"The Discovery!"
     
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The Preparation and the Trip to the Antarctic!
To start off with, Scott took leave. He started his training by taking a course on magnetism at Deptford. He also started daily jogging through Hyde Park for some exercise. While he was doing this, he was living with his mother and two sisters who now lived in a shop in Chelsea after the death of John, (the Father,) in October 1987 of heart disease. While he was here, it would be a place to relax and start the hard, deep down planning.
Scott had one of his first meetings with Clements Markham in June 1899. Scott recieved a letter exclaiming his appointment on June the 9th, 1900. Scott wrote back on the 11th of June, 1900 to confirm his acceptance as the commander. In this letter, or one that was closely followed, Scott wrote the commands that he would take control of to make sure it was certified what his role was. They are as follows:
1. I must have the complete command of the ship and landing parties. There cannot be two heads.
2. I must be consulted on all matters affecting the equipment of the landing parties.
3. The executive officers must not number less than four, exclusive of myself.
4. I must be consulted in all future appointments, both civilians and others. Especially the doctor.
5. It must be understood that the doctors are first medical men, and secondly members of the scientific staff, not vice versa.
6. I am ready to insist on these conditions to the point of resignation if, in my opinion, their refusal imperils the success of the undertaking.
Markham and Scott went to Christiania, Oslo to cousult a man named Nansen about his boat, the Fram in October 1900. Things that made the Fram special were:
1. Design like a saucer, able to be lifted above ice floes rather than be crushed by them.
2. Revolutionary design.
BUT...to reach the Antarctic, there was going to need to be a boat that could force it's way through rough seas and break it's way through miles of pack ice. They decided that a whaling vessel might be better for these purposes. (The Fram was later borrowed by Amundsen who took it into the Ross Sea!)
The Discovery was built in Dundee which is a place in Scotland. It was the sixth ever built and was the first one to be designed especially for scientific work. Special fetures of it was:
1. Good strong wooden ship.
2. Had to be a revolutionary design.
3. Needed to be a sailing ship but with auxiliary engines.
4. Had to be built from a variety of different woods for strength. The different woods were used as follows. Frames: English oak. Lining: Riga fir. Four-inch thick lining: Honduras mahogany, pitch pine or oak. Planking: Solid wood. The boat in total weighed 485 tonnes and had a capacity of up to 1620 tonnes, 172 feet long and 34 feet wide! It had enough room to fit and store fuel, oil, 350 tonnes of coal, medical supplies, tools, e.g. axes and saws, important sceintific gadgets, a wooden hut that was to be put up, a library, a piano, dog food and fresh water. The final cost all up was forty-nine thousand, two-hundred and seventy-seven pounds! Although this boat was great, The Discovery was so heavy that it's top speed was seven knots!
They brought russian dogs although dogs from Greenland were much better and bigger but were harder to get due to the many other Antarctic voyages over the last fifty years which had used a large amount of these dogs. The dogs they did get were from Archangel. They brought twenty-three dogs, three being females. They were sent to the London Zoo and were later shipped through to New-Zealand for the preparation.
Lady Markham cut the tape for the Discovery with a pair of posh golden scissors on March the 21st, 1901.
Food for the men was stored on board. Enough food for all forty - seven of them. 150 tonnes of roast pheasant, 500 tonnes of roast turkey, whole roast partridges, jugged hare, duck, green peas, rump steak, wild cherry sauce, celery seed, black currant vinegar, candied orange peel, stilton and double gloucester cheese, 27 gallons of brandy, 27 gallons of whiskey, 60 cases of port, 36 cases of sherry, 28 cases of champagne, lime juice, 1,800 pounds of tobacco, pemmican, raisins, chocolate and onion powder. With some last minute advice, a balloon was brought for the voyage at a price of 1,300 pounds. Once Lady Markham had cut the ribbon, The Discovery headed off.
