The race to the South Pole-EXPLORERS

Roald Amundsen was a 39-year-old Norwegian who had spent most of his life going to the far corners of the globe. In 1909, Amundsen had announced a new expedition to navigate the ice waters of the Arctic to the North Pole. He had hoped to be the first man to achieve this, but after the American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert Peary both claimed to have beaten him, Amundsen secretly changed his plans. Without telling his financial backers or even his own crewmen at first, the Norwegian steered his ship Fram toward Antarctica and set his sights on reaching the South Pole. Before arriving, he sent a letter to Scott. It read simply: “Beg leave to inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic. Amundsen.”

Finally, on December 14, 1911, he and his companions arrived at the South Pole. The men planted the Norwegian flag, smoked celebratory cigars and posed for snapshots. “The goal was reached,” Amundsen wrote, “our journey ended.”

Over a month later on January 17, 1912, Scott and his team finally reached the Pole. “Great God!” Scott wrote in his diary. “This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have labored to it without the reward of priority.”

On February 17—more than 20 days after Amundsen’s group had returned to their base camp—a man named Edgar Evans became the first of the British party to die. The severely frostbitten Lawrence Oates followed a month later after sacrificing himself in a blizzard to avoid slowing down the team. “I am just going outside and may be some time,” he said before leaving the group’s tent and vanishing. Scott, his friend Dr. Edward Wilson and another man Henry Bowers continued the journey for another few days, but temperatures continued to plunge, and they were later caught in a blizzard only 11 miles away from one of their supply depots. All three would perish in their tent just days later. “We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far,” Scott wrote in his last diary entry. “It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.” His diary was found next to his dead body. Their death, however was not completely in vain, because on their way back they collected valuable fossils which helped scientists learn more about the South Pole.

Robert Falcon Scott The South Pole was exploration’s last great prize, and was widely expected to be won by the British. Robert Falcon Scott had attempted to reach the South Pole once before in 1902 but was forced to turn back due to ill health and sub-zero conditions. It was always Scott’s intention to return. Scott recruited men from his original Antarctic voyage. His crew included naval seamen, scientists and paying members. His ship Terra Nova sailed from Cardiff on 15 June 1910.

Scott employed a combination of sled dogs, Manchurian ponies and even a few motor sledges. The machines quickly broke down, and his ponies grew weak in the cold and had to be shot. After sending the dogs back to camp, he and his team were forced to spend much of their journey hauling their heavy supply sledges on foot.

Amundsen relied solely on skis and sled dogs to cross the tundra. The dogs helped his men save their strength, and the explorers later killed the weakest of the animals to supplement their food supply. Amundsen was focused only on reaching the Pole and returning safely. “Science,” he later admitted, “would have to look after itself.”