Quilted Seaweed Anyone?

One hundred years ago today a heroic group of English men had trekked across the Antarctic to the South Pole only to have their jubilation taken away – Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian team had arrived five weeks earlier ....

Scott’s party at the South Pole,

18 January 1912. 

L to R: (standing) Oates, Scott, Wilson,

(seated) Bowers, Edgar Evans.

... the bleak perils of pioneering exploration a hundred years ago exemplified by being beaten to the line ...  no wonder Scott wrote:  (17^th January 1912)

“The Pole.  Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected.  We have had a horrible day .... this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.  Well it is something to have got here ....  Now the run home and a desperate struggle.  I wonder if we can do it ..... "

The Oxo food company was one of

many commercial sponsors

of the expedition.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868 – 1912) rose rapidly through the ranks, being recommended as commander of the National Antarctic Expedition before he was 30 in 1898, where he proved himself both as an intrepid and able leader, but more importantly to us one hundred years later a competent scientific investigator.

Scott's Hut

Scott’s base camp hut – which had been prefabricated back home and shipped out – was insulated with seaweed sewn into a quilt, placed between double-planked inner and outer walls.  The roof is a sandwich of three layers of plank and two layers of rubber ply enclosing more quilted seaweed.

The trip had been planned as best possible for those days – transport was looked at – Siberian horses, huskies, wooden sleds, wooden skis, sheepskins for the bedding, thick woollen jumpers, plenty of food and I mean plenty ...

... Scott was a leader amongst men, he went about the business of enabling the expedition – travelling the country raising funds, interviewing team members, establishing his plans with such fervour.

Lawrence 'Titus' Oates with
his horses - taken by Ponting

Herbert George Ponting was considered one of the finest travel photographers of the age and thought of himself as a photographic artist.  Ponting remembered that he warmed to Scott for his enthusiasm. 

Scott told him of his plans for scientific research – for geology, zoology, biology, meteorology, physiography and for photography – it was to be a special department: and so it was – as we know today in 2012.

Ponting trained Scott and his men in photography ... the results were revolutionary, as the camera took over from the pencil as the most accurate means of recording the Antarctic landscapes and the explorers.

An iceberg adrift off the
coast of the peninsula

Ponting ensured that Scott and Bowers (the appointed photographer for that last fateful trip) could release the shutter by means of a long thread ... so that all who reached the Pole might appear in the group photo.

The Expedition set out – the scientific members as well as those five selected for the final push to the Pole ... and today we have a greater understanding and appreciation of the rigours to achieve that goal.

Those five perished, but other team members and Ponting with his photographs returned to England ... he then toured with his “Mr Herbert G Ponting’s Cinema Lecture with Captain Scott in the Antarctic”.

Scott’s Discovery hut at Hut Point, used as a shelter

and stores depot during the Terra Nova expedition 

Antarctica, attics and family archives are releasing their secrets of Scott’s expeditionary force ...  in 2009 a stash of 100 year old butter was unearthed, and there are still dozens of wooden boxes hidden beneath the permafrost – as the base-camp hut was tiny (50ft x 25ft {15m x 7.5m}) ... they took out 8,000 items of original expedition gear!

A Weddell Seal

Ben Fogle says in his report about the hut – the first thing I noticed was the odour and the silence, no wind howl.  In Antarctica there is generally no smell – but in the hut aromas of old leather, pipe smoke, wood and horses, still linger – along with a deep, powerful musty smell – this he learnt later was blubber.

The seal blubber used for lamp fuel and food, was still piled in a corner ... as well as thousands of items of Edwardian food.  Tins of sardines, ox tongue and Heinz baked beans are stacked next to tins of Huntley and Palmers biscuits.

Emperor Penguins

The cabin was so well equipped that it was used for another two years by the men of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Ross Sea expedition who were stranded from their ship in 1915 ... thanks to Scott’s ample supplies, they survived in relative comfort.  Shackleton before his return in 1917 had the hut put in order and locked up.

As we know the weather conditions were appalling and Scott never made it back to base and safety – they all perished ... their bodies were recovered and decently buried near the hut – Scott’s journal was removed from his body.

The Antarctic is releasing its secrets, while the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust is working tirelessly to preserve Scott’s Hut in situ – though a replica has been set up at the new Exhibition opening at the National History Museum.

The earth, as we know, is constantly moving and one day those entombed bodies will reach the sea, having finally completed their journey from the South Pole. And Scott, the captain, will finally be buried at sea.

Scott's  "Army and Navy" Thin Pocket Diary
1910 - the entries are terse and limited to little
more than times, dates and names and places

The Natural History’s Exhibition will reveal the powerful tales of endurance and celebrate their many scientific achievements, while allowing site of original artefacts used by Scott and his team.

Today we are probing into the hot volcanic waters below the Antarctic icecap to further our knowledge – now that we have polar thermal wear to protect us against the extremes of weather; then with new technologies ... so that tongue tips don’t get stuck and left behind on brass camera knobs, as happened to Ponting a century ago ... we are opening the polar horizons to our 21^st century scientists.

Memorial window in Binton Church,

Warwickshire, one of four panels.

This one depicts the cairn erected

over the site of Scott’s last tent.

Yet – Scott helped reveal that Antarctica was once part of the supercontinent, Gondwana, after Glossopteris Indica (one of the collected fossilised samples) was duly classified.

Lawrence Oates’ saying as he left the team’s tent .. in the hope that the last three member would be able to continue “I am just going outside and may be some time” ...

Scott had written ‘Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman.  These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale’. 

The heroic sacrifice of this small band of men who were willing to give their lives to science and discovery ... were at the South Pole 100 years ago today.

However I don’t think I’ll be trying to quilt seaweed any time soon ....!

Brain Pickings.org - The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott 

The Mail Online:  Ben Fogle finds inspiration in Scott's base camp 

Natural History Museum: Captain Scott's Antarctic Exhibition

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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