July the 31st, 1901 came around and The Discovery had taken a route where it was able to stop off and
allow the King and Queen, (uncrowned,) to come aboard. While onboard, the Queen's Pekinese dog fell overboard and had to be rescued by a sailor!
The first real stop was at Madeira Island. The only reason for ever stopping here, was to pick up more coal. After actually departing from the Madeira Islands, leaks were found in places that were leaking water in to the hold. This had ruined a large portion of food onboard and what could be saved was saved, what had to be chucked, was chucked overboard. The second stop was in Cape Town which docked on October the 3rd, 1901. Here, nearly everyone became drunk!
Running a little behind schedule due to the slowness of the boat, it was decided that the stop over in Melbourne was to be cut out and they would sail straight to Lyttleton, New-Zealand where they would arrive near the end of Novemeber and the boat would be repaired where it was damaged with water.
News later arrived from Clements.
The following year, a ship with new supplies would visit the Discovery. The crew on board the relief ship would check the crew were all right, resupply them with stock and deliver them their mail.
The relief ship was a ship called "Morgenen" which was later renamed "Morning." The 5,000 pounds for this ship was donated by Mr. Llewellyn Longstaff.
They soon entered the Antarctic Circle then headed to Cape Adare. They then sailed south to Victoria land and then went on to Ross Island. On Ross Island they landed on the tip at Cape Crozier. They then headed for the Barrier and got caught in a snowstorm where they experienced a whiteout. As they were cruising along the barrier they came across some rocks, towering 2,000 feet above them. Scott named this new place King Edward VII Land. They then headed back to Mcmurdo Sound. On the way Scott and Shackleton went up in the balloon they had purchased. The balloon was pearced, got a leak and was never used again. In Mcmurdo Sound they set up their main base that would shelter them over the winter. The hut was a cube like house 36 square - foot big. Kennels were scattered around the place to house the dogs and two slightly smaller huts were put up to store the magnetic instruments in.

The Explorations!
Wilson, Shackleton and Ferrar took on a trip to go to white Island. It lasted for three days and one important thing was learnt. It was not going to be as easy as they thought it was. They were the first three that nearly died. This expedition was completed using sledges and the men were dragging these themselves. It took them two days to reach White Island, and when they finally did, frostbite stuck to their faces and feet during a full on blizzard. They were so exhausted from the journey there that they could hardly pitch their tents or cook their meals!

The next voyage was commanded by Royds. (It was to be commanded by Scott but he could not go as he had damaged his knee in a skiiing accident.) Quartley, Vince, Weller, Wild, Barne, Skelton,
Evans, Heald, Plumley, Koettlitz and Hare were the four officers and eight man party picked to go. They started out on March the 4th to Cape Crozier where thy were to explore the Pengin Rookery there. Here, one of their objects was to leave a container with directions of how to get back to the winter hut. This expedition was a real test too: The dogs were all fighting and soon went lame, frostbite set upon them, Their rations got mixed up in the bag to make it a mix of sugar, cheese, butter, soup tablets and chocolate all had to be cooked up together, The snow was to soft so they all sank in past their ankles and got wet and they were almost dawdling. In fact, progress was so slow that on the second day they only travelled five miles, The men were all exhausted before they had even completed their misiion so royds decided to split them up. Royda, Koettlitz and Skelton were the choosen ones, while Barnes led the others back to the Winter camp. Royds and his party were finding it a right struggle and after five days of not having found the rookery, being exhausted and the tempreature being -42 degees farenheit, on Royds decisions, they abandoned their mission and headed back to the Winter Camp too. They were back in Winter Camp recovering four days later, while Barnes and his party had still arrived back! They were still four miles from the ship at Castle Rock. After walking a little further, they were hit by a terrible blizzard and a whiteout took place. They decided to pitch the tents but they couldn't get the cookers to work so they started to be attacked with frostbite. Things were looking terrible so they decided to head out into the bad weather. After walking for a while, Evans soon stepped on to a patch of slippery ice and flew out of the others sight. Barnes and Quartley soon tumbled down after him. They ended up piled into a heap at the edge of the sea! One of the dogs had decided to come after them and had unfortunately, not been so lucky and had slid over the edge. Frank, (Mr. Wild,) then took charge and led them down the slope to the sea in search of the ship, and like the others, would've fallen over the edge if he had taken another step. This was not the end to their bad luck, as like the dog, Vince flew over the edge into the roaring sea below him. Wild, Weller, Heald and Plumley made their way back to the ship. Only four of the twelve had returned. Soon a search party was underway, Wild being the leader. The quickly stumbled upon Barne, Evans and Quartly who were wandering around in the snow in a trance at Castle Rock. Now, only two remained lost when they came back that evening. Clarence Hare and Vince. They were rather worried about Hare, but as you know, Vince was gone. Hare was last seen wandering back to the sledges to collect his ski boots. Nevertheless, two days later, sure enough, Hare came wandering towards the ship after having fallen down, gone to sleep and had then been preserved by the snow that had fallen over him. He wandered out without even the faintest of frostbite. That was everyone found.
