60 Fun Facts About Robert Falcon Scott

What was Robert Falcon Scott's profession before he became an explorer?

He entered HMS Britannia as a 13-year-old cadet in 1881 and rose to captain after the Discovery Expedition.

How many expeditions to the Antarctic did Scott lead?

The Discovery Expedition of 1901-04 and the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910-13.

On what date did the five-man polar party arrive at the South Pole?

They found Amundsen's tent and a letter dated 18 December waiting for them.

Where was Scott born in 1868?

His father John was a brewer and magistrate whose later financial ruin left the family dependent on Scott's naval pay.

Which Royal Geographical Society president backed Scott to lead the Discovery Expedition?

He had first noticed Scott as an 18-year-old midshipman winning a cutter race in St Kitts in 1887.

What southern record did Scott, Shackleton and Wilson set on the Discovery Expedition?

They were still about 530 miles from the Pole, and Shackleton's physical collapse saw him sent home early.

What feature did Scott's 'western journey' of the Discovery Expedition discover?

The South Pole itself sits on the plateau; the trek has been called 'one of the great polar journeys'.

What was needed to free the ship Discovery from the ice at the end of the expedition?

Built in Dundee and launched in 1901, Discovery was the last traditional wooden three-master built in Britain.

Which crew member died in March 1902 after slipping over a precipice in a blizzard?

The party had left their tent during the storm; scurvy also plagued the expedition.

Whom did Scott marry at Hampton Court's Chapel Royal in September 1908?

She had studied under Rodin and moved in circles including Picasso and Aleister Crowley.

What did Scott's only son, Peter, go on to found?

Peter Markham Scott, born in 1909, also designed the WWF's panda logo and set up the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

Scott insisted the McMurdo Sound area was his own 'field of work' in a dispute with whom?

Shackleton promised to base himself east of 170°W but, finding nowhere to land, set up at Cape Royds anyway.

From which port did the Terra Nova sail on 15 June 1910?

Scott joined the old converted whaler later in South Africa after fundraising in Britain.

What did Scott state was the main objective of the Terra Nova Expedition?

Markham said Scott had been 'bitten by the Pole mania'; the RGS had hoped science would come first.

What telegram did Scott receive from Amundsen in Melbourne in October 1910?

It was the first hint that Scott faced a race to the Pole.

Which forms of transport did Scott take south besides man-hauling?

One motor sledge broke through the sea ice and sank while being unloaded at Cape Evans.

Where were the expedition's ponies bought, on Scott's orders?

Dog expert Cecil Meares chose them in Siberia; not being a horse-dealer, he picked mostly poor animals.

How many days was the Terra Nova trapped in pack ice on the way south?

Combined with a near-sinking in a storm, it meant a late arrival and less time to prepare before winter.

How far short of its planned 80°S position was One Ton Depot laid?

Oates urged Scott to kill ponies for food and push on; Scott refused, and Oates warned he would regret it.

Where had Amundsen made his base, well to the east of Scott's?

It was 69 miles closer to the Pole, and his cold-tolerant dogs could start earlier than Scott's ponies.

What did Scott's written orders of 20 October 1911 instruct the dog teams to do?

Their rediscovery in the 21st century helped rehabilitate Scott's reputation as a planner.

On what date did the march south from Cape Evans begin?

Motors, dogs and ponies moved at different rates, all to support a final dash by a small party.

How many men did Scott finally choose for the Pole, instead of the planned four?

Teddy Evans, William Lashly and Tom Crean were sent back at 87°34'S on 4 January 1912.

What did the polar party spot in the distance the day before reaching the Pole?

Scott wrote in his diary: 'The worst has happened... Great God! This is an awful place'.

Which member of the polar party was the first to die, at the foot of the Beardmore?

Falls on 4 and 17 February left him 'dull and incapable'; he died on the second date.

What were the reported last words of the officer who walked out into the blizzard?

He walked to his death in a blizzard on 16 March 1912, his 32nd birthday, to give the others a chance.

How far short of One Ton Depot was the final camp of Scott, Wilson and Bowers?

A blizzard pinned them down from 20 March; Scott's last diary entry is dated 29 March.

To what temperature had it unexpectedly dropped by 10 March 1912?

Meteorologist Susan Solomon's The Coldest March argues this freak weather, not bungling, doomed the party.

What were the concluding words of Scott's final diary entry?

He is presumed to have died on 29 March 1912, apparently the last of the three.

Which document did Scott write to vindicate the expedition's conduct?

It blamed weather and misfortune, and ended by asking a 'great rich country' to provide for the dependents.

On what date did a search party find the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers?

The tent was collapsed over them and a snow cairn built, topped with a cross made from Tryggve Gran's skis.

What scientific specimens were found beside the bodies?

The first Antarctic fossils ever found, they proved the continent was once forested and joined to others.

