Wednesday, 12 February 1913

Scott

The Terra Nova put in at Lyttelton, to find flags at half-mast.

"Yes, Scott is dead, the adventure is at an end," wrote Gran, "and the future lies ahead." [1]

Amundsen was on a lecture tour in Madison, Wisconsin when he heard the news. "In a spirit of absolute dejection," wrote the New York Times, "travel-stained and woebegone, [the] discoverer of the south pole paced his apartment at the Blackstone Hotel this afternoon, and with an intensity of emotion, which he unsuccessfully endeavored to conceal, paid tribute to Capt. Scott and his brave associates who perished with him in the Antarctic.

"'Horrible, horrible!' exclaimed Capt. Amundsen, as he walked back and forth .... 'I cannot read that last message of Scott's without emotion. I never met him, personally, but I know he was a brave man. That is the way he died, like a brave man.'

"'And to think,' added the Captain in a hushed tone, 'that while those brave men were dying out there in the waste of ice, I was lecturing in warmth and comfort in Australia.'"

Asked about his Arctic ambitions, he replied, guarded as ever, "'I do not seek the pole. I may not even reach it. I do not care whether I do. These stories that I am actually to seek the pole are untrue. I am going up into that vicinity only on a scientific expedition, chiefly to study air and ocean currents. If I am close to the pole and conditions are favorable I will go there, not otherwise.'" [2]


Notes:

[1] Tryggve Gran, diary, 12 February, 1913, quoted in The Norwegian With Scott : Tryggve Gran's Antarctic Diary 1910-1913 ([Greenwich] : National Maritime Museum, 1984), p.237.
[2] New York Times, 11 February, 1913.

Friday, 31 March 1911

Scott

The Terra Nova arrived back in Lyttelton, after a difficult voyage north in which, beset by stormy weather, the bilge pumps clogged up yet again.

Saturday, 26 November 1910

Scott

"Probably the deck of the ship Terra Nova, Christchurch, 1910 ... Christchurch Press photograph. Photographer unidentified." [1]

The Terra Nova sailed from Lyttelton, heading down to Port Chalmers to wait for Scott.

"[The] scene on the morning of Saturday, November 26, baffles description. There is no deck visible: in addition to 30 tons of coal in sacks on deck there are 2 1/2 tons of petrol, stowed in drums which in turn are cased in wood. On the top of sacks and cases, and on the roof of the ice-house are thirty-three dogs, chained far enough apart to keep them from following their first instinct -- to fight the nearest animal they can see: the ship is a hubbub of howls. In the forecastle and in the four stalls on deck are the nineteen ponies, wedged tightly in their wooden stalls, and dwarfing everything are the three motor sledges in their huge crates, 16' x 5' x 4', two of them on either side of the main hatch, the third across the break of the poop. They are covered with tarpaulins and secured in every possible way, but it is clear that in a big sea their weight will throw a great strain upon the deck. It is not altogether a cheerful sight. But all that care and skill can do has been done to ensure that the deck cargo will not shift, and that the animals may be as sheltered as possible from wind and seas. And it's no good worrying about what can't be helped." [2]


Notes:

[1] Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand.
[2] Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, ch.2.