There was one last expedition before the winter and it was started on Easter Monday, the crew being Scott as the leader, Armitage, Wilson, Ferrar and eight other men, towing three sledges and driving nine dogs. The mission was to place a depot, like the previous mission but this time it was to place the depot towards the South Pole for the sledging parties when it got closer to the summer again. Shortly after they had departed, they were already encountering problems: The dogs wouldn't carry their heavy loads and the temperatures dropped to -47 degrees farenheit. They didn't complete this mission either, as after two days Scott had decided that enough was enough. They headed back, everyone learning that you needed to be experienced and that hardly anyone had become well enough prepared! This was the last mission before the Winter because on April the 23rd, 1901, the sun slowly sunk. It wuold not come up again for at least another our months.

Over the winter, each man had his own task.
Royds task was to look after the seamen and petty officers. These people had tasks such as watering then ship, etc. If you did this you had to cut out blocks of ice and take them to be melted on the boiler onboard the ship. Hardly anybody got any exercise as outside it was always blistering cold with blizzards and whiteouts that lasted for days.
Birthdays onboard the ship were always a special celebration onboard the ship. On the day you would get a special dinner and a religous service like thing was held every Sunday.
Common boredom busters were playing cards, playing chess, reading and carrying out scientific studies on things they had completed!

On Sepetember the second, the crew started their Summer Sledging. The first of the new missions began. Scott and eight others set out once again to lay a depot, possibly the one they had failed to complete last time. Conditions harshened and they had to return back to camp as they could not take it and neither could the dogs, once again, with an uncompletened mission. In diary entries written, the steps of setting up a typical sledging camp were:
1. "Set up a small tent just large enough for three men to lie down in."
2. "Snow was piled up around the outside of the tent in order to hold it down in case of a blizzard."
3. "The sledge would be unloaded and the cooker set up inside the tent.
4. After a few days it would be normal if a thin layer of ice ormed on the inside of the tent. This sounds bad enough but when the wind shakes the tent, the man lying underneath would be covered in a shower of ice. Another bad thing was that when they got this cold, their breath would freeze in their beards or around the collar of their fur coats. They had shivering fits that could last for hours on end.
A typical supper would be Hoosh which was made up of pemmican cheese, oatmeal, pea-flour and bacon. No matter how nice it sounds, it's disgusting!!!
This doesn't sound very nice but the idea was in favour of warmth. At bedtime it was always discussed whether or not each man should sleep alone or whether they should sleep in threes.

On Sepetember the 17th, 1902 Scott, Barne and Shackleton set off on yet, another exploration. This one didn't lst for long either as on the second night, a blizzard struck and they hadn't piled enough snow around the tent so the tent nearly blew away. They then hurried back to the ship but all suffered frostbite before reaching it.
