Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
128
traverse with the goal of reaching the North Pole. News had broken the first week of
September 1909 that both Cook and Peary claimed to have taken that prize. Apparently
Amundsen had somehow redirected his Arctic voyage to the south. Could there be any
doubt that his goal was now the South Pole?
Here was a daunting rival to Scott. Rumored American, Japanese, and even Ger-
man expeditions that might be targeting the pole could be dismissed as amateurish or ill
equipped. Not so the Norwegians. Roald Amundsen was renowned for having recently
sailed the fabled Northwest Passage, the quest of three centuries of Arctic exploration.
At the age of twenty-five, he had been among the first men to winter over in Antarctica,
while serving as first mate aboard the Belgica, an ill-equipped Belgian exploring ship.
Commanded by Adrien de Gerlache, the Belgica had frozen fast to the west of the Antarc-
tic Peninsula in March of 1898 and drifted with the ice until breaking free the following
March.
What the Norwegians were up to was a nagging question in the minds of the mem-
bers of the Ter ra No va Expedition as they established their base on Ross Island. They
chose Cape Evans, about midway between Cape Royds and the old winter quarters at
Hut Point (see Figs. 1.17, 2.7). Any existing doubts vanished on February 4, when Ter ra
Nova, returning from a cruise toward King Edward VII Land, found the Fram moored
in the Bay of Whales at the eastern side of the Barrier. Each party showed the other the
utmost courtesy. The oYcers of the Ter ra No va were invited to Framheim, the expedi-
tion's quarters built several miles in from the ice edge, and Amundsen and two others
were received on board the Ter ra No va. The intelligence that Lieutenant Campbell re-
ported to Scott was that Amundsen headed a ground party of nine, and that they were
well equipped and had more than one hundred dogs.
So the race was set for the austral summer of 1911-1912—the Norwegians with their
dogs, and the British with motor-sledges, ponies, a few dogs, and man-hauling. Fur-
thermore, the Norwegians' location at the Bay of Whales provided them with a starting
point sixty miles closer to the pole than the British had at Cape Evans. For Scott there
was nothing to do but stick to the game plan, lay the depots in the fall and early spring,
and try to depart for the pole as early as possible after that. The provision for support par-
ties for Scott's party was more extensive than Shackleton's had been three years earlier:
more men, equipment, supplies, and transport accompanied the polar party for much
greater distances on the outward traverse. Successfully navigating Beardmore Glacier, on
December 21, twelve men reached Mount Darwin (see Fig. 4.14), where they laid a depot
and four of them turned back. On January 4, 1912, three of the remaining support party
turned back at 87° 32′ S, and Lieutenant Henry (“Birdie”) Bowers joined the pole party
of Scott, Wilson, Seaman Edgar Evans, and Captain Lawrence E. G. Oates.
With 168 miles to the pole, the five apprehensively girded for the final stretch and the
“appalling possibility” of finding the Norwegian flag flying at the South Pole. On the
afternoon of January 16, about twenty miles out from the pole, Scott's party came upon
the remains of a camp, a black flag flying from a sledge bearer, and the tracks of men and
many dogs. With shattered spirits the men pulled the final distance, arriving at the South
Pole on the morning of January 18, 1912. There they found a small tent left by the Norwe-
gians and inside a note with the names of the men who had preceded them to this spot on
