Scott's Hut: A Little Look into the History of Antarctica

"We are very near the end, but have not and will not lose our good cheer." ~~Robert Falcon Scott

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-2°C|28.4°F Temperature

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Skies: Cloudy

Visibility (miles): 5/8 in snow and blowing snow

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Station Pressure: 29.530 in.

Living at McMurdo Station has allowed for the opportunity to be exposed to some of the historical structures and myth in regards to the discovery of Antarctica and the fight for the first man to be on the South Pole. McMurdo Station is situated so that we can look out over McMurdo Sound.

One of the historical look out points that is still intact today is Scott’s Hut located on the Hut Point Peninsula which is also where McMurdo sits. Robert F. Scott, one of the famous names that go hand in hand when the continent of Antarctica is mentioned, built this hut just over a hundred years ago. With the aid of Wikipedia I’ll do my best to share the history behind Hut Point. 

 

Scott's Hut at Hut Point

The Discovery Expedition under Robert F. Scott built the hut during the years: 1901-1904. The ship Discovery wintered there just off of Hut Point in what is called Winter Quarter’s Bay. They used the hut as a way to store supplies and to prep for their exploration while they continued living off of the Discovery.

When Robert F. Scott planned to return to New Zealand and Britain, he realized that the Discovery had become blocked in by ice and they would not be able to leave in time before the weather changed for the worst. Thus, they ended up staying for an additional year. This allowed them to continue to explore Antarctica and to make an attempt to reach the South Pole. They were relieved by two different relief ships bringing in supplies to them from New Zealand. In the last year of the expedition, there was the fear that they might have to abandon the Discovery if the ice didn’t break up around it. Two days before they planned to abandon the ship, the ice broke up enough that they were able to blast the rest of it out away from the boat and set sail for New Zealand.

Members of the British Antarctic Expedition (1910–13) under Scott during his second expedition back to Antarctica wintered at Cape Evans and often used the hut during their journeys. They came to refer to this area as Hut Point Peninsula.

Today the U.S. Antarctic research station: McMurdo Station and the New Zealand research station: Scott Base is located on Hut Point Peninsula receiving the same view that Scott and his men did a hundred years ago. Several features on Hut Point, including the cross memorial for George T. Vince (A memorial placed in 1902 for the first man to lose his life at McMurdo Sound. George was one of the crew on the ship Discovery and drowned in the Ross Sea on March 11, 1902.) and the actual hut for the Discovery Expedition, are protected under the Antarctic Treaty due to their historical significance. 

 

The Memorial Cross for George T. Vince

The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier. Organized on a large scale under a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), the new expedition aimed to carry out scientific research and geographical exploration in what was then largely an untouched continent. It launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in future exploration of Antarctica. The men involved included: Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton to name a few.

The Discovery Expedition included scientific research in the following categories: biology, zoology, geology, meteorology and magnetism. They explored the snow-free McMurdo Dry Valleys and the Cape Crozier Emperor Penguin colony. These are two locations that scientists go out to today continuing the legacy of scientific research that Scott and Shackleton started a hundred years ago. This is where McMurdo Station comes into play, outfitting and providing logistical support for such field camps as these. Hence, the reason I am here, to assist with this.

Background to the Expedition:

Between 1839 and 1843 Royal Naval Captain James Clark Ross, commanding his two ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, (Today we have Mt. Erebus (the southern most active volcano in the world) and Mt. Terror (a once active volcano) sitting as backdrops to McMurdo Station.) completed three voyages to the Antarctic continent. During this time he discovered and explored a new sector of the Antarctic that would provide the field of work for many later British expeditions. Captain Ross established the general geography of this region, and named many of its features; the Ross Sea, the Great Ice Barrier (later renamed the Ross Ice Shelf), Ross Island, Cape Adare, Victoria Land, McMurdo Sound, Cape Crozier and the twin volcanoes Mount Erebus and Mount Terror. All of these geographical features are what I see every day today, over a hundred years later.

During the late 19th and early 20th century there was a renewed movement toward further exploration of the Antarctic Continent. There was a call for the opportunity for scientific research in Antarctica. It had been realized that if they made the purpose of the expedition for scientific discovery, they would get funding instead of if the mission had been for adventurous reasons.

Today, this mentality is still very much the same. All stations down here are for scientific research. There are a few personal expeditions that have occurred on the continent, mainly the goal being to reach the South Pole via ski or foot, but these excursions are often frowned upon due to the high risk of surviving this harsh continent.

The team of men for the Discovery Expedition consisted of: Robert F. Scott, Charles Royds, Michael Barne, Reginald Skelton, Albert Armitage, and Ernest Shackleton, who was designated Third Officer in charge of holds, stores and provisions, and responsible for arranging the entertainments. In addition there were around twenty petty officers and seamen making up the rest of the crew. Ernest Shackleton would later become a contender against Robert F. Scott for the first man to reach the South Pole and further exploration of Antarctica.

