[00:-1.00]The Race to the Pole
[00:-2.00]On I June,1910,Captain Scott left London to begin his Antarctic expedition.
[00:-3.00]On his way,he received a telegram from the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen:
[00:-4.00]"I'm going South."So the race to the South Pole was on!
[00:-5.00]During the polar summer of 1910-1911,
[00:-6.00]both teams organised food depots in preparation
[00:-7.00]for their expeditions the following year.
[00:-8.00]Then came the total darkness of the polar winter.
[00:-9.00]Scott and Amundsen waited impatiently for the first signs of spring.
[00:10.00]Amundsen was the first to leave,on 15 October,1911.
[00:11.00]He had team of dogs pulling the sledges and all his men were on skis.
[00:12.00]Because of this,he made rapid progress.
[00:13.00]Scott left on 1 November and soon had problems.
[00:14.00]First,his two motor sledges broke down,
[00:15.00]and then the ponies began to have serious difficulties with the snow and the cold.
[00:16.00]After a while,Scott and his men had to push the sledges themselves.
[00:17.00]Amundsen reached the Pole on 14 December and put a Norwegian flag there.
[00:18.00]Then he prepared for the return journey.
[00:19.00]Scott finally arrived at the Pole with four companions on 17 January.
[00:20.00]They were devastated when they saw the Norwegian flag.
[00:21.00]Scott wrote bitterly in his diary:
[00:22.00]"Well,we have now lost the goal of our ambition
[00:23.00]and must face 800 miles of hard pushing and goodbye to most of our dreams."
[00:24.00]The return journey was one of the worst in the history of exploration.
[00:25.00]The men were son exhausted and were running out of food.
[00:26.00]The weather conditions were terrible.
[00:27.00]Scott started to realise their desperate situation:
[00:28.00]"Amongst ourselves we are very cheerful,
[00:29.00]but what each man feels in his heart I can only guess.
[00:30.00]Putting on our shoes in the morning is getting slower and slower."
[00:31.00]Despite this,on their way back they found time to look for rocks and fossils.
[00:32.00]They carried 20 kilos of rocks all the way with them.
[00:33.00]Later,these rocks proved that at one time in the distant past
[00:34.00]Antarctica was covered by plants.
[00:35.00]However,disaster soon struck.
[00:36.00]Edgar Evans had terrible frostbite and died after a bad fall.
[00:37.00]The next to go was Captain Oates,
[00:38.00]who was having great difficulty walking.
[00:39.00]Scott recorded his death:
[00:40.00]"He said,'I am just going outside and I may be some time.'
[00:41.00]We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death,
[00:42.00]but though we tried to stop him,
[00:43.00]we knew that it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman.
[00:44.00]We all hope to meet the end with a similar spirit,
[00:45.00]and certainly the end is not far."
[00:46.00]Scott and two companions carried on
[00:47.00]and got withineleven miles of one of their food depots.
[00:48.00]But then a terrible storm started and they could not leave their tent.
[00:49.00]Scott spent some of his last hours writing.
[00:50.00]He wrote a letter full of sadness to his wife Kathleen:
[00:51.00]"To my Widow,I could tell you lots and lots about this journey.
[00:52.00]What stories you would have for the boy..But what a price to pay."
[00:53.00]Scott's final diary entry told the story of their end:
[00:54.00]"The depot is only 11 miles away,
[00:55.00]but I do not think we can hope for any better things now.
[00:56.00]We are getting weaker and weaker and he end can't be far.
[00:57.00]It seems a pity,but I do not think I can write more."
[00:58.00]The news of Scott's death shocked the world.
[00:59.00]He had failed to win the race to the Pole,
[-1:00.00]but the remarkable courage shown by Captain Scott and his men made tham into heroes |