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Captain Robert Falcon Scott
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This map shows the 1910-1912
routes
to the Pole of Scott and
Amundsen.
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(Copyright The New South Polar Times 1997,
all rights reserved.)
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"Words must always fail me when I talk of Bill
Wilson. I believe he really is the finest character I ever met."
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A year before reaching the Pole, Edward "Uncle
Bill" Wilson pondered his chances of being
one of the few to go: "May I be there! About this time next year may I be
there or thereabouts! With so many young bloods in the heyday of youth
& strength beyond my own I feel there will be a most difficult task
in making choice toward the end and a most keen competition -- and a
universal lack of selfishness and self-seeking, with a complete absence
of any jealous feeling in any single one of the comparatively large
number who at present stand a chance of being on the last piece next
summer. It will be an exciting
time and the excitement has already begun, in the healthiest possible
manner."
Wilson, a doctor, an ornithologist, a devout Christian and the
Terra Nova Expedition chief of the scientific staff and official artist,
was one of the five to reach the Pole, and judging by their relative
mental and physical health by March 1912, Wilson and Bowers were
unquestionably two of the strongest members of that or any other
expedition.
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Bowers
is "the hardest traveller that ever undertook a Polar journey as
well as one of the most undaunted."
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Henry
Robertson Bowers, a lieutenant of the Royal Indian Marines, had
dreamed of going to the Pole since he was a child. At seven he
wrote a letter to an "inhabitant" of Wilkes’ Land:
"Dear Eskimo, Please write and tell me about your land. I want
to go there some day. Your friend Henry."
Nearly 20 years
later as an officer in Burma, Bowers received a
response from Sir Clements Markham, the "father" of
Scott's first expedition, asking if Bowers would like to join the
1910 British Antarctic Expedition. It was a dream come true for
Bowers.
Influenced by
endorsements, Teddy Evans and Scott chose Bowers, though completely
inexperienced in ice and snow, out of more than 8,000 volunteers.
They regretted their choice upon first seeing the short, stout
young man with a big nose. "Well, we're landed with him now,
and must make the best of it"4 said Scott.
It was not
long, though, before Scott promoted Bowers from a member of the
ship party to a member of the landing party and to a "perfect
treasure" in charge of "landing, stores, navigation and
the arrangement of sledging rations." In the end, he was
depended upon for the food and for finding their way to the food
and for finding their way home.
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Evans is a "giant worker.”
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Petty Officer Edgar Evans (not to be confused with the
above mentioned Teddy Evans) joined Scott on both the Discovery
and Terra Nova expeditions. He was a former Royal Navy gymnastics
instructor, well-built, weighing over 180 lbs. during the first
expedition.
Despite
Evans’ great strength, intelligence and loyalty, he may have been
first to be affected by privations because of his size. “Evans’
nose has always been the first thing to indicate stress of
frost-biting weather. For some weeks it has been more or less
constantly frost-bitten ..."1
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“The Soldier takes a gloomy view of everything, but I’ve
come to see that this is a characteristic of him.”
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Oates was a reserved man who “when [he] disliked his
companions or commanders, ... usually went into the stables.”2
In a
letter to Scott, Wilson wrote of Oates:
“There is far more than meets the eye -- or the ear either,
for that matter -- in his rather amused taciturnity....
There’s a delightful suppressed geniality in him which
bubbles over now and again. When it comes to hard and heavy
work, he will be a great standby.”3
(The
Bowers, Evans and Oates photographs are copyright Arthur
Mitchell 1999, all rights reserved.)
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The Terra Nova
Expedition
South Pole Party
January 1912
Wilson, Scott & Bowers [standing]
Evans & Oates [sitting]
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