Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:59:46.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Could Captain Scott have been saved? Revisiting Scott's last expedition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2012

Karen May
Karen May*
Affiliation:
C/O Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Captain Scott has been criticised for indecisiveness and for not making use of the dog teams for his own relief in his Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). This essay will demonstrate how a mistake made in Roland Huntford's double biography of Scott and Amundsen in 1979, repeated in polar writing by various authors until the present day, has maligned Scott's reputation. In fact, Scott left appropriate written orders in October 1911 for the polar party's relief by the dog teams, orders that were not subsequently implemented by the men at base. A re-examination of the actions and roles of two expedition members in particular, Lieutenant E.R.G.R. Evans and Surgeon Edward Atkinson, suggests strongly that misjudgements back at Cape Evans led to the failure of the mission to rescue Scott and his polar party. In this account all distances are in geographical miles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 72 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, E.L. 1912a. Letter to the Atkinson family, February 1912. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 1912/2;D.Google Scholar
Atkinson, E.L. 1912b. Letter to C.S. Wright, 22 February 1912. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 1178/1;D.Google Scholar
Atkinson, E.L. 1913. The last year at Cape Evans. In: Scott, R.F.Scott's last expedition. London: Smith, Elder and Co: 298–349.Google Scholar
Atkinson, E.L. 1919a. Letter to A. Cherry-Garrard, 17 April 1919. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 873/2/12.Google Scholar
Atkinson, E.L. 1919b. Letter to A. Cherry-Garrard, 5 December 1919. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 873/2/19.Google Scholar
Bell, M.H. 1968. What shall we do tomorrow? London: Cassell & Co.Google Scholar
Bull, C., and Wright, P.F.. (editors). 1993. Silas. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Carpenter, K. 1988. The history of scurvy and vitamin C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. Journal. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 559/2;BJ.Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. 1913. Letter to E.L. Atkinson, 3 April 1913. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 559/42;D.Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. 1919. Letter to E.L. Atkinson, April 1919. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 873/2/14.Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. 1994. The worst journey in the world. London: Picador.Google Scholar
Crane, N. 2006. Scott of the Antarctic. London: Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
Debenham, F. 1981. Best-loved books: Scott's last expedition. London: Reader's Digest.Google Scholar
Debenham, F. 1992. The quiet land: the diaries of Frank Debenham. Bluntisham: Bluntisham Press.Google Scholar
Debenham, F. 1998. In the Antarctic: stories of Scott's last expedition. Banham, Norfolk: Erskine Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, A. (editor). 1969. Under Scott's command: Lashly's Antarctic diaries. London: Victor Gollancz.Google Scholar
Evans, E.R.G.R. 1927. The mystery of ‘the Polar Star’. London: Partridge.Google Scholar
Evans, E.R.G.R. 1949. South with Scott. London: Collins.Google Scholar
Evans, E.R.G.R. 1952. Adventurous life. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Fiennes, R. 2004. Captain Scott. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
Gawler, J. 1995. Lloyd's medals, 1836–1989. Charlottesville, VA: Howell Press.Google Scholar
Gran, T. 1984. The Norwegian with Scott. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Hooper, M. 2011. The longest winter: Scott's other heroes. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Huntford, R. 1999. Scott and Amundsen. London: Abacus.Google Scholar
Jones, A.G.E. 1992. Polar portraits. Whitby: Caedmon of Whitby.Google Scholar
Jones, M. 2003. The last great quest. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lagerbom, C. 1999. The fifth man: Henry R. Bowers. Whitby: Caedmon of Whitby.Google Scholar
Limb, S., and Cordingley, P.. 2009. Captain Oates, soldier and explorer. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Navy List 1907. Navy list for July 1907. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Ponting, H. 1922. The great white south. New York: Robert M. McBride and Co.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pound, R. 1963. Evans of the ‘Broke’. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Preston, D. 1997. A first-rate tragedy. London: Constable and Co.Google Scholar
Raeside, A. 2009. Return to Antarctica. Ontario: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Ryan, R. 2009. Death on the ice. London: Headline Press.Google Scholar
Scott, R.F. 1911a. Letter to G. Simpson, 3 October 1911. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 1483/3/1;D.Google Scholar
Scott, R.F. 1911b. Letter to J. Kinsey, 28 October 1911. Wellington, New Zealand: Alexander Turnbull Library.Google Scholar
Scott, R.F. 1911c. Letter to G. Simpson, 24 November 1911. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 1483/3/2;D.Google Scholar
Scott, R.F. 2008. Journals: Captain Scott's last expedition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sewell Hawkins, D. 2009. The man who found Captain Scott: Surgeon-Captain E.L. Atkinson, RN. Old Forester 1895–1900 (Cambridge; Scott Polar Research Institute: Pam 92 [Atkinson, E.L.])Google Scholar
Simpson, G.C. 1923. British Antarctic Expedition 1910–1913, Meteorology Vol. III: Tables. London: Harrison and Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
Smith, G. 2011. Royal Navy and Merchant Navy – Awards of the Albert Medal from the London Gazette in edition order. URL: http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyBritishLGDecorationszzAlbertMedal.htm (accessed 12 November 2011)Google Scholar
Smith, J.M. 2010. The role of F.J. Hooper in Scott's expedition to the South Pole (revised edition). (Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute (*7): 91 (08) [1910–1913 SCOTT] [SMI])Google Scholar
Smith, M. 2002. I am just going outside: Captain Oates – Antarctic tragedy. Staplehurst: Spellmount Limited.Google Scholar
Solomon, S. 2001. The coldest march: Scott's fatal Antarctic expedition. London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
South Polar Times. 1914. South Polar Times vol. III. London: Smith, Elder & Co.Google Scholar
Spufford, F. 2003. I may be some time: ice and the English imagination. London: Faber.Google Scholar
Stein, G.M. 2011. Could it have been different? Boatswain Feather with Scott in the Antarctic. URL: http://www.antarctic-circle.org/medals.htm#6 (accessed 20 May 2011)Google Scholar
Taylor, T. G. 1916. With Scott: the silver lining. London: Smith, Elder and Co.Google Scholar
Wheeler, S. 2002. Cherry: A life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard. London: Vintage.Google Scholar
Wilson, E.A. 1905. The medical aspect of the Discovery's voyage to the Antarctic. British Medical Journal 8 July 1905: 77–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar