28 January 1907

Scott

In late January, Scott began to sound out the Royal Geographical Society about funding another Antarctic expedition. He spoke with Sir George Goldie, the Society's president, although his plans were still nebulous, and a few days later wrote to Scott Keltie, its secretary. "[You] must do the very best you can to enlist general sympathy. There cannot be a doubt that the thing ought to be done. There is the finest prospect of a big advance in latitude that has ever been before a polar explorer."

"Rub all this into Goldie -- it's essentially the thing for a Geographical Society and remember what a future generation will think if you lose the experience combined with the will to go when these are at your command. It will soon be on record of course that I want to go and only need funds. I am pretty certain that I could do the whole thing for £30,000. It won't look well for the Society if an inexperienced foreigner cuts in on the thing while we are wasting time. There really is a splendid chance." [1]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, letter to Scott Keltie, 28 January, 1907, quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.297.