Great Expeditions: 50 Journeys that changed our world

Race to the South Pole

The expeditions of Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott

“I may say that this is the greatest factor – the way in which the expedition is equipped – the way in which every difficulty is foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.

From The South Pole, by Roald Amundsen

WHEN

1910–12

ENDEAVOUR

Becoming the first human to reach the South Pole.

HARDSHIPS & DANGERS

Extreme cold, frostbite, hunger, exhaustion.

LEGACY

Roald Amundsen was the first man to reach both poles. He also made the first voyage through the Northwest Passage. Robert Scott reached the South Pole after Amundsen and died on the return journey. But his stoicism in the face of certain death continues to earn respect.

Until colour photography was invented, only whalers and explorers were able to fully appreciate the beauty of Antarctica.

The search party had found the tent. Steeling themselves, the men looked inside. As they expected, the emaciated bodies of Captain Robert Scott and two companions lay frozen solid, shrouded in drifting snow. Scott’s sleeping bag was thrown open and his coat was unfastened; he had hastened the end. Somewhere outside, forever lost in the merciless Antarctic, were two other men who had also perished. Such was the price they paid for coming second in the race to the South Pole.

Natural born heroes

When Robert Falcon Scott left Britain on his 1911 attempt to be first to reach the South Pole, he was already a national hero. He had commanded the Discovery Expedition of 1901–04, which included another great explorer, Ernest Shackleton. Scott and Shackleton had walked further south than anyone else in history: they got to within 850 km (530 miles) of the pole.

While Scott was making his record-breaking South Pole approach, Roald Amundsen was making a pioneering polar trip at the opposite end of the world. Born in 1872 into a Norwegian family of maritime merchants, Amundsen had been forced by his mother to study medicine. When she died he packed up his books and, aged 21, left university for a life of adventure. Amundsen led the 1903–06 expedition that was the first to traverse the Northwest Passage. On this trip he also learned some Inuit skills that would stand him in good stead; how to use sled dogs to transport stores and how much better animal skins were at insulating in the cold and wet than the heavy, woollen parkas typically used by European explorers.

An extract of a German map from the period showing the explorers’ routes to the South Pole.

Unfinished business

In 1909, Scott heard that his former fellow explorer Shackleton had got to within 180 km (112 miles) of the Pole on his Nimrod Expedition before being forced to turn back. Scott was aware that other polar ventures were being planned and, gripped by ‘Polemania’, he duly announced that he would lead another Antarctic expedition. Hopes were now high that a Briton would be the first to stand on the bottom of the world, and Scott did not want to disappoint. His expedition sailed from Cardiff in June 1910 on the former whaling ship, Terra Nova on a seven-month journey to Antarctica.

While Scott was looking south, Amundsen had his sights set on the North Pole. However, in 1909, he heard that two separate American expeditions, led by Robert Peary and Frederick Cook, had both attained this goal, so he decided instead to head for Antarctica. (Peary and Cook are both now generally considered not to have attained the North Pole.) Amundsen and his crew left Oslo on the Fram (the ship previously used by Fridtjof Nansen, see page 188), heading south on 3 June 1910.

When Scott got to Melbourne, Australia, he found a telegram from Amundsen, announcing that he was ‘proceeding south’. The Terra Nova stopped for supplies in New Zealand and then turned south in late November. Scott now had a run of what he termed ‘sheer bad luck’. A heavy storm killed two ponies and a dog, and also caused 10,200 kg (10 tons) of coal and 300 l (65 gallons) of petrol to be lost overboard. The Terra Nova then got stuck in the pack ice for twenty days before managing to break clear.

The Fram’s run south in the meantime, had been relatively smooth.

A recent satellite image from a similar vantage point. The Ross Ice Shelf, Transantarctic Mountains (top half) and Ross Sea (lower half) are clearly visible.

A historical Bird’seye view map of Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition. Scott’s route can also be seen (with added annotations) as it followed the same route as Shackleton’s 1907–09 expedition.

