Robert Falcon Scott (English name: Robert Falcon Scott) (1868 - 1912) was a British naval captain. He failed to fulfill his ambition of being the first to reach the Antarctic Pole. His rival, Roald Amundsen, got there a month before him ...... In June 1910, Scott set sail on the HMS Terra Nova. En route, he heard that Amundsen was also traveling to the South Pole. Right: This photo of Scott was taken by Herbert Ponting, a member of the British Antarctic Expedition. Soon after, Ponting and some of the team were ordered back to base, leaving Scott and his 10 companions to push on to the South Pole. On November 1, 1911, Scott's group left their camping base and headed for the South Pole. Blizzards made travel very difficult. Therefore, on January 3, 1912, Scott decided to go forward with only four companions, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers and Edgar Evans, and Lawrence Oates. On January 18, Scott and his party reached the South Pole. However, Amundsen's Norwegian flag was already flying there. Deeply disappointed, they set off for home. Evans died of insanity; Oates, suffering from severe frostbite and unwilling to drag others down with him, volunteered to go out for a walk, which in these conditions would only lead to death in the sub-zero cold, but no one stopped him. The three remaining men had to make camp to escape the bad weather. But the bad weather showed no sign of ending, and finally on the day of March 29th, Scott and all 3 men died a few kilometers from their camping base. The details of Scott's last trip are known because he kept a diary of his last day, and in October 1912, a search party found the diary, along with the bodies of Scott and the three men, who had been buried in situ, now deep under the Antarctic ice. Oates' body was never found.
Exploration heroes
Scott, known in Britain as one of the great heroes of the age of exploration at the turn of the 20th century, led the expedition that left Britain on June 1, 1910, to make a dash for the South Pole.
At the time, Norwegian Roald Amundsen was leading another expedition to the South Pole. The two teams competed fiercely, both seeking "national honor. Amundsen's team arrived first on December 14, 1911, while Scott's team arrived on January 16, 1912, more than a month after Amundsen's team. Unfortunately, on the return journey, the cold Antarctic weather arrived early, and the Scott team was short of provisions and starving. They struggled in the cold for more than two months, and eventually fell asleep in the snow and ice due to physical exhaustion. Long before the last Antarctic expedition, Scott was already a national hero in Britain. He made his first Antarctic expedition between 1902 and 1904, and his related travelogue, Voyage of Discovery, was Britain's best-selling book. And the tragic story of his last Antarctic expedition has inspired generations of Britons. Austrian writer Zweig wrote a biography of their party, "The Great Tragedy," which is included in the second book of the seventh grade of the Humanist version of the fifth unit of the 21st lesson
Diary snippets
January 27, Saturday
Morning we were in the blizzard-ravaged snowy gully to navigate. The damn snow arched in a wave that looked like an undulating, raging sea. Wilson and I were on skis, and the rest of us were on foot. Finding the trail was a daunting task ...... Our sleeping bags were getting wet, not too fast, but certainly getting wetter. Gradually we felt more and more hungry, and it would have been beneficial to have some more food, especially a little more for lunch. We would have to go a little faster if we were to make it to the next supply station as soon as possible. The next supply depot is less than 60 miles away and we have a full week's worth of food left. But we can't expect to be really full until we get to the supply depot. It's a long way to go, and yet, it's an incredibly grueling journey ......
Thursday, February 1
Most of the day was a grueling trek. Walked 8 miles in 4 hours and 45 minutes. We were still walking at 8pm. We ate lunch hastily only once, on December 29, when we had been away from the supply depot for only a week. At three meals a day, we still had eight days' worth of food on hand, and should have little trouble reaching the next stop. Evans' fingertips are in bad shape now, having lost two nails. It's frostbite ......
Saturday, February 17
Today was bad. Evans looked better after a good night's sleep. He said he was all right as usual. He was still walking in the same spot, but after half an hour he got bad. Then we stopped for about an hour and Evans followed but walked slowly. Half an hour later he lost his shoes again and we stood halfway up Monument Rock looking out over Evans gloves were gone and his hands were covered in ice. He shot a crazy look in his eyes. I asked him what had happened and he slowly said he didn't know, only that he thought he must have passed out. We helped him to his feet and after two or three steps he collapsed again. He was completely frozen. Wilson, Powers and I went back to haul the sled. When we returned, Evans was unconscious. He remained unconscious after we carried him into the tent. He died peacefully at 12:30 midnight.
Wednesday, February 22
We were destined to experience the grimmest moment of our return journey. Shortly after leaving today, the wind became unusually violent from the southeast, and it swept the ground furiously. We immediately lost the signposts, which were already blurred and illegible. The expected conical stone signposts were nowhere to be seen at lunchtime. ...... But these bad lucks didn't dishearten us, which really should be recorded. In the evening, we had a delicious meal of thick soup made from horsemeat, which was so energizing and invigorating ......
Sunday, February 26
It was cold. We set out with cold feet, as the shoes and socks we had worn during the day had not dried at all. We consumed our rations cautiously, but we should have had a little more than enough food. I looked forward to the next supply station, now only 50 miles away. Once there, we would be able to bring enough supplies to continue the journey ahead.
Editing Scott's letters before his death
Those letters were very movingly written. Death was imminent, but there was not the slightest sentiment of sadness or despair in the letters, as if they too were permeated with the clear air under that lifeless sky. Those letters were written to the people he knew and spoken to all mankind; those letters were written for that time, but the words spoken are eternal.
