A Short History of Polar Exploration by Nick Rennison

Author:Nick Rennison [Rennison, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781843430925
Publisher: Oldcastle Books
Published: 2013-10-21T05:00:00+00:00

The Terra Nova: The Tragedy of Scott’s

Second Expedition

In the years since returning from the Antarctic, Scott had become a public figure who was recognised by the average man in the street. He had married Kathleen Bruce, a sculptor from a more bohemian background than those usually associated with the wives of naval officers. Ten years younger than Scott, she had studied in Paris where she had known Rodin and her social circle in London included the likes of Max Beerbohm and JM Barrie. She met the polar hero at a party given by the sister of the late Aubrey Beardsley, a social event at which she would have probably been more comfortable than her husband-to-be. However, despite his marriage, Scott’s desire to renew his career as an explorer was still strong and, some months after Shackleton’s triumphal return from the Nimrod expedition, he was able to announce plans for his own second expedition.

The process of gathering together the personnel began. Edward ‘Teddy’ Evans, who had been one of the officers on the relief ship which had supported the Discovery expedition, was said to be planning his own Antarctic expedition. Scott met with him and offered him the opportunity to be his second in command which Evans accepted. Edward Wilson was appointed head of the scientific party which included the geologist Frank Debenham, later to be the first director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, Raymond Priestley, another geologist with a distinguished career ahead of him, and George Simpson who was to become the first and longest-serving director of the Meteorological Office. (There can be no doubting Scott’s genuine commitment to scientific research. Debenham wrote in a letter home that ‘the interest he takes in our scientific work is immense’.) A ship, the Terra Nova, was found and purchased. It was to be manned by mainly Royal Navy seamen, some of them familiar names from the Discovery – Lashly, Crean, Edgar Evans. Finance came from a mixture of government money and private subscription.

The Terra Nova sailed from Cardiff on 15 June 1910 and arrived in Antarctica just over six months later. After some debate, Scott chose a site on a cape he named Evans after his second in command as his main base and the men unloaded the supplies that were to feed them and the assorted dogs, ponies and sledges which were, they hoped, going to carry some of them to the pole. There were to be a series of different expeditions within the main expedition during the time Scott and his men were in Antarctica. One of the classic accounts of polar exploration is The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who served on the Terra Nova. Those who have not read the book but know that it is about Scott’s second expedition might assume that it takes its title from the doomed journey to the pole. In fact, ‘the worst journey in the world’ refers to an earlier trip on which Cherry-Garrard, accompanied by

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