Henry Bowers Robert F. Scott’s expedition team at the South Pole, Jan. 17, 1912. Left to right: Lawrence Oates, Henry Bowers, Scott, Edward Wilson, Edgar Evans.Historic Headlines
Learn about key events in history and their connections to today.
On Jan. 18, 1912, one day after reaching the South Pole, the English explorer Robert F. Scott and his expedition found a tent erected by Roald Amundsen’s expedition, which had reached the pole five weeks earlier. Inside the tent, Scott found a note addressed to him from Amundsen. Should he not return home safely, Amundsen wanted someone to tell King Haakon of Norway that he had indeed reached the pole.
Scott, who had taken part in an Antarctic expedition in 1902, began making plans for an expedition to the pole after a failed attempt by the British explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1909. Scott assumed he would have no competition in being the first to reach the South Pole. However, in the fall of 1910, Amundsen ditched his plans for a North Pole expedition and telegraphed Scott saying that he too had set a goal for reaching the South Pole.
Both expedition teams arrived in Antarctica in January 1911 and made preparations for their year’s journey. Scott’s team began its trek to the pole in November 1911, encountering many problems with its choices of transport. The group used motor sledges and Siberian ponies rather than the traditional sled dogs favored by Amundsen.
Amundsen’s team became the first to ever reach the South Pole on Dec. 14, 1911. Scott and his team neared the pole about a month later. On Jan. 16, 1912, they found a flag in the snow from Amundsen’s expedition. Scott and four other men reached the pole the following day, greatly disappointed to have been beaten. Scott wrote in his diary, “Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.”
On Jan. 18, after coming across Amundsen’s tent, Scott’s men put up a Union Jack and began the 800-mile trip back to their ship, the Terra Nova, on the coast of Antarctica. The outside world knew little of Scott’s progress. In fact, the April 1 edition of The New York Times said that there had been no news from Scott since Jan. 3. It reported that the Terra Nova had left Antarctica without Scott, who said in his Jan. 3 message, “I am remaining in the Antarctic another winter in order to continue and complete my work.”
No one knew at the time that Scott’s team — exhausted, malnourished, frostbitten and possibly suffering from scurvy — had all died during their trek home. One man, Edgar Evans, died because of head injuries sustained after a fall. A second, Capt. Lawrence Oates, decided to let himself die rather than continue to burden the team; he left his tent one night, saying, “I am just going outside and may be some time.” The last three men died at the end of March.
A search party discovered Scott’s remains and journal in November 1912. He and his team were glorified as heroes. In a November 1913 article about a book recounting Scott’s journey, The Times described the tale as one “which will stir the heart of every man the world over who is capable of pity and admiration.”
Connect to Today:
For decades after his death, Scott was remembered as a noble hero, “an exemplar of English gentlemanly pluck in the face of dire adversity,” wrote The Times’s Kenneth Chang. In the 1970s, however, his reputation began to change as scholars examined the many mistakes he made that led to his death and the deaths of all his men. Scott himself had frozen to death “in a tent just 11 miles from a depot of food and heating oil.”
Consider the case of Christopher Johnson McCandless, the subject of Jon Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild” and the 2007 film of the same title. After graduating from college in 1990, McCandless left home to explore the North American wilderness on his own, eventually traveling through Alaska, where he apparently died of starvation as a result of not being properly equipped.
How would you compare the story of a young solo traveler in the late 20th century to his explorer predecessors? In your opinion, should we laud people like Scott and McCandless for their adventurous spirits or should we view their experiences as cautionary tales?
Learn more about what happened in history on January 18 »
Learn more about Historic Headlines and our collaboration with findingDulcinea »
Comments are no longer being accepted.