To his wife
Scott's last letter to his wife, Catherine, was written over several days and chronicles the last hours of his life. The explorer began the letter by writing that he and his teammates were "in good health and full of vigor." He then told his wife, "My dear, it is only minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit and extremely cold. I can hardly write. We have nothing but a tent to shelter us from the cold. ...... You know I love you very much, but the worst part of it now is that I can't see you any more - it's inevitable, and I'll just have to deal with it." As his situation worsens, Scott becomes more desperate, and in his letter he urges his wife to remarry: "If there is the right man to face the difficulties with you***, you should come out of your grief and start a new life". However, he also told his wife that he had no regrets or remorse in the face of death, "What can I tell you about all this expedition? It beats sitting comfortably at home somehow!" In the last moments of his life, Scott was very much attached to his son, Peter, who was only three years old at the time, and wrote, "I may not make a good husband, but I will be a good memory to you. Of course, don't be ashamed of my death, I think our boy will have a good birth and he will be proud." He also instructed his wife to nurture Peter with a love of nature and the outdoors.
To the survivors of his companions
With the sincerest friendship he wrote to the wives and mothers of those companions who had perished with himself, testifying to their valor. Though he himself was about to die, he comforted the bereaved families of his companions with strong, superhuman feelings -- for he felt that such a death was memorable, such a moment was great.
To a Friend
He wrote to his friend. He spoke of himself with great humility, but of the nation as a whole with immense pride, and he said that at such a time he rejoiced that he was a son of the nation -- a man who called himself a son. He wrote: "I do not know that I count myself a great discoverer. But our end will prove that our nation has not yet lost that spirit of courage and strength of endurance." He also made a friendly confession to a friend on his deathbed, something he had not said in his life due to his male stubbornness. In a letter to his best friend, he wrote: "In all my life I have never yet met a man whom I have admired and loved so much as you, and yet I have never shown you what your friendship has meant to me, for you have so much to give to me, and I have so little to give to you."
To the Fatherland
His last and best letter was to his country. He felt it necessary to make it clear that in this wrestle for British honor he had lost, but through no personal fault of his own. He enumerated the contingencies which had brought about his defeat, and at the same time, with that unmistakable pathos which characterizes the voice of the dead, earnestly appealed to all Englishmen not to abandon his bereaved family. His last thought was still not of his fate. The last words he wrote spoke not of his own death, but of others living: "For God's sake, look after our families!" Below are a few pages of blank letterhead. (From "The Struggle for the Antarctic," translated by Chang-Shan Shu)
Generous Donation
The letter to his wife was written in March 1912 and addressed to "My Widow."
It was found in 1913 next to Scott's body. Scott's grandmother, Dasra Scott, said the note showed Scott's courage and fighting spirit in a desperate situation, "Looking at the handwriting, you could not believe that it was written in the cold, in the far South Pole. I am in hot tears." The suicide note, along with the rest of the more than 300 letters Scott wrote during the expedition, has been donated to the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University by Scott's son, the wife of the late Sir Peter Scott. Julianne Dodswell, director of the Institute, said, "We are very grateful to the Scott family; but for their generous donation, Scott's most heart-wrenching letters from his deathbed could easily have passed into the hands of private collectors." According to the British newspaper "Times" reported on the 11th, these letters will be on display for the first time in their entirety from the 17th, the public can personally interpret the explorer's tragic journey. The 1910 Scott Antarctic expedition challenged the world's first to reach the South Pole record, but in the final stage of the nightmare of bad weather and members of the mental breakdown of the deep. Confronted with the fact that the Norwegian explorers Amundsen and his party had been the first to reach the South Pole a month earlier, Scott's team was killed on the way back. It would be a mistake to think that an expedition to the Antarctic is all suffering and no joy. In fact, the explorers savor many unusual pleasures, and not only in the sense of struggling against suffering, but also in the light-heartedness of an entirely positive nature. An important source of pleasure is the sights that are not seen elsewhere. Cherry often couldn't help but describe the beauty of what he saw: on a sunny day, everything was wonderfully colored by the play of light and shadow and the interplay of sea, sky, clouds, snow and ice. He was right: Antarctica is far from pure white; it is bright blue, emerald green and purple-red. Anyone who has been to Antarctica will be familiar with his feelings: faced with the splendor of the landscape, it is difficult to recall the frustration that perhaps dominated him yesterday. His particularly detailed observations on the habits of penguins are described in extremely interesting detail in his book, which is well worth reading. Another special joy of living in Antarctica is to be free from the need for the so-called necessities of modern society, not to be burdened by things, and to be truly carefree. For this reason, Cherry regarded his time at Hart Point as one of the happiest times of his life. What is most touching is how these shipwrecked men behaved in their dying days. Scott was about the last to die, and his diary persisted until March 29, 1913.On March 17, after Oates had gone into the blizzard, he wrote: "We all hope that we shall meet the end with similar dauntlessness and we are sure that the end is not far off." After writing his last day's journal entry, he added an addition, "For God's sake, take care of our families." He also wrote warm letters of sympathy to the wives of the two invalids, and sorrowful letters of farewell to the British public. In the latter letter, he said, "I have no regrets about undertaking this expedition, which has shown that the British can endure suffering, help each other, and remain as stoic and stalwart as ever, even in the face of death." The scene the search team saw was that the tent was very neat and tidy, the expressions and postures of the three bodies appeared to be calm, and the journals of each man, as well as the weather logs, geological specimens, photographic negatives and other objects, were in good order. All indications were that they had left peacefully and calmly. He figured out one thing: their main purpose was not a race, but scientific research on the Antarctic to fill in the gaps. It was indeed true that half the members of their expedition were scientists, working diligently along the way. The more important reason is that the real motivation that drives people to go to Antarctica is the spiritual need, including the desire for new knowledge, but also the desire to overcome their own weaknesses. There is no natural warrior, fear of all people, and it is in all forms of adventure activities, people to challenge the fear of action to prove their bravery.