ANTARCTIC TRAGEDY

Otago Witness, Issue 3102, 27 August 1913, Page 28

ANTARCTIC TRAGEDY

CAPTAIN SCOTT’S NARRATIVE. DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS. . EXTREMELY BAD WEATHER. LONDON, August 21. In continuation of his narrative relating to his dash for the Pole Captain Scott says that with the breakdown of the motor sledges the ponies received a full load early and they responded splendidly. The weather improved as the party left the windy northern regions, and One Ton camp was reached on November 15. After this the weather became bad, and a fine day was exceptional. The ponies grew very tired by December 1, when the weakest were killed Their duties were to draw supplies across the barrier as iong as the voyage lasted, and finally to provide food for the dogs.

“ Our luck in regard to weather,’ 3 says Captain Scott, “is preposterous. It is really time our luck changed. One has the horrid feeling that this is a really bad season. From the gateway of the glacier came ominous wind puffs, followed by a howling raining blizzard, which lasted for four days until December 8. The temperature meanwhile was so high that the snow melted as it fell and soaked the tents, clothes, and sleeping bags.” Twelve miles from the glacier the party had to use rations which they had calculated would carry them forward from a more advanced dep<ft. The margin allowed for bad weather was ample according to calculations, but this stormy December was a thing which the most cautious organiser might have been unprepared to encounter.

Petty-officer Evans managed to save the situation by fitting a pony on snowshoes, thus enabling it to form a track for the others, and so they moved forward though the soft snow. The forage, however, was already spent, and at Shambles camp, a mile below the glacier’s gateway, the beasts were shot. It was hard to have to kill them so early. On December 10 the first stage, 424 miles, over the barrier ice was ended, and on the 40th day out, a week behind the scheduled time, the second stage—the ascent of the glacier—was begun This occupied 12 days of strenuous exertion. The surface was appalling, and the men sank in places to the knees. Evans’s party found it difficult to keep up, but Captain Scott was never fitter, and his party was easily able to hold its own. Petty-officer Evans was a tower of strength, and Dr Wilson and Captain Oates were doing splendidly.

Hereabouts Sir E. Shackleton found hard blue ice. Captain Scott says : “It seems an extraordinary difference in fortune, and Shackleton's luck becomes more evident.” Continuing, Captain Scott says that one team had a man hampered by a touch of snow blindness. Captain Scott’s own team got bogged frequentl}’, and he says the toil was simply awful. Indigestion and wet clothes in camp after such labour produced a bad night. They got rid of the soft snow on December 14, and after that splendid marches were made, although they were occasionally hampered. “ Everyone was fit,” says Captain Scott, ‘‘except poor Wilson, whose eyes were very bad. I told off those who had to return, but 1 dreaded the necessity of choosing. I had calculated to start from 85 degrees with 12 unite of food and eight men.”

On the 21st the party reached the upper basin of the glacier, where they took an affecting farewell of Atkinson's party. Captain Scott experienced great difficulties on the plateau from the rugged surface and crevasses. The weather was again unkind, while the anxiety of pitting effort against time and of measuring hard-wrung endurance against known and unknown tasks was most wearing.

After passing the summit of the glacier Captain Scott says ; —“ I feel very cheerful as the goal seems really in sight, I only pray for a fair share of good weather. December 24 was a glorious day. The sun shines in a cloudless sky, and the wind rises and falls about, us in a scene of the wildest desolation, but we are cheerful, and to-morrow is Xmas.”

On Christmas day the party had extra rations. On the last day of the year the 87th degree was crossed. There was still much soft snow. On January 3 the men were 150 miles from their goal, and the next day Evans’s party returned northward. Evans was horribly disappointed, but he took it like a man.

Captain Scott concludes as follows : “ A month’s provisions should sec us through. If we can march well with a full load we shall be practically safe.” The balance of the article describes Commander Evans’s journey when he nearly died from scurvy.