Saturday, 19 June 1909

Scott

Scott presided at a dinner for Shackleton at the Savage Club in London, saying in his after-dinner speech that the South Pole must be discovered by an Englishman, and that he himself was prepared "to go forth in search of that object.... All I have to do now is to thank Mr Shackleton for so nobly showing the way." [1]

This was virtually a declaration of intent to organize another expedition, but opinion remained somewhat lukewarm. Shackleton was interested in going South again.

Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont, vice-president of the RGS, felt that Scott was trying to compete with Shackleton, and wrote to Leonard Darwin, "Let him lead another Antarctic expedition if he will ... but let it be a scientific expedition... He is looking at the thing now from too close." Beaumont saw Scott's eagerness as mere Pole-hunting, and disapproved. "All this is to incline you to put Scott off from making ... a mistake -- that is, competing with Shackleton in organising an expedition to go over the old route merely to do that 97 miles ...." [2]


Notes:

[1] The Observer, 20 June 1909, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.247.
[2] Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont, letter to Leonard Darwin, 19 June 1909, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.248.