ANNIVERSARIES

Disaster hits the explorer’s race to the south pole

Tuesday16 January 1912 ought to have been the happiest day of Robert Falcon Scott’s life. After years of preparations, his British expedition team were only a few miles from the south pole, and on the brink of one of the greatest achievements in the history of exploration. And then – disaster.

Scott’s journal entry that night captured his dreadful disappointment. “The worst has happened, or nearly the worst,” he wrote. Not long after they had set off in the morning, one of his men had spotted a mysterious ‘ black speck’ in the distance. “We marched on, and found that it was a black flag tied to a sledge bearer; near by the remains of a camp; sledge tracks and ski tracks going and coming and the clear trace of dogs’ paws – many dogs. This told us the whole story. The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the pole.”

Not even Scott’s habitual sang-froid could mask his shock that the rival Norwegian team, led by Roald Amundsen, had got there first.

“It is a terrible disappointment,” he wrote, “and I am very sorry for my loyal companions. Many thoughts come and much discussion have we had. Tomorrow we must march on to the pole and then hasten home with all the speed we can compass. All the day dreams must go; it will be a wearisome return.”

Few of the team slept much that night, and the next day they pressed on to the pole anyway. “Great God! this is an awful place,” Scott wrote. “Well, it is something to have got here… Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I wonder if we can do it.”