Monday, 6 November 1911

Scott

"Our fears confirmed," Scott wrote upon finding the second motor abandoned. "A note from Evans stated a recurrence of the old trouble. The big end of No. 1 cylinder had cracked, the machine otherwise in good order. Evidently the engines are not fitted for working in this climate, a fact that should be certainly capable of correction. One thing is proved; the system of propulsion is altogether satisfactory. The motor party has proceeded as a man-hauling party as arranged." [1]


Amundsen

In the bustle of preparing to leave the depot, one of Hassel's dogs got under his sledge and tipped it over. "The Sheep took the opportunity to serve Lussi, who in consequence got a lead bullet in the forehead and was put on the depot," noted Bjaaland. "Distance 20 nautical miles in 8 hours." [2]

This depot at 82° was the farthest they had put out the previous autumn. "Now the journey has begun in earnest," Amundsen wrote. At two in the afternoon, he added, they "passed Discovery expedition's southernmost latitude 82° 17'" [3] and then camped at 82° 20' for the night.


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 6 November, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[2] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 7 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Race for the South Pole : the expedition diaries of Scott and Amundsen (London : Continuum, c2010), p.110.
[3] Roald Amundsen, diary, [7 November, 1911], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.434-435.