The rivals meet at the end of the Earth

The Pole attempts had to be made in the Antarctic summer as conditions were too severe during the rest of the year. This period of relatively better weather and constant light only lasted from November to March. The plan was to arrive during one summer, set up camp and see out the winter, then push for the Pole when the next summer’s weather window opened.

The Terra Nova finally reached Ross Island on 4 January 1911. Scott’s team set up their base camp at a cape near where he had camped on his Discovery Expedition nine years before. They had at least nine months before they would make their Pole attempt. In the meantime, Scott was determined to keep busy, and to pursue their scientific goals. He sent a party east to explore King Edward VII Land and Victoria Land. This team was returning westward when it was astonished to see Amundsen’s expedition camped in the Bay of Whales, an inlet on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. The Norwegians had arrived on 14 January. Amundsen was friendly to the Englishmen, offering them a welcome to camp nearby and care for their dogs. These offers were declined and the party returned to base camp. Scott wrote about the meeting in his journal: ‘One thing only fixes itself in my mind. The proper, as well as the wiser, course is for us to proceed exactly as though this had not happened. To go forward and do our best for the honour of our country without fear or panic.’

Roald Amundsen in furs, c.1912.

Different men, different strategies

There were three main stages to be tackled on the 1,450 km (900 mile) trek to the Pole: crossing the Ross Ice Shelf (an area the size of France); ascending a glacier to reach the polar plateau; and then crossing that plateau to the Pole itself. Once at the pole the journey then had to be done in reverse.

The two expeditions planned different strategies for their attempts. Amundsen would use his beloved dogs to pull his team and supplies all the way to the Pole. Scott would use a combination of ponies (which Shackleton had used on his record push), dogs and motor sleds to haul the big loads across the ice shelf. This would allow the men to save their strength for the ascent onto the plateau and the push for the Pole, which they would do pulling their own sleds.

They could not haul all the supplies they would need, so both parties had to lay out caches of food on their routes. This had to be done before winter arrived to allow the expeditions to start in earnest in the following spring.

On 27 January, Scott hurriedly began laying supplies but their ponies were not up to the task and several died. The men were also slowed by a vicious blizzard. These delays made Scott decide to lay their main supply point, One Ton Depot, 56 km (35 miles) north of its planned location. This decision would cost the returning party dearly.

The Norwegian party used skis and dog sleds to lay supply caches at 80°, 81° and 82° south on a route aimed directly at the Pole, without major incident.

Winter descended and both expeditions settled down in their base camps to ride it out.

Captain Scott writing in his journal in the expedition hut in October 1911, before setting out for the pole.

Across the ice shelf

On 8 September 1911, Amundsen’s team set out for the Pole but within days they were beaten back by savage weather. They immediately began preparing for another attempt and, on 19 October, a group using four sledges and fifty-two dogs set off from base camps on a direct line south. They spent nearly four weeks crossing the ice shelf before reaching the base of the Antarctic plateau. Here they discovered a new glacier, which was shorter and steeper than the colossal Beardmore Glacier that Scott was ascending. They shot several of their dogs for food. After a four-day climb up this icy staircase, they reached the plateau on 21 November.

Scott’s motor sleds, laden with supplies, departed on 24 October, but only ran for 80 km (50 miles) before breaking down. The drivers had to haul the gear themselves in an exhausting 240 km (150 mile) trek to the rendezvous. Scott’s main party left base camp on 1 November 1911 — Amundsen had already been going for twelve days. Scott’s teams reached the start of the Beardmore Glacier on 4 December. By now they were more than two weeks behind Amundsen.

They were tent-bound by a blizzard for five days and then took nine days to ascend the gargantuan 200 km (125 miles) long Beardmore Glacier. Scott’s team stepped onto the lifeless Antarctic plateau on 20 December. They caught up a little time here and the final team of five men — Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers and Evans – set out on foot for the Pole.

‘The worst has happened’

Scott’s team slogged on across the vast white emptiness, passing Christmas on the ice. On 30 December, their hearts lifted a little as they had caught up with Shackleton’s 1908–09 timetable. However, in reality they were all suffering from exhaustion, frostbite and hunger. They passed Shackleton’s record mark of (88° 23’ S) on 9 January. Despite their pain, they could feel that their prize was within reach. They trudged on.

