1910: The race was on
Two explorers — One British and one Norwegian set their objective of being the first people to reach the geographical South Pole.
- Captain Falcon Scott. British explorer. He “intended for his expedition to be one of both exploration and scientific discovery, as has been his 1901-1904 Discovery expedition, the first British Antarctic expedition”. In his recent memory, his fellow country man, Ernest Shackleton and three team members had “reached 88 degrees south latitude, the farthest south of any human to date and just 180 kilometres shy of the South Pole”. [Ref 1]
- Roald Amundsen. Norwegian explorer. His “single-minded goal was to reach the pole.” He initially was aiming to reach the North Pole. While preparations were underway, he received news that two people had already reached that destination. He decided to be the first to reach the South Pole instead. His brother sent a telegram to Captain Scott to tell him that Amundsen was in the race.
Different routes
As shown in the feature picture, Amundsen took the shorter route to the Pole. This was feasible to him, but no one has tried that route. Captain Scott took the route familiar to British explorers even though it is 60 miles longer and therefore in a round trip, the total journey would be 120 miles longer: Previous explorers like Shackleton used this route but nearly perished from running out of food.
Outcomes
Amundsen’s team started 2 weeks earlier than Scott. His party was small: “consisting of Amundsen and three others, along with 52 dogs left Framheim on Oct 20, 1911”. They reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911, and returned to base camp on Jan 25, 1912. The team even put on weight in the process. Amundsen used dogs to drive his sledges and he and his team knew how to do this effortlessly. The dogs, besides driving the sledges, were also the source of food for Amundsen, his team and the other dogs.
Captain Robert Scott and his team were not so lucky. They had ponies, dogs, and motorised sledges. They started later, on Nov 1, 1911 and had a longer distance to travel (60 kilometres longer) — so it was no small wonder the British Team arrived 33 days later on the 17 Jan 1912. They were demoralised to be greeted by the Norwegian flag when they reached the South Pole.
On the way back they encountered cold weather, were short of food, and ran out of fuel to heat the snow to make water for drinking. Petty Officer Edgar Evans had a fall and deteriorated, became deranged and was the first team member to die on Feb 17, 1912. [Ref 1]
Captain Lawrence Oates was next to die. He was suffering from frostbite and exhaustion. On Mar 16, 1912, fearing that “he was slowing down the others, said ‘I am just going outside and may be some time’. He stepped outside the tent and was never seen again”, Scott wrote in his journal. [Ref 1]
“Finally, on March 29, 1912, after having been trapped by a blizzard for 10 days with only two days’ rations, Lieutanant Henry Bowers, Captain Robert Scott and Dr Edward Wilson died of exposure and starvation, just 18 kilometres short of the One Ton Depot.” [Ref 1] Thus the whole British Team perished.
Lessons learned
There were several:
- Tasks to accomplish. To Amundsen, it was just one task, to be the first to reach the South Pole. To Scott, it was to collect scientific evidence and to return home safely. The latter made the team lose precious time to reach safety.
- Amundsen and team were clothed Inuit style in furs, unlike Scott and his team who were clothed in woollen material. This became important because unknown to Scott and team, the Antarctic temperatures were dropping to a 15-year low.
- Moving along people, and material was distinctively different in the 2 teams. Amundsen used dogs to drag the sledges. He and his team knew how to use the dogs. Scott and team used themselves to move the sledges — manhauling. This was slow and as they weakened from lack of food and exhaustion, manhauling grounded to a slow pace.
References
- Earth Magazine. (Sara E Pratt, 2018 Feb 27). Benchmarks: March 29, 1912: Scott’s South Pole Journey Ends in Death. URL: https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-march-29-1912-scotts-south-pole-journey-ends-death/ Accessed: 2021 Dec 1.
Dr LG Goh
Dr GOH Lee Gan is a retired Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, National University Health System. He has an interest in learning and teaching how we can age well everyday (AWE).
