CAPTAIN SCOTT'S FIRST VOYAGE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1383, 8 March 1912, Page 5

CAPTAIN SCOTT'S FIRST VOYAGE.

VALUABLE RESULTS. DISCOVERS KING EDWARD LAND. Captain Scott's first expedition to the Antarctic left England in the autumn of 1901. It was organised by a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society, and equipped under the superintendence of Sir Clement Markham. One half of the cost was borne by the British Government. A strong wooden ship, of 700 tons (1700 tons displacement) was built at Dundee and named the Discovery. She was barque-rigged, and amidships entirely non-magnetic, so that magnetic observations might be carried on without interference from local attractions. The vessel was equipped with all necessary scientific apparatus. Second in command under Captain Scott was Lieutenant Armitnge, 11.N„ and other officers were Lieutenants Royds and Barne, R.N., and Lieut. Shackleton, R.N.K., who was afterwards to become the loader of another famous Antarctic expedition. The crew of 40 were almost entirely sailors of the British Navy. The scieutilio staff included Dr. Koetilitz, who had shared with Mr. Armitago in the Jackson Harmsworth Arctic expedition; Mr. Louis Bemacchi, who had sailed with Mr. Borchgievinek in the Southern Cross; Dr. Wilson, Mr. Hodgson, and Mr. Ferrer. The scientific director, Sir. George Murray, accompanied the vessel to Cape Town, and Dr. 11. R. Mill also went part of the way as instructor in oceanography. The Discovery left Cowcs, Isle of Wight, on August G, ICAI. She reached Lyttelton on November 28. and having embarked a number of dogs, sailed from Port Chalmers for Victoria Land on December 24, 1901. Captain Scott, in December, 1902, reached a. latitude of S2deg. lGmin. 33sec. south, starting from about 78deg. of latitude, and so exceeding his predecessors by close on ideg. His expedition succeeded in showing that the so-called ice barrier was only the edge of a vast plain of ice stretching inwards to the mountain ranges which he saw, at no great distance away, when he reached his furthest south latitude. Captain Scott's expedition in this way added greatly to our knowledge of this feature of tho Antarctic. He discovered at its eastern end a mountain lnnd which he named after our King Edward. His southern expedition added immense mountain features to the blank spaces which previously covered the interior of the continent, and his western expedition plateaux undulating to unknown distances. Tn many other ways the Discovery expedition added to our knowledge of South Polar conditions, meteorological, magnetic, geological, anil biological, so that it deserves to lie permanently reckoned among the great expeditions that in the past have left Iho shores of England in search of adventure and knowledge.