Journals

After an initial expedition to Antarctica, the Briton Robert Scott reached the South Pole in 1912 only to find that the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten him by a month. Scott and his party perished in a blizzard on the return trip. It was not until the following spring that their bodies and scientific documents were recovered. The documents were published in two books that are valuable as records of scientific research and as human documents. Scott's Last Expedition (1913) is his own classic diary of the tragedy, together with scientific material gathered on the journey. "Captain Scott kept a precise diary of the bitter days of his last journey South. His hands and feet crippled by frostbite, his eyes and mind befuddled by Antarctic blizzard, he traveled on to final defeat---and, in a way, magnificent triumph. Coming to the South Pole area itself, Scott was overwhelmed to learn that he had been preceded by the Norwegian. He knew full well the shattering implications in terms of personal and national prestige. But, gentleman to the end, he dutifully picked up Amundsen's message to the world (left at the South Pole in case Amundsen did not make it home successfully), and this eventually was conveyed to the King of Norway as proof that the Norwegian had beaten the Briton. Scott's was an act that could have been performed only by a man of honor. It is on the return trip that Scott's diary reaches a poignancy seldom matched in exploration writing" (Saturday Review). 020