Original Providence Daily Journal

March 8 1912

28 pages

Reaching The Pole

 Amundsen

First attempt, 8th September 1911:
Amundsen was concerned by the idea that Scott's motor sledges would allow him to reach the pole first and wanted to set off as soon as possible after the sun rose again in late August. Against the advice of Johansen that it was too cold, he set off on the 8th of September 1911 with eight of the nine men on his expedition. Day time travel was good and they made very good progress in the first few days despite very cold temperatures, it was so cold at night however that they could hardly sleep and some of the dogs suffered from frostbitten paws. By the 12th of September with temperatures of -56C they stopped and built igloos for shelter before returning to the ship to try again later. Some of the dogs froze to death on the way back, others too weak to run were placed on the sledges, Amundsen ordered his men to push for home as soon as possible rather than travelling as a group. Amundsen and two others arrived back first after nine hours, another sledge two hours later and the final two including Johansen over seventeen hours after setting off. Johansen answered Amundsen's question about why they had been so late angrily, feeling they had been abandoned without food or fuel and suffering from frostbite. Amundsen later reported that he felt Johansen was "violently subordinate" and excluded him from the South Pole party.

Second attempt, 19th October 1911:
Amundsen set out again with five men, four sledges and fifty two dogs. Once again they made good progress, though Amundsen deliberately avoided the Beardmore Glacier route that Scott would take to get from the near sea-level ice shelf and onto the Antarctic Plateau, he found a steep and difficult but direct route up a small glacier he named after Axel Heiberg, one of his financial backers. seven of his dogs had died on the ice barrier to reach the glacier, all but a remaining eighteen were killed at the top of the glacier, the carcasses were eaten eagerly by the dogs and men alike, some were depoted to be picked up on the return journey. They reached the pole on the 14th of December 1911, 56 days after setting off.

They stayed in the vicinity of the pole before setting off on their return journey on the 18th. During this time, they took navigational readings at different times of the day and travelled in the vicinity to make sure they really had reached the South Pole. Amundsen left a tent and a letter addressed to the King of Norway with a request to Scott to deliver it. They arrived back at the Fram on the 25th of January 1912, just 38 days after leaving the south pole. The whole trip had taken 99 days, 10 less than anticipated, they had covered 3,440km (1,860 nautical miles), five men and fifty two dogs had set off, five men and eleven dogs had returned.

 Scott

Scott left his camp with men travelling with motor sledges, dogs, ponies and on foot on the 1st of November 1911. Only a small party of four would go all the way to the pole, the others were there to help transport food and supplies to be used on the outward journey and left at supply dumps to be used by the pole group on the way back again. The ponies were killed during this march, some of the meat eaten and some of it depoted as Amundsen did with his dogs. Eventually there were two teams each of four men manhauling sledges and provisions, though he had planned for four, Scott decided to take a five man party to the pole including himself, the remaining three turned back to the ship. Scott's party arrived at the pole on the 17th of January 1912, 77 days after setting off.

They found that Amundsen had beaten them by five weeks, their condition was deteriorating by this time due to an insufficient diet in quantity and nutrients, scurvy was probably beginning to take effect. They rested for a day and set off to return on the 19th. Despite unusually cold weather, their diet and low morale, they made good progress to the edge of the polar plateau. During the 100 mile descent of the Beardmore Glacier from the plateau down to near sea level one of the party, Edgar Evans suffered a fall on the 4th of February that left him "dull and incapable", he never really recovered and fell again on the 17th of February dying near to the foot of the glacier.

Scott had left orders for dog teams to meet the polar party at 82.30S about the 1st of March 1912, the remaining four men reached this point by the 27th of February. By the 10th of March they gave up on seeing the dogs arriving, they had about 400 miles left to go in difficult surface conditions and unusually cold temperatures. On this day Captain Lawrence Oates with badly frostbitten feet walked out from the tent in a blizzard to his death, his last reported words were "I am just going outside and may be some time". They walked another 20 miles, all suffering badly now and made their final camp on the 19th of March. Blizzards prevented further progress and they stay in their tent with dwindling supplies, Scott's final diary entry was on the 29th of March, he is thought to have been the last to die on this or the next day, 70 days after leaving the pole. Their last camp was just 11 miles (18km) short of "One Ton Depot" where food and fuel could have saved them.

The three bodies in the tent were not found until eight months later on the 12th of November 1912. A large cairn of snow was erected over the tent and a makeshift cross erected. Before the Terra Nova left for home a memorial cross was erected on Observation Hill overlooking Hut Point, the cross is there today still.