Revenge served cold: was Scott of the Antarctic sabotaged by his angry deputy?
Revenge served cold: was Scott of the Antarctic sabotaged by his angry deputy? Scott and his team at the geographic South Pole, January 18, 1912. National Library of Australia Chris Turney , UNSW On February 11, 1913, the world woke to the headline “ Death of Captain Scott. Lost with four comrades. The Pole reached. Disaster on the return ”. A keenly anticipated, privately funded scientific venture “off the map” had turned to tragedy. Previous reports had described the polar party of the British Antarctic Expedition striking out confidently just 2.5º latitude from their objective: the geographic South Pole. The journals and letters recovered from the bodies, however, told a tale of heartbreak and desperation : the explorers were shattered to find themselves beaten to the pole by Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen, and weakened terribly during their journey back to base. Of the five men in Captain Robert F. Scott’s party, Petty Officer Edga...