IN 1910, an Englishman, Captain Robert Scott, set out on a scientific expedition to the South Pole. He was unaware that another man, a Norwegian named Roald Amundsen was also on his way there.
Roald Amundsen had planned to be the first to reach the North Pole but had been beaten to it by the American explorer, Robert Peary. Now he was determined to be the first to reach the South Pole. As he neared the icy continent, he sent a tense message to Scott: “Heading South. Amundsen.” And with that, the race to the South Pole was on!
Amundsen moved fast and efficiently on sledges drawn by Eskimo dogs and reached the Pole on 16 December 1911.
Scott and his team of four men- Evans, Wilson, Oates and Bowers- made slow progress. Their sledges were at first drawn by ponies, then when ponies died, by the men themselves. They reached the Pole 34 days after Amundsen and were bitterly disappointed to find the Norwegian’s flag there.
Their return journey was a disaster. Cold, hungry and battered by blizzards, they had to struggle every inch of the way.
Evans was the first to die. Then Oates became too ill to continue and rather than hold up his friends, walked out of his tent into a blizzard. He was never seen again.
Scott and the two remaining men perished soon afterwards.
The bodies were found eight month later.