Amundsen’s expedition with piles of equipment, boxes of stores, and dogs.

Scott’s disappointed party at the South Pole, 18 January 1912. Clockwise from top left: Oates, Scott, Evans, Wilson, Bowers. Frostbite is plainly visible on their faces.

On 17 January 1912, Scott looked up from the endless snow at his feet to see a black flag fluttering above a small tent. Amundsen had led his five men, sixteen-dog team on a straight run to the Pole. They encountered little difficulty on the plateau and on 14 December 1911 they made the first human footprints at the bottom of the world. They had erected a tent and left a letter detailing their achievement.

Scott had been beaten to this long-sought goal by thirty-four days. ‘All the daydreams must go,’ wrote the anguished explorer in his diary. ‘Great God! This is an awful place.’ There was nothing for the distraught men to do but start the 1,300-km (800-mile) return journey. This was a savage undertaking and the exhausted team were pained with frostbite and snow blindness. The first man to die was Edgar Evans. He succumbed on 17 February after falling down a glacier.

The remaining four trekked on but Lawrence Oates’ toes had become severely frostbitten and he knew that he was holding back his colleagues. On 16 March, Scott wrote in his diary that Oates stood up, said ‘I am just going outside and may be some time,’ then walked out of the tent and was never seen again.

‘We knew that Oates was walking to his death... it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman.’

The three surviving men camped for the last time on 19 March. A ferocious blizzard kept them in their tent in temperatures of -44°C (-47°F) and sealed their fate. They died of starvation and exposure 10 days later. They were 18 km (11 miles) short of One Ton Depot. Had it been in its planned location, they would have made it. Scott was the last to die.

‘Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. Scott. Last entry. For God’s sake look after our people.’

Both quotes from Captain Scott’s diary

To the victor, the spoils

Amundsen’s team arrived back in base camp six weeks after reaching the Pole, on 25 January 1912. They were in Australia at the start of March. News of their success was telegraphed to the world.

Scott was hailed as a tragic hero, brave in the face of certain death. His legend was held up to inspire generations of Britons. When Amundsen found out about Scott’s death, he said, ‘I would gladly forgo any honour or money if thereby I could have saved Scott his terrible death.’

The search party which found Scott and his colleagues collapsed the tent over the bodies then built a cairn of snow above, placing a cross made from their skis on top. Today, after a century of snowstorms, the cairn, tent and cross now lie under 23 m (75 ft) of ice. They have become part of the ice shelf and have already moved 48 km (30 miles) from where they died. In 300 years or so the explorers will once again reach the ocean, before taking to the water and drifting away inside an iceberg.

Extracts from The Times newspaper reporting on the contrasting outcomes.

Darwin and the Beagle

Charles Darwin’s voyage on HMS Beagle

“When on board HMS Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species...

Introduction to Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection

WHEN

1831–6

ENDEAVOUR

Charles Darwin was the naturalist on this five-year circumnavigation of the world.

HARDSHIPS & DANGERS

The two summers spent around Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn, with violent weather and unhelpful natives.

LEGACY

Darwin amassed evidence from the many places visited on the voyage that led him to develop the theory of evolution.

Charles Darwin, photographed towards the end of his life.

Charles Darwin served as the naturalist of the five-year voyage of the surveying ship HMS Beagle, during which it circumnavigated the world. His observations of the natural world, particularly in the southern hemisphere, provided the evidence which led him to develop the theory of evolution.

The university drop-out

Darwin was born in Shrewsbury in 1809, the son of a prominent local physician and the grandson of two leading lights of the Industrial Revolution, Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, and in 1825 he went with his brother to study medicine at Edinburgh University. His dislike of anatomy and surgery quickly drove him away from a career in medicine and he left Edinburgh without a degree in 1827. The following year, he started at Christ’s College Cambridge, with the aim of becoming an Anglican clergyman. Most importantly, he became a friend of John Henslow, a botany professor who enthused Darwin with a love of and fascination in nature.

