On his way home from the South Pole, Captain Robert Falcon Scott met his untimely demise in 1912. Both he and those traveling with him were afflicted with intense cold and starvation, causing their deaths. Although stung sharply by his inability to win the race to the South Pole, his valor as he stared death in the face sealed his fate as a legend in his country. Go to this site for further information on antarctica cruise adventures.

After many years of study, we can now understand the vast dangers that explorers faced while trekking the vast Antarctic continent. Winter air temperatures could reach minus 90 degrees Celsius. Winds traveled about 67 kilometers per hour. Scott most likely faced these conditions but he was not educated in the extent of the dangers.

Scott’s letters to his wife convey the extreme isolation that he and other scientists working in the Polar Regions often experienced. Even with all our modern communication skills, scientists today still feel that same sense of isolation. Scott was survived by his wife, and a young son.

His body and letters written for his wife weren’t discovered until many months after he died. The doomed expedition was found only 11 miles from the supply camp. Scott’s widow learned of her husband’s death while she waited in New Zealand for him to return. To get a closer look on antarctica cruise vacations visit this site.

There is a lot historians can get out of the letters found on Scott’s body. Towards the beginning of his journey, he wrote about being in excellent physical health, and spoke of how he found enjoyment in having a good meal. The cold didn’t seem to be a problem, as the hot food made up for the bitter cold.

As the excursion progressed, though, and proper nutrition was growing scarce, Scott began to change his tune. He explains the temperature dropping, then continuing to drop more without relief. We can get a better understanding of the starvation that Scott and his team experienced, as we find that they were surviving during their trek on a single hot meal and had an additional 11 miles to travel and only two days worth of cold food remaining.

During this time of great exploration, Scott was a monumental figure, but, unfortunately, his plans were cursed twofold. First off, he lost his race to the South Pole to a Norwegian named Roald Amundsen. Amundsmen arrived at the South Pole on December 21, 1911 and Scott did not get there until January 18, 1912.

Scott became a national hero due to his incursion to Antarctica from 1902-1904. The two other men with him, Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Dr. Edward Wilson held onto their beliefs of survival. Captain Lawrence Oats and Petty Officer Edgar Evans also did not survive.

With just twenty miles until the next depot, the expedition stowed their provisions. Their supply of fuel and food was dangerously low by now. In a letter to his wife, Scott told her that if he were to die, he would like her to remarry, and he went on to describe the extreme seventy degrees below zero conditions that he was experiencing with the only shelter being a tent.

Scott was careful to express that he held no regrets in his undertaking of this journey. Instead, he said it far outweighed relaxing at home. For generations now, Scott’s courage and determination have served as an inspiration for British youths.

Captain Robert Scott’s expedition was not successful in becoming the first team to reach the South Pole, arriving just a few weeks after Roald Amundsmen. Captain Robert Scott perished on March 29, 1912. In 1913, Scott’s journal was published under the title “Scott’s Last Expedition.”