A Few Interesting Facts of the Expedition:

1. The total cost of the expedition was estimated at £90,000 (pounds).
2. Cadbury's (A name you will recognize today. Does the name Cadbury Egg ring a bell??) gave 3,500 lb of chocolate.
3. The expedition's ship was built by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company as a specialist research vessel designed for work in Antarctic waters, and was one of the last three-masted wooden sailing ships built in Britain.
4. The construction cost was £34,050, plus £10,322 for the engines, and the final cost after all modifications was £51,000.
5. The main geographical results of the expedition were the discovery of King Edward VII Land.
6. The ascent of the western mountains and the discovery of the Polar Plateau.
7. The first sledge journey on the plateau.
8. They achieved the furthest south of any person: 82°17′S.
9. The island nature of Ross Island was established.
10. The Transantarctic Mountains were charted to 83°S.
11. The positions and heights of more than 200 individual mountains were calculated.
12. There were also discoveries of major scientific importance: The snow-free Dry Valleys in the western mountains, the Emperor Penguin colony at Cape Crozier, scientific evidence that the Ice Barrier was a floating ice shelf, and a leaf fossil discovered by Ferrar which helped to establish Antarctica's relation to the Gondwana super-continent.
13. Thousands of geological and biological specimens had been collected and new marine species identified.
14. The location of the South Magnetic Pole had been calculated with reasonable accuracy.

A major ailment the men faced during their two years on the Discovery was scurvy.

Definition of scurvy: A disease caused by deficiency of vitamin C, characterized by spongy and bleeding gums, bleeding under the skin, and extreme weakness.

 

The failure to avoid scurvy was the result of medical ignorance of the causes of the disease rather than the fault of the expedition. At that time it was known that a fresh meat diet could provide a cure, but not that lack of fresh meat was a cause. Thus, fresh seal meat was taken on the southern journey "in case we find ourselves attacked by scurvy.”

On his 1907–09 Nimrod expedition Shackleton avoided the disease through careful dietary provision, including extra penguin and seal meat. However, Lieutenant Edward Evans almost died of it during the 1910–13 Terra Nova expedition, and scurvy was particularly devastating to the Ross Sea party during 1915–16. It remained a danger until its causes were finally established, some 25 years after the Discovery expedition.

The Discovery Expedition launched the Antarctic careers of several who became stalwarts or leaders of expeditions in the following fifteen years. Apart from Scott and Shackleton, Frank Wild and Ernest Joyce from the lower deck returned repeatedly to the ice, apparently unable to settle back into normal life. William Lashly and Edgar Evans, Scott's companions on the 1903 western journey, aligned themselves with their leader's future plans and became his regular sledging partners. Tom Crean followed both Scott and Shackleton on later expeditions. Lieutenant "Teddy" Evans, first officer on the relief ship Morning, began plans to lead an expedition of his own, before teaming up with Scott in 1910.

Soon after resuming his naval duties, Scott revealed to the Royal Geographical Society his intention to return to Antarctica, but the information was not at that stage made public. Scott was forestalled by Shackleton, who early in 1907 announced his plans to lead an expedition with the twin objectives of reaching the geographic and magnetic South Poles. This expedition was carried forth on the ship the Nimrod, a journey nearly forgotten about by society.

Under duress, Shackleton agreed not to work from McMurdo Sound, which Scott was claiming as his own sphere of work. In the event, unable to find a safe landing elsewhere, Shackleton was forced to break this promise. His expedition was highly successful, its southern march ending at 88°23′, less than 100 geographical miles from the South Pole, while its northern party reached the location of the South Magnetic Pole. However, Shackleton's breach of his undertaking caused a significant break in relations between the two men, with Scott dismissing his former companion as a liar and a rogue.

Scott's plans gradually came to fruition – a large-scale scientific and geographical expedition with the conquest of the South Pole as its principal objective. Scott was anxious to avoid the amateurism that had been associated with the Discovery Expedition's scientific work. He appointed Edward Wilson as his chief scientist, and Wilson selected an experienced team. The expedition set off in June 1910 in Terra Nova, one of Discovery's relief ships.

Scott’s expedition became complicated by the simultaneous arrival of Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition to the Antarctic. Amundsen was a famous arctic explorer, having been the first man to reach the North Pole. His goal was to be the first to reach the South Pole, giving Scott a bit of competition. Amundsen's party reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and returned safely. Scott, unaware of Amundsen’s accomplishment of reaching the South Pole, arrived at the Pole on 17 January 1912 with four other men in his party; all five perished on their return journey. Robert F. Scott was the second expeditionist to reach the South Pole.

 

The following link is to a video a few folks from McMurdo Station put together this season to commemorate the 100 year Anniversary of the first man reaching the South Pole. It is also a spoof on the current  TV series: Drunk History.

 

 Drunk History: The South Pole

Here is a more serious video on the 100 year Anniversary of reaching the South Pole.

 

That is the short and sweet version of the race to be the first to reach the South Pole and Hut Point’s role in the expeditions.

Today, Scott’s Hut is protected by the Antarctic Treaty and everything outside and within it is preserved. I was given the opportunity to take a tour of the inside of the hut a few months ago. It was surreal to step inside the hut of one of the world’s most famous arctic explorers and to see everything left as it had been a hundred years ago. Due to the fact that it is so dry down here, the decomposition process is slowed drastically. In a way, everything is preserved and petrified instead of decomposing. 

 

 

Artifacts preserved within the hut from the expedition

Slaughtered sheep preserved

 

The South Pole was reached a hundred years ago. Buildings and modes of transportation have changed in the last hundred years, but the extreme harshness of this continent remains the same. It could kill you then and it can still kill you today. These men looked upon this continent with fear, hatred, love, and most of all, respect. It’s been amazing to look out at the Royal Society range or Mt. Discovery, Mt. Erebus, or Mt. Terror and know that these are the sights these men saw a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago, it was these men exploring and naming these features that I see today. A mere hundred years ago. It is truly the last frontier. These men set the precedence for exploration. They were the definition of adventure and wanderlust. They were the true forefathers of what many of us down here are today: adventurers.

 

Below is a short video of the 100 year celebration of the South Pole actually down at the South Pole that was held down here this season.