On November the second another expedition was commenced. This one consisted of Scott Shackleton and Wilson. Barne had also brought a lage support party as they all ventured south. They were soon slowed just as they were starting to pick up the pace, by sticky snow. A blizzard then hit them and kept them in their tent. On the third day, Shackleton started to cough. This was a bad beginning. Soon half of the support party headed back to the ship while the rest journeyed on until November the 15th. By ths time, most of the support party had already headed home. Then the dogs started playing up again. Instead of bringing normal dog food to feed the dogs, dried stockfish had been brought and as the "Discovery" had sailed through the tropics, the stockfish had become contaminated and was no longer in eating condition and the dogs wouldn't eat. Then the dogs became slack and wouldn't haul the sledges sop the tired men had to do it themselves although they decided later that they would've been better off just killing the dogs and depoting the meat as they headed south, hoping the dogs would revive somehow. On November the 25th, they made a record. They were the first party to cross some line on a map. But their troubles were far from over, they soon became extremely hungry and food was a problem as the rations had been reduced to be preserved with what other little food they had left. Then still, it got worse. Five days later, the first dog died. The corpse of this do was enjoyed by the other dogs. This gave them an idea, they would save the best nine dogs and feed them off the others. Shackleton was having a bad old time and his gums became swollen, a bad sign as it was the first sign of scurvy. Meanwhile, they were all getting hungrier and hungrier. The portions of seal meat they recieved were getting bigger, but this still did not fufill their humongous appetite. On December the 20th, Wilson was so hungry, he lay awake all night. Then on December the 26th Wilson was being bothered with snow-blindness so badly, he decided he had to tell Scott. SScott fixed this by tying a blindfold over his head and that was how he remained the very next day hauling his sledge! They did not consider this expedition an absolute waste as they sighted a huge peak, higher than any mountain they had seen so far! It had an estimated height of 13,000 feet. They also name it Mt. Markham. The party or what was now left of it, then decided they had had enough and headed home on December the 31st. They had made a record of travelling 300 miles further then anyone for the time had before.
Soon, a dog a day was dying. Either by dropping dead or being slaughtered. Boss dropped behind only to see his fatal death, Bismark was killed on Januarry the 4th and Kid died and so they decided to give up on the rest and let go at their own free will. They were soon down to one days ration and were cutting it close. Scott was lucky enough to have his telescope and spot one of the depot's they had layed on the way out. Meanwhile, Shackleton was having an even worse problem. More signs of scurvy had appeared! He was short of breath, his throat was congested, he had started to spit blood and his gums were red and swollen once again. With these problems, Shackleton could only walk beside them now so the other two were towing another half each. Then on January the 18th, 1903, Shackleton had had enough and completely gave away which meant they had to camp for a number of days to try and nurse him back to at least ok health. At last, by January the 28th, they had reached the first depot and were only sixty miles from the ship and winter base. More good news came on February the 2nd as White Island came into view. They were soon onboard the ship where Shackleton was recovering and the rest were being congratulated on their effort. In ninty-three days thay had covered 960 miles. - (Statue?) On January the 24th, 1903, The "Morning," arrived but anchored at Hut Point and delivered mail, haps of it! Royds alone had sixty-two letters and a cake. BUT...the main talk was would all the pack ice that surrounded the "Discovery," break up in time for the "Morning" to be escorted by the "Discovery" on the way back to Lyttleton? Chances were pretty grim though. There was a lot out there! This was confirmed on February the 10th as the ice was not breaking, new ice was forming. ON February the 22nd, they decided some sort of action was needed. The kind of action they had in mind was trying to blow holes in the ice to crack the ice floes. They used explosives, but this seemed useless. By the 25th, they had to face it for sure, they weren't getting out this time around and the "Morning" had to leave soon, otherwise, it too would be stuck in the cave of pack ice. The "Morning" had brought things that they were greatful for too though, twenty tonnes of coal and fourteen tonnes of stores! Before the "Morning" left, it had one other job to do, bring any members of the party back to civilization if they wished. Eight men applied but that was not Scott's main focus, what would he do with Shackleton? In the end after a sad farewell, Shackleton boarded the "Morning" and left for home. Before this took place though, on March the first, 1903 there was a farewell party onboard "Morning." This was a real bash and lasted for half of the night. Shackleton was crying as he gave his friends a last wave goodbye for goodness knows how long. He was replaced with George Mulock, 21 and a Sub-Lieutenant. Thw Winter of 1903 was much colder than the previous year and set in much earlier than the previous year. Armitage and Scott had become almost arch rivals. Plans were being made for the followingsummer when they could go on more expeditions. Armitage wanted to go south across the barrier, more or less where Scott travelled and Scott felt this was to try and beat the Commander and so rejected this idea, not just for this reason though. Royds wish was to go back to Cape Crozier to look for more penguin eggs.