Darwin graduated in 1831 and was then recommended by Henslow as a gentleman collector for what was planned as a two-year trip to South America, commenting that his recommendation was ‘not on the supposition of yr. being a finished Naturalist, but as amply qualified for collecting, observing, & noting any thing worthy to be noted in Natural History’. After some persuasion, Darwin’s father agreed to the trip (important because he had to fund all his son’s costs, apart from food, which was provided by the Admiralty).

Into the open ocean

The trip was to be on HMS Beagle, a small survey ship that was 27 m (90 ft) long and weighed in at around 245 tonnes (241 tons). The boat was captained by Robert Fitzroy, a keen amateur naturalist and scientist, and, along with surveying the coast of South America, one of its missions was to trial the new Beaufort wind scale. Darwin shared a cabin with the ship’s mate and a midshipman, and it was also his study. And so it was on 27 December 1831, HMS Beagle sailed out of Plymouth — a day late, for the crew had celebrated Christmas Day too enthusiastically and were unfit to leave the day before. Darwin was soon badly stricken by seasickness, a bad beginning to a long voyage.

It was too rough to land on Madeira and, because there had been a cholera outbreak in England, they were refused permission to land in the Azores. On 16 January, they reached the Cape Verde islands, where Darwin’s work of observation, collecting and recording began. His questioning mind could be seen at work — why for example, was there a band of shells 14 m (45 ft) above sea level in a cliff when such a band would have been formed under the sea?

HMS Beagle, as equipped for the voyage. Darwin shared the poop cabin (top left in the cross-section) with two others and with the ship’s library of 400 books.

The first new species

The Beagle reached the coast of Brazil by the end of February 1832, and while the ship did much surveying work, Darwin spent much of the next six months on land, exploring and gathering large collections of specimens from the country around Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca. By the end of November, Darwin had shipped back two consignments of specimens, from preserved beetles to fossils of animals previously unknown.

The Beagle then sailed south, to Tierra del Fuego, arriving there on 17 December: ‘...we were saluted in a manner becoming the inhabitants of this savage land. A group of Fuegians partly concealed by the entangled forest, were perched on a wild point overhanging the sea; and as we passed by, they sprang up and waving their tattered cloaks sent forth a loud and sonorous shout.’

Lessons from the primitives

Darwin was shocked by the primitive nature of the Fuegians (meeting one group he commented ‘these were the most abject and miserable creatures I anywhere beheld’). Puzzled by why anyone would live such a tough life in so unforgiving a place he concluded ‘Nature by making habit omnipotent, and its effects hereditary, has fitted the Fuegian to the climate and the productions of his miserable country.’

The route of the Beagle, as recorded by Captain Fitzroy in his account of the voyage, published in 1839.

The Beagle ventured to Cape Horn: ‘we saw on our weather-bow this notorious promontory in its proper form — veiled in a mist, and its dim outline surrounded by a storm of wind and water’. The weather around Cape Horn was severe and the ship was nearly overwhelmed:

‘At noon a great sea broke over us … The poor Beagle trembled at the shock, and for a few minutes would not obey her helm; but soon, like a good ship that she was, she righted and came up to the wind again. Had another sea followed the first, our fate would have been decided soon, and for ever.’

HMS Beagle in the Strait of Magellan, from an 1890 edition of Darwin’s Journals. Monte Sarmiento, ‘the most sublime spectacle in Tierra del Fuego’ according to Darwin, looms over the scene.

In April 1833, the Beagle left Tierra del Fuego for the Falkland Islands, very recently after Britain had reasserted sovereignty, replacing the Argentinians, and then returned to Montevideo. While the Beagle continued its survey work, Darwin explored inland around Buenos Aires and Montevideo, rejoining the Beagle on 28 November. They returned to Tierra del Fuego and then sailed along the Strait of Magellan: ‘The inanimate works of nature – rock, ice, snow, wind, and water – all warring with each other, yet combined against man – here reigned in absolute sovereignty.’ Finally, on 10 June 1834 they reached the Pacific, and on 23 July they arrived at the warmth of Valparaiso. From here Darwin went on a six-week expedition into the Andes.