The tragic race to be first to the South Pole had more to it than I realized:
Robert Falcon Scott set off from Wales on July 15, 1910 on what was originally intended to be a primarily scientific expedition, but which quickly morphed into a quest to make history on behalf of the British Empire.
Meanwhile, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, whose plan to reach the North Pole first had been thwarted by both Frederik Cook and Robert Peary, had secretly turned his sights on the South Pole. He left Oslo in June 3, 1910 with the intent of beating Scott to his goal.
In October, while docked in Melbourne, Australia, Scott received a telegram from Amundsen informing him simply that he was “proceeding to Antarctic.” The race was on.
Scott’s party carried on its plans to do scientific research on Antarctica, completing several geological expeditions and one arduous winter trek to collect Emperor Penguin eggs. On Oct. 24, 1911, the team began heading to the pole. In early January, Scott and four others left the rest of the group to make the final push. But when they reached the pole on Jan. 17, their celebration was ruined by the black flags Amundsen and his team had placed there about five weeks earlier.
The worst was yet to come for Scott, however. None of the the team of five that reached the pole would survive the return trip, succumbing to exceedingly harsh conditions they encountered on the way. But though he lost the race and his life, he won the hearts of his countrymen and inspired many throughout the world. Amundsen’s accomplishment was tarnished by the perception that he had ruthlessly taken from Scott what was rightfully his and for which the English expedition paid the ultimate price.
Biologist Ross MacPhee, who curated the [American Museum of Natural History]’s exhibit, wrote in his beautifully written and illustrated accompanying book Race to the End, “Amundsen may have won the race, but the ensuing war of perception concerning who was the greater explorer continues to this day — was it Amundsen, the machinelike competitor who had but one goal in mind, or Scott, for whom scientific exploration was just as important as standing, for one brief moment, at 90 degrees S?”
Amundsen was the better explorer. When he became the first man to sail through the Northwest passage, he took a smaller boat that could be pulled out of the ice when winter set in. He spent the winter interlude on this expedition learning Arctic survival techniques from the Eskimos. This was the knowledge that allowed him to turn spur of the moment towards Antarctica, get to the pole and back quickly, and beat Scott. Scott was not as ill-prepared as he’s sometimes portrayed. His approach would have worked if the weather had stayed within historic norms for the area. Unfortunately, that was a particularly cold period, it was too cold for his man-drawn sledges to generate friction, and Scott fell short. Amundsen had a more robust plan and better mastery of his environment. And so he won, despite British pluck.