Posted on 01/13/2010 2:23:40 PM PST by JoeProBono
Nearly a century after Capt. Robert Falcon Scott explored the southern continent, experts are working to save the British explorer's wooden hut (pictured on Ross Island, Antarctica, in August 2006) and three others in the area from slipping under the snow forever.
The sanctuary measures 50 feet (15 meters) long and 25 feet (7.6 meters) wide and was built to house up to 33 men.
Scott and his crew stayed at the hut before their ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in January 1912. Scott and four others died after being beaten to the pole by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.
"Had we lived," Scott wrote in March 1912 in a message found with his body, "I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman.”
:
Capt. Robert Falcon Scott
Like other Antarctic explorers, Scott brought more food than he would actually need. Some of the food items left behind are still staples today, such as the Heinz ketchup and relish pictured above.
there’s too much snow going on!
There’s a museum in Christchurch New Zealand that has an awesome polar exploration exhibit. Perhaps they could dismantle the huts and turn them over to the museum for preservation?
Poor ba*tard. Talk about a suicide mission. They could shoot a good movie there with Kurt Russell and John Carpenter directing.
That’s neat looking. What is it?
They showed that on Turner Classics about a month ago. Very well made and interesting.
Its an Igloo shelter or cabin or something. Comes in about 8 pieces.
Great film.
Want! What is?
o, i c.
http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/igloo-satellite-cabin-is-cut-out-for-harsh-environs/
google this:
Igloo Satellite Cabin
I want. Expensive?
I have no idea. I don’t even know where to look.
But with Global Warming, shouldn’t the ice and snow around it be disappearing?
Nevermind. If it were disappearing, the headline would read that they have to save its pristine, snow-bound position.
My little boy refers to it as my "zombie killer" shotgun.
I carry it everywhere I go in the truck - legal for Handgun Carry Permit holders in Tennessee provided no round is in the chamber. So... The first round is 4 inches away from the chamber, sitting in the cup holder, and rounds 2-7 are on the stock.
I am going to have to check out the movie Scott of the Antarctic... Sounds like a good one.
Regards,
Raven6
Self ping
It's a rather santized version of what happened, which was a clusterf*** of major dimensions. Scott's idiotic decision to rely on horses, which promptly died, and man-hauling instead of dogs was just the start of it. But the Brits, in their usual fashion, turned him into a martyred hero.
A 1985 British miniseries, "The Last Place on Earth" tells the story more accurately.
Still, I like to pull out my copy of Scott's diaries on blizzardy days and read the last couple of sections. The last words in the diary are, "It seems a pity but I do not think I can write any more. For God's sake look after our people." And whenever I have to go out in real cold, I quote Captain Oates, "I'm just going outside now and I may be some time."
My wife, of course, has no idea what I'm talking about.
It amazes me that these men were able to survive at all, for years on end, with primitive equipment, on raw courage.
Yes and no. I think they were more than a little insane to put themselves in that position. Very tragic.
They had no dogs? Did they walk? Poor ba*tards.
OK... wait a sec, this can’t be true. Global warming is supposed to be reducing the snow/ice levels at the poles.... so this hut shouldn’t be disappearing into the snow drifts.
“Had we lived,” Scott wrote in March 1912 in a message found with his body, “I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman.”
Another great Antarctic explorer: Ernest Shackleton led the ill-fated Endurance Expedition around 1915-1916.
He was a “leader’s leader” and a first-rate, tough explorer. His men suffered incredible hardship.
I thought the 1948 film actually made Scott look wrong all along with he decision to use the ponies. When they get to Amundsen's flag and see the paw prints of the dogs, it is apparent that Scott had FUBAR'd. I thought John Mills as Scott came of like the stereotyped stiff upper-lip Briton who though he could brass his way through anything.
I never saw Scott as a martyred hero when I saw the film, but rather a fool who died a brave death. The Last Place on Earth sounds like a more in depth version. I will check that one out.
No way this compound could get engulfed by ice because algore said the ice shelves were melting. /s
Love that link! Bookmarking it.
Heartfelt thanks. ;)
Other journals from the expedition began to become public, including Oates', in which he said, ""Myself, I dislike Scott intensely and would chuck the whole thing if it were not that we are a British expedition....He [Scott] is not straight, it is himself first, the rest nowhere..." A series of books came out after that criticizing Scott. In the last few years, the pendulum has begun to swing the other way, with defenses of Scott appearing. Most significantly, the role of the weather being particularly bad has been seen as a critical factor.
Still, besides the dog thing, there was the fact that Scott decided, at the last minute, to make the polar dash with five men instead of the four that had been planned for, disrupting the supply arrangements, particularly fuel, since it now took 20% more to cook everything. His insistence, against advice, on taking Evans, who probably wasn't up to the expedition and who was the first to die on the return, slowing them up, was another factor. He also continued to drag 60 pounds of rock samples, even after it was clear they were in a race for their lives.
Yet another factor was the fuel in the depots. The fact that fuel would be lost because of the leather washer on the cans had been noted by earlier expeditions. Amundsen knew this and had his fuel cans soldered shut. Scott ignored it and found less fuel than planned at his depots. Being low on fuel meant they couldn't melt as much water as they needed to stay hydrated.
Scott wasn't as careful in making his return route easy to follow, either. Amundsen had food cans painted black and dropped one every mile. Scott wasted time on a few occasions trying to find the path to the next depot. Scott hired a ski instructor for his men, but then didn't make them learn how to do it. This list goes on and on.
The other part of the story is that Scott's death was used to tarnish Amundsen, as if what he'd done in using the dogs was somehow unfair. He actually resigned from one explorer's club when the club president proposed a toast to the dogs.
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