Science history: Norwegian explorer wins the treacherous race to the South Pole, while British rival perishes along with his crew — Dec. 14, 1911
Milestone: Humans reach the South Pole
Date: Dec. 14, 1911
Where: Geographic South Pole, Antarctica
Who: Roald Amundsen and his crew
In 1910, a fierce competition began between Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and British captain Robert Falcon Scott. Each explorer wanted to be first to reach the geographic South Pole, thereby vanquishing the last unexplored continent on Earth. The race was destined to end in tragedy.
Amundsen set sail from Norway on Aug. 9, 1910, aboard the Fram, which had previously been used on two key expeditions — one drifting over the Arctic Ocean and another exploring what is now Nunavut, Canada. Amundsen kept his plans secret from all but three of his crew members until he reached the Portuguese island of Madeira in September.
At that point, he told the crew and messaged his rival. “Beg leave to inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic. Amundsen,” he said in his telegram to Scott, according to the Antarctic Heritage Trust. The message was waiting for Scott when he arrived in October in Melbourne, Australia.
By early 1911, Scott had set up his base in McMurdo Sound, while Amundsen sailed into the Bay of Whales and established his base, Framheim, on the Ross Ice Shelf. This put Amundsen a crucial 60 miles (100 kilometers) closer to the geographic South Pole.
After an initial, unsuccessful exploratory foray, Amundsen returned to Framheim and regrouped. He split up his team, with one group setting off for the South Pole and another exploring a separate region. On Oct. 21, Amundsen and crew members Olav Bjaaland, Oscar Wisting, Helmer Hanssen and Sverre Hassel set off from Framheim on four sleds, each of which was pulled by 13 dogs.
On Dec. 14, at 3 p.m. local time, Amundsen shouted “Halt!”
They believed they’d reached the South Pole, and they soon set up a tent and planted the Norwegian flag.
Scott arrived 35 days later to find Amundsen’s tent and Norwegian flag. He and his crew would perish on the return journey, due to starvation, dehydration and exposure to extreme cold.
In his last journal entry on March 29, Scott wrote, “I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.” They were just 11 miles (17 km) from their next supply cache. Their bodies were found in November, 1912.
Why did Amundsen’s crew succeed where Scott did not? A few details may have made a difference. Amundsen took a shorter route over the Axel Glacier. He also dressed his crew in the traditional Inuit garb, whereas Scott’s team wore wool clothes. They also ruthlessly reduced the weight of their sleds and organized their supplies so they could reach them with minimal exposure to cold temperatures.
Finally, Amundsen devised a plan to shoot and eat the sled dogs along the way to supplement their relatively meager food supplies, and they ate raw penguin meat, which provides the vitamin C crucial to staving off scurvy. All of these factors may have helped him arrive more quickly and return safely.
Early accounts painted Scott’s failure as one of ineptitude, but recent evidence suggests he may have simply fallen prey to unusually severe weather — and possibly the malfeasance of his crew. A 2017 article in the journal Polar Record suggested that crew member Edward Evans may have contributed to the team’s failure by taking more than his fair share of food, leaving shortages at key depots. He also may have failed to pass on orders, such as the placement of sled dogs at critical junctures, which could have led to the team’s demise.
Just a few years later, Shackleton helmed the Endurance as part of an attempt to cross the coldest continent on foot. The effort famously failed; the ship sank, and its crew became stranded on Elephant Island. But incredibly, all of the crew members survived for four months and were rescued in August 1916 after Shackleton left to seek help.
Nowadays, the South Pole is home to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, as well as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the South Pole Telescope.
