EARLY LIFE
Robert Falcon Scott was born on June 6, 1868, in Stoke Damerel, near Devonport, Plymouth, Devon.
Robert was the third of six children and elder son of John Edward, a brewer and magistrate, and Hannah (née Cuming) Scott.
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| Scott pictured by Daniel A. Wehrschmidt, 1905 |
In accordance with the family's tradition, Robert and his younger brother Archie were educated from a young age for careers in the armed services. Robert spent four years at a local day school before being sent to Stubbington House School in Hampshire, a cramming establishment that prepared candidates for the entrance examinations to the naval training ship HMS Britannia at Dartmouth.
EARLY CAREER
Having passed his entrance examinations to the naval training ship HMS Britannia, Scott began his naval career in 1881, as a 13-year-old cadet.
In July 1883, Scott passed out of Britannia as a midshipman.Within three months, he was en route to South Africa to join HMS Boadicea, the flagship of the English Channel fleet at that time. After numerous postings around Britain and North America, Scott rose to become a lieutenant in 1891, specializing in torpedoes.
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| Scott as a young man |
DISCOVERY EXPEDITION
The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyages between 1839-1843. Scott was appointed leader of the expedition, and was promoted to the rank of commander before Discovery sailed for the Antarctic on August 6, 1901.
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| Ernest Shackleton, Scott, and Edward Wilson before their march south |
The food supplied to the ship was so bad that Scott and the crew were forced to eat seal (similar to beefsteak) and penguin (which has the flavour of jugged hare).
Robert Scott and his men were the first people penetrate the interior of Antarctica. Discovery returned to Britain in September 1904. The expedition caught the public imagination, and Scott became a popular hero.
Scott brought home a white samoyede dog, which had become the ship's pet and a white parrot picked up on voyage.
Scott was promoted to rank of captain in the navy after his successful trip to the Antarctic.
The ship he used for this trip The Discovery, is now at Victoria Embankment.
APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER
Scott had a strong and determined face, clean shaven, tight firm lips, light blue eyes.
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| Robert Falcon Scott in full regalia |
He had a placid and unconcerned demeanor but beneath it all he was a man of enormous enthusiasm.
PERSONAL LIFE
Kathleen Bruce (1878-1947) was a young sculptor when she met Captain Scott on his return from his first Antarctic expedition. Kathleen had studied sculpture with Rodin, and socialized with the likes of Isadora Duncan and Pablo Picasso. They had little in common , but Scott was smitten. He wooed Kathleen, and they married at the Chapel of Hampton Court Palace on September 2, 1908.
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| .F.Scott & Kathleen Scott. Wikipedia |
Scott's son, Peter (b 1909) became a famous conservationist and 1936 Olympic Bronze winner for yachting.
Scott and Kathleen lived at 174 Buckingham Palace Road, London where their son Peter was born, also at 56 Oakley Street, Chelsea.
TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION
In December 1909, Scott was released from the navy on half-pay, to take up the full-time command of the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, known as the Terra Nova Expedition from its ship, an old converted whaler. Scott stated that its main objective was "to reach the South Pole, and to secure for the British Empire the honor of this achievement".
On June 15, 1910, the Terra Nova set sail from Cardiff, south Wales. Scott meanwhile was fundraising in Britain and joined the ship later in South Africa.
Arriving in Melbourne, Australia in October 1910, Scott received a telegram from the Norwegian Roald Amundsen stating: "Beg leave to inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic Amundsen", indicating that faced a race to the pole."
Robert Scott took several footballs to the South Pole and a selection of board games.
The march south began on November 1, 1911 and the final dash to the Pole was made by a party of five, led by Scott.
They reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, only to find a letter for him written by Roald Amundsen to deliver to King Haakon VII of Norway should the Norwegian expedition perish on their return journey. Amundsen and his men had beaten them by 33 days. Scott made his disappointment clear in his diary: "The worst has happened"; "All the day dreams must go"; "Great God! This is an awful place".
Scott's insistence on first using Siberian ponies and then man-hauling his goods to the Pole, instead of making full use of sled dogs was the single most obvious difference between the two expeditions. Scott did use dogs, but only as far as the Beardmore Glacier, whereas Amundsen, a more experienced dog-driver, took them all the way to the Pole. Scott's diary made it clear that he believed the heavy manual labor of sledge-hauling was morally superior to the use of dogs, and this prejudiced him towards the more inefficient method.