Which poet's line is inscribed on the memorial cross on Observation Hill?

'To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield' comes from Ulysses; the ship's carpenters made the cross in January 1913.

Where did the Terra Nova bring news of the tragedy to the world on 10 February 1913?

Within days Scott was a national icon, and a memorial service was held at St Paul's on 14 February.

How much did the Mansion House Scott Memorial Fund raise?

Scott's family received £18,000 of it, while Edgar Evans's widow, children and mother shared just £1,500.

Which Cambridge institution was founded as a memorial after the tragedy?

More than 30 monuments went up in Britain alone within a dozen years of his death.

What rank was Kathleen granted in place of the knighthood her husband might have had?

Kathleen later married Edward Hilton Young, Lord Kennet, and defended Scott's reputation until her death in 1947.

Who played Scott in the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic?

Ralph Vaughan Williams reworked his score into the Sinfonia antartica of 1952.

Which 1979 dual biography branded the captain a 'heroic bungler'?

Its thesis became the orthodoxy for decades before 21st-century writers revised the revisionists.

Where did Scott rank in the 2002 BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons?

His old rival Shackleton came 11th as his own reputation rose while Scott's fell.

Which surviving expedition member wrote The Worst Journey in the World?

Its title refers to the winter journey to Cape Crozier for emperor penguin eggs, made in darkness at -60 °C.

Who was sent only as far as One Ton Depot with the dogs in February 1912?

Atkinson had stayed to unload the ship and then treated the scurvy-ridden Teddy Evans, so Scott's rendezvous order lapsed.

What was the polar party's return journey distance from the Pole to base?

They completed the 300-mile plateau stage by 7 February and then descended the 100-mile Beardmore Glacier.

What advice from Nansen does the 1948 film show Scott ruefully recalling?

Scott had consulted Nansen during motor sledge trials in Norway in March 1910.

How did Amundsen reportedly react to news of Scott's death?

Scott's own words shaped the story the world heard, and Amundsen's victory came to look like an unsporting trick.

Which item from the Discovery Expedition is held at Exeter Cathedral?

Greenwich has his snow shoes and goggles, and a Nottinghamshire museum holds the pocket watch found with his body.

Which cavalry officer, nicknamed 'Titus', looked after the ponies?

A Boer War veteran of the Inniskilling Dragoons, he had refused to surrender when wounded at Wynberg.

Which Irish sailor was sent back with Teddy Evans and Lashly at 87°34'S?

He was sent back with Teddy Evans and Lashly at 87°34'S, and helped save Evans's life on the way home.

What business was the source of the Scott family's prosperity in Plymouth?

Scott's father later sold it, invested unwisely and went virtually bankrupt in 1894, forcing the family to move to Shepton Mallet.

At what age did Scott begin his naval career as a cadet in 1881?

He had been sent to Stubbington House School in Hampshire, a cramming school for the entrance exams to the training ship HMS Britannia.

Where did Scott rank when he passed out of HMS Britannia as a midshipman in July 1883?

He then sailed to South Africa to join HMS Boadicea, flagship of the Cape squadron.

On which ship in St Kitts did the young midshipman Scott first encounter Clements Markham?

Markham was then Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society; a chance meeting in a London street in 1899 led to Scott's Discovery command.

Which two-year naval training course did Scott apply for in 1891 aboard HMS Vernon?

He graduated with first class certificates, and was serving as torpedo officer on HMS Vulcan when he learned of his family's financial ruin.

What happened to the dogs taken on the Discovery Expedition?

Their performance nevertheless impressed Scott, who despite moral qualms adopted the principle of slaughtering dogs for dog food.

After Discovery returned in 1904, King Edward VII made Scott a Commander of which honour?

He was invited to Balmoral, promoted to captain and spent over a year on lectures and writing The Voyage of the Discovery.

Kathleen Bruce, Scott's future wife, had studied sculpture under which master?

Her circle included Isadora Duncan, Picasso and Aleister Crowley, and Scott's main rival for her was the would-be novelist Gilbert Cannan.

Which engineer developed the caterpillar-track idea for Scott's motor sledges?

Scott's 1908 memorandum argued man-hauling to the Pole was impossible and motor traction was needed, though snow vehicles did not yet exist.

Which Boy Scouts founder hailed Scott and Oates as proof that Britons were not 'going downhill'?

The London Evening News meanwhile called for the story to be read to schoolchildren to coincide with the St Paul's memorial service.

Which institution holds the pocket watch found with Scott's body?

The Museum of Oxford has a marmalade tin recovered from the death site, and Greenwich holds his snow shoes, goggles and diary bag.

Whose 2001 book The Coldest March blamed extraordinary Barrier weather rather than Scott's failings?

The meteorologist's account helped trigger what historian Stephanie Barczewski calls 'a revision of the revisionist view' of Scott.