The
Journey to the Pole
A party set out first with supplies with the motor sledges while the others with ponies and
dogs followed behind. One machine soon gave out while the
other was abandoned shortly afterwards.
On November 1st 1911, twelve men,
each with a pony and sledge, left Cape Evans in detachments. This included the
final party of five that would push on towards the pole. The other men were not
to reach the pole, their role was supportive in helping transport supplies for
the polar party and establishing depots for the polar party to use on the way
back. They would then return to the
winter quarters at Hut point.
The distance from the winter quarters at Hut Point to the Pole and
back was 1766 statute miles (further than Land's End to John O'Groats and back
again, (or from New York city to Wyoming, Chicago or Denver). Every step of the way had to be marched on foot,
with or without skis.
They travelled by night for the benefit of the ponies.
Temperatures never rose above zero Fahrenheit (-18°C). Fighting constant snowfalls, the
team reached One Ton Camp on the fifteenth day. There was a constant worry that
the ponies would not be able to keep going and upon reaching Camp 20 on November
24th, the first
pony was killed. Four camps later, on December 1st, the second pony was shot. Depots were made at regular intervals of
roughly seventy miles, each containing food and fuel for a week for the
returning parties.
The weather that season was particularly bad, extreme cold
interspersed with warmer than usual blizzards that melted the snow and made
everything wet and travelling impossible. The ponies continued to have a
difficult time of it sinking to the level of their bellies in the soft snow and
becoming totally exhausted, they were shot and left behind as a depot, leaving
the remainder of the travelling to manhauling.
Each of the party then began by pulling around 200 pounds
through soft snow into which they sank into nearly up to their knees. They were
affected by snow-blindness and sometimes stumbled into crevasses, sledges and all.
On December 13th, the day before Amundsen reached the Pole, in nine hours the
party had advanced less than four miles. On
December 20th Scott named the first returning party of four. Scott had dreaded this moment as all had pulled to
the limit of their strength, but were now to be deprived of their reward,
attainment of the South Pole. They reached "home" at Hut point 35 days
later on January 26th.
The remaining men made good progress and soon the time came
for Scott to make his second difficult announcement that a further three men
were to return to Hut point leaving the final party of five to continue to the
pole. The two parties separated on January 3rd at 87°32'S, at an
altitude of 10,280 feet and 169 miles from the Pole.
Scott
and the others followed Shackleton's route, on January 6th they crossed the line
of latitude where Shackleton turned back and were farther south, 88°23'S, as they
believed, than any man had been before. They were now 97 miles from the pole,
but this took them ten days to cover this due to the weather conditions and
state of the snow and ice that they were pulling across.
The men were growing very tired by this point, progress was
often made of only five, six or seven miles a day. Each day was a hard grind and
was taking a dreadful toll on the men. On January 16th they made good progress and
thought that they would reach the Pole the following day. In the afternoon of
that day,
Bowers spotted something ahead which looked like a cairn. Half and hour later
they realized the black speck was a flag tied to a sledge bearer. Nearby was
the remains of a camp along with tracks made by sledges and dogs.
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"This told us the whole story. The Norwegians have forestalled
us and are first at the Pole. It is a terrible disappointment and I am very sorry
for my loyal companions. Many thoughts come and much discussion we have
had. To-morrow we must march on 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". |
January the 17th was "....a horrible day..." , a
strong headwind and temperatures of -30°C giving three of them frostbite. Scott's
journal records "Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us
to have laboured to it without the reward of priority".
They reached the pole on January 18th to find a small
tent supported by a single bamboo flying a Norwegian flag. Inside was a record
of the five who had been the first to reach the pole;
There was also a letter to be
delivered to King Haakon of Norway.
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"We built a cairn, put up our poor slighted
Union Jack, and photographed ourselves - mighty cold work all of it....."