These plans were made possible when on August the 24th, 1903 the sun rose over the horizon. Pinned to the noticeboard was, practically whatever you were going to do, you had to be back onboard the ship by the 15th of December so that all hands could be there to help free the stranded ship, hopefully before the "Morning" arrived again. There were only three major expeditions taking place this time anyway, to lay depots and then return and then Scott's party was going west to the Ferrar Glacier as far as possible while Barne and his troup were to explore an inlet south of Mcmurdo Strait. The first leaving the ship were Royds, Wilson and four other men who left on Sepetember the seventh on their way to Cape Crozier. They didn't count this as one of the most exciting journeys they had been on as they only came back with two live chicks and a few eggs. On the way back though, it was a bit more eventful, especially on the weather side of things. The tempreature flew down to -61 degrees farenheit and they all got bad frostbite.
Scott, (the leader,) Skelton and four others set out on the 9th of Sepetember. The mission on this expedition was to lay, yet another, depot. This one was in preparation for heading up to the western mountains. While Scott's party was ding this, Barne was leading a party to lay a depot as well. They were heading out to the barrier as to lay a depot south- east of White Island. The weather rapidly dropped to a -67.7 degrees farenheit, then broke!
Back to Scott's party, they left off on their proper voyage on the 12th of October. Each man was dragging 200 pounds with a total of four sledges throughout them. When they reached New Harbor they headed up to the Ferrar Glacier and found a basin before them at around 4,500 feet! The runners on the sledges soon became damaged so badly they had to turn around and head 87 miles back to the ship to under go repairs! They were back on their way again in five days, this time getting to the top of the mountains. This was not go though as a blizzard hit them and nearly buried them all alive. Scott exclaimed it as the most miserable week of his whole entire life! The things that follow will explain why. They were in their sleeping bags 22 out of 24 hours, only climbing out long enough to get the cooker going and eat there only hot meal a day. They had finally reached the summit which stood at 8,900 feet high but flat on November the 14th! The next two weeks were spent sledging west although there was a harsh freezing cold icy wind battling them the whole time. This got so bad it gave them bleeding lips. This was too much so on December the 1st, they decided it was time to turn back. By this stage, the feeling of hunger, exhaustion, snow-blindness, frostbite, snowdrift, fog, freezing cold and being low on supplies felt very normal. They were starting to get low on food and oil and hadn't returned yet. On December the 14th, Scott had to admit to his fellow party members that they were lost. Hign sprits were running low until Lashly fell down the slope, taking the tohers with him by buckling their legs, themselves, sledges, everything. They got to the bottom with no broken bones and in familiar scenery. They turned out to be only 5 or 6 miles short of the depot which was reached that night. Eight days later, Christmas Eve they arrived back at the ship. They worked out that they had been gone 59 days, hauling sledges for 725 miles. Although when they had returned, there were only four people on the ship to meet them. The toehrs were not lost though, they were about 10 miles away trying to break the ice sawing at it and blasting it. They didn't expect it to all clear but they hoped for it to break up enough for the "Discovery" to get through.
Meanwhile, the western mountains was still inhabited with the "Discovery" expedition. A fossil leaf had been found and Wilson had been pleased with the finds of the penguin expedition.
