Captain Scott’s ill-fated journey to the Antarctic Pole in 1911 is part triumph, part tragedy – but also a mythic adventure story which has inspired books, articles, and films over the generations. As so often in such cases the ‘truth’ of the explorers’ experiences (and there were many important figures in the party besides Scott) is much more rich, varied, and fascinating than the boy scout stereotype. Few know for example how much time during the many months of the journey were spent in scientific researches which remain of huge value to this day. But what comes across most vividly in Scott’s fascinating and finally very moving diary account is the complexity of the man and his closest comrades who reached the Pole fatally too late (the Norwegian Amundsen has beaten them to it by many weeks), then died trekking home, facing tortuous weather conditions, dwindling food supplies, and that gnawing, bitter sense of defeat. Ironically Robert Falcon Scott is now far more famous than Amundsen: his triumph secured by history and by myth. For if Scott was finally an imperfect explorer, he was the perfect author of his own amazing tale. Scott’s account is introduced by Clements R. Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society at the time of the expedition; and concluded by E.L. Atkinson, a member of Scott’s party and leader of the relief expedition which found the bodies of Scott and his comrades some months after their death in November 1912. - Summary by Steve Gough