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The return trip started out fairly well but the
weather would inevitably become more severe and there was no incentive of being
the first to reach the pole to cheer them and spur them onwards. Scott wrote on
the 21st of January "Oates is feeling the cold and fatigue more than most
of us" and on the 23rd of January "Wilson suddenly discovered Evans
nose was frostbitten - it was white and hard. There is no
doubt that Evans is a good deal run down".
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By the 24th the first note of
serious apprehension entered into Scott's diary entries:
"This is the second
full gale since we left the pole. I don't like the look of it. Is the weather breaking up? If so God help
us, with the tremendous journey and scanty food".
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The men were becoming tired now and
injuries were increasing, Wilson suffered snow-blindness, Oates had frostbitten
feet. Frostbite also affected Evans' fingers and nose. They had many falls,
Scott damaging his shoulder in one. Evans had a bad fall on the 4th of
February suffering concussion - he was never to really recover.
They became lost at one point while
descending the Beardmore glacier and had a nightmarish two days in badly
crevassed and broken ice not knowing in which direction to head and becoming
more despondent. They were down to their last meal and unable to find the food
depot until at the last they did so. "It was an immense relief and we were
soon in possession of our three and a half days food. The relief to all is
inexpressible.......... Yesterday was the worst experience of the trip and gave a
horrid feeling of insecurity".
February 16th - "Evans has nearly broken down in brain, we think".
The next day he started reasonably well but soon left his sledge traces to walk
alongside. He fell further and further back and was soon out of sight. By
lunchtime the others went back to find him. He was on his knees, clothing
disarranged, hands uncovered and frostbitten and with a "wild look in his
eyes". He was placed onto a sledge and taken to the camp they had set up,
he was comatose by the time he was placed in the tent. He died quietly at 12.30
a.m.
The weather continued to be against
them, particularly intense cold down to -40°C and the surface bad beyond their
worst fears. On March 5th Scott records "Oates' feet are in a wretched
condition... The poor soldier is very nearly done." Despite the cold and
awful surfaces Oates kept going attended to by Wilson the doctor, but on March
the 16th he proposed that his companions leave him in his sleeping bag and
continue themselves. A request they could not grant and induced him to join the
afternoon march when they made a few extra miles. He was worse that night and
went to sleep hoping not to wake, he did wake however to find a blizzard
blowing. His last words were "I am just going outside and may be
some time." He walked out to his death so that he would no longer be a
burden to his friends who themselves were in worsening physical condition. His
feet had been so bad and the process of putting his boots on so painful that he
didn't go through this torture and walked out to his death in his socks.
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"We knew that poor
Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it
was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman. We all hope to meet the end
with a similar spirit and assuredly the end is not far." |
The last camp was made on March 19th
only 11 miles from the next depot. They woke on the 20th to another raging
blizzard. Scott was suffering badly from a frostbitten foot and Wilson and
Bowers were to go to the depot for fuel. By the 22nd they still had not been
able to set off, the blizzard was as bad as ever. They never left this final
camp having run out of food and fuel, eventually being too weak, cold and hungry
to attempt the march. On the 29th of March 1912 Scott made his last diary entry;
It seems a pity but I do not think
I can write more."
The tent and the three frozen bodies
were not discovered until nearly 8 months later on November 12th that year. A great cairn of ice was
raised over their bodies surmounted by a cross made from skis, a sledge was
stood on one end in a smaller cairn nearby.
A search was made for Captain Oates'
body, but it was never found, only his discarded sleeping bag, cut open for much
of the length to enable him to enter it with badly frostbitten feet.
A cairn was placed at the scene of the search with a note that began
"Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman...."
Later at hut point a cross was
erected to the memory of :
Lieutenant H. R. Bowers
Petty officer Edgar "Taff"
Evans
Captain L. E. G. Oates
Captain R. F. Scott
Dr. E. A. Wilson
More
recent pictures of Scott's Cape Evans hut
Historical photographs on this page by
permission of National Library of Australia