Things were not looking good for leaving this winter though. In fact, Scott had started to prepare for a third winter. January the 5th brought luck to them, just not the thing they wanted the baddest. A ship came into view and was soon recognised to be the "Morning." Although it was followed by another ship this year. The "Terra Nova." Once agan, Wilson and Scott recieved their mail. They were also curious why there were two relief ships instead of the usual one. The story is below.
In 1903 after the "Morning" had returned from it's relief expedition, the crew told Markham all that Scott had told them. He was delighted to hear about all the successes but was worried about not being able to get them back. Markham had had thoughts about this at the start but had not wanted to say anything or had not said anything when the plans had been given to the Government in to the first place. Markham then went to the Governmnet asking for a 12,000 pound grant of money to help bring the crew back. The Government felt that if they gave them the money and then left it up to them to get them back safely, they felt that Markham would've found an excuse to postpone the relief journey till next Winter when this could be to late. The Government just wanted to get them back as soon as possible, safe as sound. They were so anxious to get them back that they didn't mind, even if the "Discovery" had to be abandoned. The Government agreed to pay for this expedition as long as the "Morning" was passed over to the government absolutely free of charge so the Government could handle this situation free of charge. This made Scott feel as if people didn't believe he could handle it himself and that they were in serious trouble. The new commander of "Terra Nova" was William Wharton. This was all confirmed on June the 22nd, 1903. A little over four months was given to find the boat, refit it and get it to Lyttleton Harbour ready for the journey by mid November. The boat needed had to be a whaling boat. This was found in Saint John's, Newfoundland. She was bigger than the "Morning, weighing in at 744 tonnes and being 187 feet lengthwise. She was decided to be the one and was brought on July the 6th for 20,000 pounds! A disaster struck. By the time she was ready to leave for Lyttleton, it was just simply going to be to late, she would not make it in time to reach Mcmurdo Sound as well. To speed things up she was towed by naval vessels to the Persian Gulf where she continued on her own until she got to Portsmouth where HMS Minerva towed her to Gibraltar. She was then towed by HMS Vindictive where she was taken to Aden, later HMS Fox towed her 120 miles from the east coast of Scotra. Here she was left to pull her own weight and do the job. They were still running late so plans for the "Terra Nova" and the "Morning" to meet in Lyttleton ewre canned, instead to meet in Hobart, Tasmania. They meet on October the 31st and headed off to Mcmurdo Sound together. Hearing this Scott got concerned and felt insulted. He was concerned about his career being put at risk after the second boat needing to come and making him sound as though he couldn't sort or handle things him self. Then in July 1903, the Government said that they could not take any more people, officers or men, out of the Royal Navy if any further voyages were neeeded on the ice, even if they had enough money. This made Scott feel a bit better as he now knew that the chances of sending yet another ship for help, was just about zilch.

The salvage and the journey home!
A date was set by William Colbeck. (Commander of the "Terra Nova.") They had to be out and free by the twenty - fifth of February, 1904 otherwise they would have to abandon the "Discovery" as the "Morning" and the "Terra Nova" would have a chance of being pack iced in as well. In mid January, twenty miles of pack ice was between the ship and open water. They tried blasting and sawing it away but this didn't work and was just a waste of supplies and valuable time. The only thing left they could think of was to wait for some good south - easterly winds to bellow high. Seeing as things were looking pretty grim, scientific collections and equipment started being moved on to the "Terra Nova." Good luck was just about to come their way though! Over the next five weeks after moving the scientific collections and equipment, the ice slowly started to break up. To help, they tried explosives and saws again and just about anything they could imagine that would break up the ice, even just in little bits. Now though...the thermometer had fallen to -14 degrees Fahrenheit and Winter was going to slowly set in. Knowing this information, they worked harder and longer hours. This work payed off. On Valentine's Day the ice cracked significantly and the "Discovery" was out! The ice had cracked!
