THEY WERE NOT AFRAID TO DIE

Northern Advocate, 28 May 1938, Page 12

THEY WERE NOT AFRAID TO DIE

DURING the week there have been printed cablegrams descriptive of i the preparations which' the members of tin British Everest Expedition are making for their attempt to conquer the world’s highest peak. The indomitable, courage and persistence of Britishers to wrestle with the forces of Nature, as exemplified by the Mount Everest. Expedition, makes particularly : interesting an article dealing with the great adventure which ended so tragically for Captain Scott and his companions in the icy wastes of Antarctica. The story of the men who were not afraid to die was recently told for the London “News Chronicle" by Donald /Hudson. Twenty-six years ago, on March 29. 1912, says Mr Hodson, Captain R. F. Scott wrote in his diary.'“It seems a pity, but I do mt think I can write more. For God’s sake look after our people.” For ten days he and the two companions that remained of the four that had reached the South Pole with him had been held up by a blizzard. And for ten days they had been slowly dying of starvation and exhaustion. " That entry in Scott’s diary was the last flicker of life in one of the greatest,I’but 1 ’but one of the most unfortunate, of all voyages of exploration. From the moment when they came across the traces of the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, who beat them to the Pole by a few 1 - weeks,- their luck had turned against them. The difficulties they had to face v/ere greater than was humanly possible to overcome. -Scott’s-second Antarctic expedition was, unlike the first, entirely his own responsibility;:', He wanted to complete the knowledge of the South he had acquired on the „ Discovery expedition ten years earlier, and his purpose was primarily scientific. It was to attract funds from the public that he made the Pole bis objective. The Outward Journey. Oh tire outward voyage from England,he had received a message from Amundsen, saying: “Am heading South.” From that moment it was a race between them, and Scott was well aware how heavy the odds were against him. ■ And if one is to judge by fame alone, it was he who succeeded and not Amundaett., Amundsen’s brilliant feat is one whiclv One admires and no more. Scott’s failure, and death were of the kind to catch the imagination. The diary which he kept until he had no more strength to write is one of J-he most moving documents ever written. The outward, journev was fairly straightforward.

Depots of food were left at intervals, and the party was gradually reduced as sections returned to the base. Blizzard Comes Down. Six hundred miles of the Ice Barrier were covered before a blizzard came down on them at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier and held them up for three days on end. It was a serious blow. Reserves of food, time and energy were dissipated and the margin of safety was reduced. When the • weather cleared, f three teams of four men carried on up the glacier. Near the top one team was sent back. Two parties struggled on to the bleak desolation of the 10,000 foot high plateau where the Pole itself is situated. They were still 400 miles from their goal. Even at this late stage there was little wrong with anyone in the Polar party. When Lieutenant Evans (now Admiral Sir Edward Evans) turned back with two others 200 miles from the Pole, he left the remaining five as strong and well as they could be expected to be. The Gallant Company. With Scott were Dr. E. A. Wilson, zoologist; 'Captain L. E. G. Oates, of the Inniskilling Dragoons; Lieutenant H. R. Bowers',of the Royal Indian Marine; and Seaman Edgar Evans, of the Royal Navy. Some way beyond 89 degrees South the first Norwegian cairn was sighted, and they knew they had been They pushed on to the Pole, reaching it on January 17, and picked up Amundsen’s messages. He had camped there on December 16, just a month earlier.' “All the day-dreams must go," wrote Scott. “It will be a wearisome return.”' The cold and the wind began to get the better of them. On the high plateau the temperatures averaged minus 19 degrees Fahrenheit 51 degrees. of frost, and this, with a wind of any fixing up to gale force. At the Pole itself the temperature' was minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit. Seaman Evans, the strongest man of the party, began to succumb. His nose was badly frost-bitten and his hands were covered, with frost-bite blisters. Oates suffered from frozen feet. Blizzards overtook them, and their marches were dangerously short. Wilson suffered agonies from snow-blind-ness. Evans cut his knuckle and it festered. His finger-nails were now rotting and falling out.

More Accidents, More accidents befell them. Wilson strained a tendon, Scott slipped on the ice and hurt his shoulder, and by the time they reached the glacier-head and .'eft the plateau Bowers was the only fit man. They started down the glacier on February 8. On the way down Evans fell and concussed himself, and on February 17, at the foot of the glacier, he had another fall, was brought in on the sledge, and died the same night without recovering consciousness. Their morale was severely shaken, but they pushed on, gradually weakening. It suddenly became much colder. Temperatures fell to minus 30 degrees F. by day and minus 40 degrees F. by night. The oil supply at their next depot was unaccountably short. Oates's feet were much worse. 1 On March 10 Scott’s diary reads: “Things steadily downhill;” on March 11, Oates, “Oates is very near the end, one feels.” They divide up the medical means of ending their lives. On March 17 Oates managed to struggle on with them till they camped. That evening, with a blizzard raging outside, he get up and said, “I am just going outside ana may be some time.” They never saw him again. He walked out to his death so that he should no longer be a drag on them. He not only gave them another chance, but spared them the pain of watching him die. But the survivors were in little better condition. The extreme cold and the blizzards continued. On March 18 Scott writes: “My right foot has gone, nearly all the toes.” And a day later: “Amputation is the least I can hope for, but will the trouble spread?” That night, the 20th, they camped only eleven miles from their next depot. It was their last camp. They had food for only four days and -practically no fuel. The Last Entry. On March 29 comes the last, entry. They had decided that it should be a natural death. Seven months later the search party found them lying in the tent, as if asleep. There have been many postmortems held on the fate of Scott and his companions. There is nothing that can be added now. Scott’s own “Message to the Public,” written in those last days, explained the major reasons. “The causes of the disaster are not due to faulty organisation, but to misfortune in all risks which had to be undertaken.”

Their failure was due first and foremost to the weather, which was far worse than they could reasonably have expected from previous experience. Next, the shortage of paraffin at the depots, which Scott could not explain, but was due to seepage through the faulty stoppers of the tin containers. Then, according to Mr. Cherry-Garrard, one of the zoologists of the expedition, the food allowances were inadequate, both as regards calories and vitamins, the latter being non-existent. Even on full rations they were under-nourished. Nervous energy alone drove them on. They refused until the last moment to admit their defeat. At the end of it. Scott could write. “For my own sake, I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.” It is for this spirit with which they faced the hardships that in the end overcame them that their names have not been and will not be forgotten.