Scott of the AntarcticU of Nebraska Press, 1990 M01 1 - 303 pages After Robert Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1909, polar explorers looked toward the South. Robert Falcon Scott, whose 1901?1904 expedition into Antarctica's frozen shoulder had made him a celebrity in England, began plans to return. In June1910 the Terra Nova sailed toward the earth's underbelly. When Scott'søparty reached the South Pole on January 17,1912, after severe hardships, they discovered that the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beat them to it a month before. Demoralized, frozen, exhausted, and starved, they started to retrace their painful steps over the ice but were forced to stop only eleven miles from a supply depot. By a supreme act of will, the captain managed to write his last letters, which were found with the bodies in November. Elspeth Huxley draws on those letters and diaries in her luminous biography. It reaches back to Scott's first voyage to the Antarctic, introduces the charming sculptor he married in middle age after a whirlwind of self-doubt, and builds up to the last expedition?a marvel of teamwork?that will always be remembered for the nobility shown by men facing death. The story of Robert Falcon Scott is all the more interesting because he was a complex, self-questioning man whose conquest of the self was "a feat perhaps more admirable than the conquest of the Pole." |
Contents
MARKHAMS CHOICE I | 1 |
GOING TO SEA | 6 |
FAMILY DISASTER | 15 |
MARKHAMS BATTLE | 22 |
THE JOINT COMMITTEE | 33 |
SCIENTISTS AND SAILORS | 44 |
MCMURDO SOUND | 58 |
ANTARCTIC WINTER | 71 |
IN LOVE | 166 |
THE DIE IS CAST | 174 |
DRUMMING UP PENNIES | 182 |
FURL TOPGALLANT SAILS | 194 |
TO ONE TON DEPOT | 207 |
THE WORST JOURNEY | 218 |
WINTER AT CAPE EVANS | 229 |
AN AWFUL PLACE 238 | 238 |
SUMMER SLEDGING DEAD DOGS | 82 |
IO SHACKLETON GOES HOME | 100 |
THE MOST DESOLATE REGION ON EARTH | 110 |
MARKHAMS DOWNFALL | 122 |
HOMEWARD BOUND | 132 |
PENMANSHIP AND NO MEDALS | 139 |
SHACKLETONS CHALLENGE | 150 |
THE END OF THE ROAD | 250 |
FINALE | 259 |
Biographical Notes | 273 |
Note on Sources | 285 |
289 | |
291 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adélie Penguins Admiral Admiralty Amundsen Antarctic Expedition appointed Armitage Atkinson Barne Barrier Bay of Whales Beardmore Glacier Bernacchi birds biscuit blizzard Bowers British camp Cape Adare Cape Crozier Cape Evans Captain cheerful Cherry-Garrard command companions Crean crevasse depot diary dinner Discovery dogs Edgar Evans Emperor Penguin expedition's explorers feet Ferrar floe friends Glacier hauled Hodgson hope Hut Point Island journey Kathleen knew Koettlitz Lashly letter Lieutenant London looked Lyttleton married McMurdo Sound Meares miles Morning mother mountains Nansen naval officer navy never night Oates penguins Petty Officer Pole ponies reached relief ship Ross Ross Sea Royal Society sailed scientific Scott wrote scurvy seals Shackleton Sir Clements Markham Skelton sledges snow Teddy Evans tent Terra Nova Terra Nova expedition things thought took Victor Campbell Victoria Land wardroom Whales Wilson wrote winter young Zealand