The "Morning" and "Terra Nova" were on either side of the "Discovery" on the way out. Everyone cheered as the ship broke through the last sheet of ice at 10:30 pm. The "Discovery" had done it! The next few days were spent properly preparing the ships for departure. Getting out was a bit difficult but they did it and were finally leaving Mcmurdo Sound on the fourteenth of Febuary, 1904. Leaving the place that was their home for just under 3 years. From here it didn't matter what route the boat took, just as long as they all met up in the Auckland Islands where they would all meet and head back to Lyttleton together. Using this as an oppourtunity to explore a bit more, Scott decided to take the ship around Cape Adare then explore west along the northern coast, Victoria Land. Meanwhile the "Morning" headed straight towards the Auckland Islands. The "Discovery", after being on the ice for around three years, was far from luxiourious on board! Water poured into the holds, the pumps didn't work, the rudder was completely ruined and about to fall off, (they did have a spare rudder but it was only half the size,) the more west the ship went, the more it started getting itself into trouble again as the ice became thicker and the coal was running short so they had to turn around into open water where they could just use the sails and when high winds came up, everyone got seasick after being on land for so long. After their little "exploration" they had lost touch with the "Terra Nova.
"The "Discovery had been pushed so far north that they had found the Balleny Islands but soon got back on their way to the Auckland Islands. They arrived at the Auckland Islands on March the fourteenth. They only had 10 tonnes of coal left and were starting to get worried but soon, just relaxed. They had arrived earlier than the others so while they were waiting some people cleaned, others painted the ship and others went onshore and caught food, wild cattle and pigs were some of what was caught.
The others soon caught up and headed off on the twenty - ninth of March. They reached Lyttleton Harbour three days later which happened to be April the first, Good Friday / April Fools. There was a big welcoming party waiting for them which included guests and over excited reporters. Although the men onboard the ship were still annoyed about why they had sent antoher relief ship to help rescue them! Scott was getting rather distressed and then to make matters worse, at home, both his sisters were having a hard time in the dress - making industry and him and his brother - in - law were having to support his Mum.
On the other hand, the ship needed repairs done to it. It was taken out of the water for 2 months and repaired. Scott was running tight on money so he could only pay the regualr crew members, not the officers. Skelton married a nice young lady called Sybil who had been his host in one part of the journey where they had stayed over. Royds and Scott were later taken to court where they were fined 5 pounds for shooting cattle on Enderby Island in the Auckland Islands. They were private property but were thought be be wild because they were running wild.
The scientific work and science collections were sent to the Museum of Natural History and their statistical information was sent to the Royal Society. Scott didn't claim all credit for such good records as he said: "An Antarctic expedition is not a one - man show, not a two - man show, nor a ten - man show. It means the co - operation of all..."
Scott's Mum and 2 sisters now lived at 56 Oakley Street, Chelsea Embankment. Scott lived here for 4 years and it's now a historical site.
An exhibition containing Wilson's drawings, a model of the "Discovery," sledging equipment, Skelton's photographs and rations that were eaten on the journey was opened on November the fourth, 1904 at the Bruton Galeries.
Shackleton and Scott became good friends again after the upset of Shackleton having to go back early.
The Government sold the "Discovery" to Hudson's Bay, the highest bidder for 10,000 pounds, she originally being brought very expensive after Markham had begged the Government to keep it for future polar expeditions unsuccessfully.
Scott later started organising a book to be published about the journey. In early 1905 the book was just about finished and on October the twelfth, 1905 3,000 copies were published of: "Voyage of the Discovery." This sold quite well so 1,500 more copies were printed the next month. The books sales then plummeted, the book going out of print in 1919 after selling 5,272 copies.
Armitage also published a book called:"Two Years in the Antarctic, being releasd in Autumn, 1905 as well. Scott was worried that Armitage would say something bad about him but no nasty comments were made.
Scott was still single at 37 years of age, possibly due to being so busy with the aftermath of the "Discovery."
Near the beginning of 1907 Scott made a public announcement that he would later command a second journey to the Antarctic after making statements of no such thing happening.


 
   
 

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