Scott in hut, C.H. Ponting photograph, Pennell collection, Canterbury Museum, NZ 1975.289.35 © New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, nzaht.org
Retracing history
British polar explorer Antony Jinman will soon set out on a historic journey to retrace the steps of the search party sent out for captain scott and his ill-fated team in october 1912. Mike Peake meets him History doesn’t record whether it was a student whip-round or a dip into the staff room tea fund which saw an £8 cheque being sent off to captain robert Falcon scott by south Hampstead High school a century ago. in either case, the money was gratefully received: the explorer’s ‘terra nova’ expedition, in which he intended to bag the south pole, was as much about winning hearts and minds – and donations – as it was about slogging across the ice. the school’s money was used to buy a dog named Jackass and a pony called Bones, which turned out to be one of the better horses bought for the voyage; as donations rolled in from schools and individuals from all corners of the country, Britain steadily whipped itself into an Antarctic frenzy. From playground to Parliament, the nation throbbed with excitement, and in captain scott, the expedition had exactly the frontman it needed. A writer from the Daily Mail met scott in 1910 and described him as, “thick-set, deep-chested and with a thoughtful geniality.” Asked by the reporter what he might do if he didn’t succeed, scott took a puff on his cigarette and replied: “We shall jolly well stop there till the thing is done.” subsequent events did, of course, prove that scott was good to his word, though he famously paid the ultimate price, dying in a tent on the ice with his closest companions just 11 miles from life-saving supplies. they had
made it to the south Pole, but the journey had been more hellish than anyone could have imagined. Worse still, the norwegian roald Amundsen had beaten them to it. years in the making, but relative moments in the undoing, captain scott’s terra nova expedition came to a grinding halt at the end of March 1912 and cast a sombre shadow over the whole year. And yet, enmeshed within the sadness, was an overwhelming sense of national pride. scott’s expedition came to exemplify British stoicism. the team’s efforts represented grit and determination on an epic scale. exactly 100 years later, the Antarctic is no less inhospitable when it comes to terrain and weather, though it does represent a slightly more achievable challenge to the modern explorer, thanks to air travel and a wellestablished support network in case of trouble. no one’s saying it’s easy, but we’ve come a long way since March 1912, when a frostbitten scott penned his fateful epitaph in his diary: “Had we lived,” he wrote, “i should have had a tale to tell which would have stirred the heart of every englishman. these rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.” Among the many memorial expeditions to the south Pole this year, one of the more touching ones is being headed by British polar explorer Antony Jinman, who is retracing the steps of the search party which set out to try and find out what had happened to scott in october 1912. Antony will lead his