The deflated party began the 800-mile (1,300 km) return journey on January 19, 1912. On the return journey, Scott and his four comrades died from exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.
Captain Oates was in charge of the ponies and had frostbitten toes. He could no longer play his part in man-hauling the sledges and on March 16, 1912, he staggered into the blizzard uttering his famous remark about "going outside and being sometime." He sacrificed his life rather than slowing down his companions. Scott wrote in his diary "We all hope to meet the end with a similar spirit and assuredly the end is not far."
With the nearest base only miles away Scott pitched his last tents on March 19, 1912. During the next nine days, as their supplies ran out, and with blizzards still raging outside the tent, Scott and his companions wrote their farewell letters.
His last diary entry read "It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write any more." Scott is presumed to have died on March 29, 1912.
The bodies of Scott and two companions were found in a tent by a search party on November 12, 1912.
While Amundsen set out only to reach the Pole and get back alive, Scott's entire expedition was primarily scientific. Even as they were dying, Scott and Wilson stopped to pick up geological samples, of which they were hauling over 30lb. when they passed away. Although the dual motivation necessarily compromised the already wafer-thin safety margins of the trek, the science was important.
Among the samples found with Scott was a lump of coal from the Trans-Antarctic mountain range, which proved that the continent must have had a warm climate in the distant past. This discovery was of major geological importance and added to the weight of evidence which eventually resulted in the modern theory of plate tectonics. The dying men also kept meteorological records until near the end.
Scott's diary became a best-seller and helped make him a hero.
The march south began on November 1, 1911 and the final dash to the Pole was made by a party of five, led by Scott.
They reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, only to find a letter for him written by Roald Amundsen to deliver to King Haakon VII of Norway should the Norwegian expedition perish on their return journey. Amundsen and his men had beaten them by 33 days. Scott made his disappointment clear in his diary: "The worst has happened"; "All the day dreams must go"; "Great God! This is an awful place".
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| Scott and his men at the South Pole |
Scott's insistence on first using Siberian ponies and then man-hauling his goods to the Pole, instead of making full use of sled dogs was the single most obvious difference between the two expeditions. Scott did use dogs, but only as far as the Beardmore Glacier, whereas Amundsen, a more experienced dog-driver, took them all the way to the Pole. Scott's diary made it clear that he believed the heavy manual labor of sledge-hauling was morally superior to the use of dogs, and this prejudiced him towards the more inefficient method.
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| Scott, writing his journal in the Cape Evans hut, winter 1911 |
The deflated party began the 800-mile (1,300 km) return journey on January 19, 1912. On the return journey, Scott and his four comrades died from exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.
Captain Oates was in charge of the ponies and had frostbitten toes. He could no longer play his part in man-hauling the sledges and on March 16, 1912, he staggered into the blizzard uttering his famous remark about "going outside and being sometime." He sacrificed his life rather than slowing down his companions. Scott wrote in his diary "We all hope to meet the end with a similar spirit and assuredly the end is not far."
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| Captain Lawrence Oates during the British Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1913 |
With the nearest base only miles away Scott pitched his last tents on March 19, 1912. During the next nine days, as their supplies ran out, and with blizzards still raging outside the tent, Scott and his companions wrote their farewell letters.
His last diary entry read "It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write any more." Scott is presumed to have died on March 29, 1912.
The bodies of Scott and two companions were found in a tent by a search party on November 12, 1912.
While Amundsen set out only to reach the Pole and get back alive, Scott's entire expedition was primarily scientific. Even as they were dying, Scott and Wilson stopped to pick up geological samples, of which they were hauling over 30lb. when they passed away. Although the dual motivation necessarily compromised the already wafer-thin safety margins of the trek, the science was important.
Among the samples found with Scott was a lump of coal from the Trans-Antarctic mountain range, which proved that the continent must have had a warm climate in the distant past. This discovery was of major geological importance and added to the weight of evidence which eventually resulted in the modern theory of plate tectonics. The dying men also kept meteorological records until near the end.
A tin of Frank Cooper's Oxford marmalade taken by Scott on his 1911 Antarctic exhibition was found in his tent in 1960. It was still edible.
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