Great Expeditions: 50 Journeys that changed our world. Levison Wood

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       An extract of a German map from the period showing the explorers’ routes to the South Pole.

      Unfinished business

      In 1909, Scott heard that his former fellow explorer Shackleton had got to within 180 km (112 miles) of the Pole on his Nimrod Expedition before being forced to turn back. Scott was aware that other polar ventures were being planned and, gripped by ‘Polemania’, he duly announced that he would lead another Antarctic expedition. Hopes were now high that a Briton would be the first to stand on the bottom of the world, and Scott did not want to disappoint. His expedition sailed from Cardiff in June 1910 on the former whaling ship, Terra Nova on a seven-month journey to Antarctica.

      While Scott was looking south, Amundsen had his sights set on the North Pole. However, in 1909, he heard that two separate American expeditions, led by Robert Peary and Frederick Cook, had both attained this goal, so he decided instead to head for Antarctica. (Peary and Cook are both now generally considered not to have attained the North Pole.) Amundsen and his crew left Oslo on the Fram (the ship previously used by Fridtjof Nansen, see page 188), heading south on 3 June 1910.

      When Scott got to Melbourne, Australia, he found a telegram from Amundsen, announcing that he was ‘proceeding south’. The Terra Nova stopped for supplies in New Zealand and then turned south in late November. Scott now had a run of what he termed ‘sheer bad luck’. A heavy storm killed two ponies and a dog, and also caused 10,200 kg (10 tons) of coal and 300 l (65 gallons) of petrol to be lost overboard. The Terra Nova then got stuck in the pack ice for twenty days before managing to break clear.

      The Fram’s run south in the meantime, had been relatively smooth.

       A recent satellite image from a similar vantage point. The Ross Ice Shelf, Transantarctic Mountains (top half) and Ross Sea (lower half) are clearly visible.

       A historical Bird’seye view map of Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition. Scott’s route can also be seen (with added annotations) as it followed the same route as Shackleton’s 1907–09 expedition.

      The rivals meet at the end of the Earth

      The Pole attempts had to be made in the Antarctic summer as conditions were too severe during the rest of the year. This period of relatively better weather and constant light only lasted from November to March. The plan was to arrive during one summer, set up camp and see out the winter, then push for the Pole when the next summer’s weather window opened.

      The Terra Nova finally reached Ross Island on 4 January 1911. Scott’s team set up their base camp at a cape near where he had camped on his Discovery Expedition nine years before. They had at least nine months before they would make their Pole attempt. In the meantime, Scott was determined to keep busy, and to pursue their scientific goals. He sent a party east to explore King Edward VII Land and Victoria Land. This team was returning westward when it was astonished to see Amundsen’s expedition camped in the Bay of Whales, an inlet on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. The Norwegians had arrived on 14 January. Amundsen was friendly to the Englishmen, offering them a welcome to camp nearby and care for their dogs. These offers were declined and the party returned to base camp. Scott wrote about the meeting in his journal: ‘One thing only fixes itself in my mind. The proper, as well as the wiser, course is for us to proceed exactly as though this had not happened. To go forward and do our best for the honour of our country without fear or panic.’

       Roald Amundsen in furs, c.1912.

      Different men, different strategies

      There were three main stages to be tackled on the 1,450 km (900 mile) trek to the Pole: crossing the Ross Ice Shelf (an area the size of France); ascending a glacier to reach the polar plateau; and then crossing that plateau to the Pole itself. Once at the pole the journey then had to be done in reverse.

      The two expeditions planned different strategies for their attempts. Amundsen would use his beloved dogs to pull his team and supplies all the way to the Pole. Scott would use a combination of ponies (which Shackleton had used on his record push), dogs and motor sleds to haul the big loads across the ice shelf. This would allow the men to save their strength for the ascent onto the plateau and the push for the Pole, which they would do pulling their own sleds.

      They could not haul all the supplies they would need, so both parties had to lay out caches of food on their routes. This had to be done before winter arrived to allow the expeditions to start in earnest in the following spring.

      On 27 January, Scott hurriedly began laying supplies but their ponies were not up to the task and several died. The men were also slowed by a vicious blizzard. These delays made Scott decide to lay their main supply point, One Ton Depot, 56 km (35 miles) north of its planned location. This decision would cost the returning party dearly.

      The Norwegian party used skis and dog sleds to lay supply caches at 80°, 81° and 82° south on a route aimed directly at the Pole, without major incident.

      Winter descended and both expeditions settled down in their base camps to ride it out.

       Captain Scott writing in his journal in the expedition hut in October 1911, before setting out for the pole.

      Across the ice shelf

      On 8 September 1911, Amundsen’s team set out for the Pole but within days they were beaten back by savage weather. They immediately began preparing for another attempt and, on 19 October, a group using four sledges and fifty-two dogs set off from base camps on a direct line south. They spent nearly four weeks crossing the ice shelf before reaching the base of the Antarctic plateau. Here they discovered a new glacier, which was shorter and steeper than the colossal Beardmore Glacier that Scott was ascending. They СКАЧАТЬ