Friday, 8 March 1912

Scott

"Worse and worse in morning," Scott wrote, "poor Oates' left foot can never last out, and time over foot gear something awful.... We did 4 1/2 miles this morning and are now 8 1/2 miles from the depot -- a ridiculously small distance to feel in difficulties, yet on this surface we know we cannot equal half our old marches, and that for that effort we expend nearly double the energy. The great question is, What shall we find at the depot? If the dogs have visited it we may get along a good distance, but if there is another short allowance of fuel, God help us indeed. We are in a very bad way, I fear, in any case." [1]

The weather at One Ton remained bad, with a "good day" at -10° F (-23 C), and blowing most of the time. Cherry wrote in his diary, "-28 when we turned in & must have been -40 at least last night. This morning -28 & wind 4. It is a very cold wait -- waiting & thinking. I was so sure I saw them coming last night I nearly started to walk to them." [2]


Amundsen

Fram's crew upon arrival in Hobart. From left, in the back row, Hassel, Ludwig Hansen, Steller, Bjaaland, Kristensen, Rønne, Beck, Wisting, Halvorsen, Sundbeck; seated, Johansen, Prestrud, Amundsen, Nilsen, Gjertsen, Helmer Hanssen; in front, Lindstrøm, Stubberud, Karenius Olsen, A. Olsen. "Beattie's studios Hobart Tas." [3]

Helmer Hanssen, Amundsen, and Lindstrøm.

Hassel, Wisting, Amundsen, Bjaaland, and Helmer Hanssen. [4]

"Pole Attained Fourteenth-Seventeenth December 1911. All Well" ran headlines everywhere. "The whole world," said the New York Times, "has now been discovered." [5]

"On a day like this," exulted Aftenposten, a leading Christiania newspaper, "everything is changed.... It is more warmth and pride that we feel that we are all children of the same, happy country. Smiles are more frequent -- in bold mens' deeds we are richer and more united and happier. Ah yes -- at one blow, we are far forwards!" [6]

Helland-Hansen, though, wrote to Nansen that he could not understand "why people don't show more pleasure than they do." [7] Many Norwegians, it seemed, felt that Amundsen's accomplishment was a political mistake; one paper wrote, "We are glad that Roald Amundsen chose a new route to the South Pole, so that he avoided going directly in Scott's path. The English had the exclusive right to the route from McMurdo Sound. That was their opinion at any rate." [8] The Times, indeed, wrote a day later that the Norwegian expedition was "a mere dash for the Pole, designed to forestall the British expedition in the most spectacular, though not the most valuable part of the work." [9]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 8 March, 1912, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[2] Apsley Cherry-Garrard, diary, 8 March, 1912, Scott Polar Research Institute.
[3] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[4] "Tasmanian views, Edward Searle's album of photographs of Australia, Antarctica and the Pacific, 1911-1915", National Library of Australia.
[5] New York Times, 8 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.546.
[6] Aftenposten, 9 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.
[7] Bjørn Helland-Hansen, letter to Fridtjof Nansen, [date not given], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.
[8] Norges Handels- og Sjøfartstidende, 9 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.
[9] The Times, 9 March, 1912, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.547.