake look after our people".
He left letters to Wilson's mother,
Bowers' mother, a string of notables including his former commander, Sir George Egerton,
his own mother and his wife. Scott is presumed to have died on
29 March 1912, or possibly one 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. The bodies of Scott and his companions were discovered by a
search party on 12 November 1912 and their records retrieved.
Tryggve Gran, who was part of the search party, described the scene as, "snowcovered til
up above the door, with Scott in the middle, half out of his bag ... the frost had
made the skin yellow & transparent & I’ve never seen anything worse in my life."
Their final camp became their tomb; the tent roof was lowered over the bodies
and a high cairn of snow was erected over it, topped by
a roughly fashioned cross, erected using Gran's skis. In January 1913, before
Terra Nova left for home, a large wooden cross was made by the ship's carpenters,
inscribed with the names of the lost party and Tennyson's line from his poem Ulysses
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield", and was erected as a
permanent memorial on Observation Hill, overlooking Hut Point. The world was
informed of the tragedy when Terra Nova reached Oamaru, New Zealand, on
10 February 1913. Within days, Scott became a national icon.
A nationalistic spirit was aroused; the London Evening News
called for the story to be read to schoolchildren throughout the land,
to coincide with the memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral on 14 February.
Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts Association, asked:
"Are Britons going downhill? No! ... There is plenty of pluck and spirit left in the
British after all. Captain Scott and Captain Oates have shown us that".
According to some Scott's reputation was as variable as the climatic
conditions of the time, he has been called a bungler, one who should hold
a significant responsibility to the failure of his mission. But also Scott's
ability and eventual horrific waste tainted him. The ideals of duty,
self-sacrifice, discipline, patriotism and hierarchy
associated with his tragedy leave us with a memory of a man who like any
other adventurer aimed high, aimed to be the best, aimed for success. He lost men but
gave his life doing what he thought was right, and no one can taint him or his men
for their heroic battle to survive.
(Music) Please Subscribe, Like and Hit the Bell for NEW video Releases!