The Last Expedition

The death of Captain Oates (“I am just going outside and may be some time”) and Scott’s last entry (“For God’s sake look after our people”) have become the stuff of legend, but what stands out is his skill as a writer. Unlike Amundsen, who simply raced to the South Pole, Scott took a more leisurely, scientific interest in everything he saw, making notes on the “green ghostly light” of dawn, the changeable weather, the blizzards, the penguins, the killer whales, even his own dogs and ponies. He has nothing but praise for his men * Guardian *

Robert Falcon Scott was born in 1868. He became a naval cadet at the age of 13 and he was made a full lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1889. The Royal Geographical Society appointed him to command the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. The expedition set sail on the Discovery and reached further south than anyone before. Scott returned to Britain as a national hero. In 1910 Captain Scott organised a second expedition to sail to the Antarctic on board the Terra Nova. On the 17th January 1912 the party reached the pole, only to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Scott and his companions died on their march back to safety on 29 March 1912. Eight months later, a search party found the tent, the bodies and Scott’s journals. The journals were first published in 1913.

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