SCOTT’S SIEGE OF THE POLE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1129, 5 August 1913, Page 4

SCOTT’S SIEGE OF THE POLE.

THE CLIMAX OF A GREAT STORY.

BY W. H. FITCHETT. In the August issue of “Life” appears a fine article by Dr W. H. Fitchett, entitled “The Great White Battlefields of the World” —an introductory article to “Scott’s Own Story,’’ which is to appear iu succeeding issues of Lite. This study of Polar adventure from the early days to the death of Scott makes fascinating reading—perhaps the most thrilling story of the many related by Dr Fitchett, being that of the heroic Franklin and the loyal wife who fitted out ship after ship, and spent several fortunes in trying to save her husband and his party.

By arrangement wiib the publisher of Life, we quote the following summary of Scott’s Seige of the Pole, told by Dr Fitchett in his article, and recommend readers to buy Life for August: “It is with the attempt to reach the South Pole that the world is just now most interested. The tale begins with Cook, who, in 1772, with those two stumpy but famous ships, the ‘Resolution’ and the ‘Adventure,’ broke into Antarctic waters, and reached 71 deg. romin., a point a little over 1,100 geographical miles from the Pole itself.

“Ross, in 1841, succeeded in reaching, with his ships, within 160 miles of the south magnetic Pole.

“But the true siege of the South Pole, scientific in method and adequate in preparation, begins with Scott. In 1901 he was put in charge of the ‘Discovery,’ a name borne, with more or less illfortune, by six ships in the history of Polar adventure. Scott had no experience in ice travel, but he had, somehow, won a high reputation for scientific and courageous leadership, and the story ot the ‘Discovery’ under bis command made a record in Antarctic history. All previous distances were passed when, on December 30th. 1903, Shackleton, Scott and Wilson —three names destined to be immortal —stood within 463 miles of the Pole. They had to fall back, but in that sledge journey they had covered 960 miles. Scott remained another winter, and made another dash for the Pole, coming within 278 miles ot it. The ‘Discovery,’ on February 19th, 1904, broke through the ice which for four years had gripped her, and reached New Zealand.

“Shackleton’s expedition is a mere parenthesis betwixt Scott’s two adventures, but it is a page of very gallant history. He passed beyond Scott’s farthest south, travelling 1,700 miles by sledge, and its close was marked by a flash of magnificent and self-sacri-ficing daring. Supplies failed Shackleton and his party on their return journey to the ship. One fell sick, and was too ill to walk. Shackleton made a forced march of thirty-three miles to the ship, stayed there long enough to eat only a hasty meal, and started back at once with supplies to the sick man and his comrade he left behind. He reached them alter travelling a day and a half, and brought them in safety to the ship. At the end, that is, of a journey of 700 miles, marked by the utmost hardship, he travelled ninety-nine miles in three days to rescue his comrade.

THE CIJMAX OE A GREAT HISTORY

“The one adequate, scientific, and successful attack on the South Pole is that by Scott in his second expedition. Nothing could well be more dramatic than this story, the sudden appearance of Amundsen on the scene ; the combination of dash and good luck by which he anticipated Scott and reached the Pole first; the cool, unhasting, scientific method with which Scott kept to his plans, making his base sure, and placing a long chain of supplies along the line by which the dash to the Pole was to be made ; Scott’s final march, sending back from points already fixed sections of his party, till at last he stood within 150 miles of the Pole. Then he dismissed the last section of his party, while with Wilson, Bowers, Oates and Evans, be turned his face towards the long-sought-for goal. “Scott originally chose only three companions for the final dash ; but at the last moment, as Commander Evans told the great audience in Albert Hall, be added a fifth to the party. He was sure he would reach the Pole, he explained to his second in command, it he —Evans —would give up one of his men, thus reducing Evans’ party, which had to make their

way 800 miles back to camp, to three. Evans consented, and every man iu his group was eager to be chosen. Scott selected Oates, ‘and jolly well he deserved it,’ as Evans with a sailor’s naivete told his 10,000 hearers in the Albert Hall. But the choice meant death for Oates. THE STORMING PARTY. “The addition of Oates, however, made Scott’s party a curiously representative group. Scott, himself, and Bowers represented the navy, Oates the army, Wilson science, Evans the bluejackets. And what a splendid group for such an adventure they were! They had science, discipline, courage, loyalty— strong bodies, resolute wills, trained brains—no other five men iu the world were better fitted for such a task. And so they set out on what—though, they knew it not—was their death march. “They reached the Pole, but beyond them was a darker and yet more splendid goal, that low tent in which, deep under the solt snow, their bodies were found so many months afterwards, Scott holding iu his hand that tiny bit of deathless literature, his fare.well ‘message’ to his countrymen. Where iu human literature is to be found a story which for pathos and splendour—the splendour of human endurance at its highest point; of a great plan magnificently carried out, and of triumph, heightened by the death of those who achieved it—exceeds this ? SCOTT’S OWN STORY. “This story will be told —in the main in Scott’s own words—in ‘Life,’ with passages from the diaries of the men who perished, and photographs taken throughout the whole expedition, and at the Pole itself. ‘Life’ has secured the exclusive right to publish these articles in Australia and Nev/ Zealand; and it is certain they will be read with profound interest. No articles approaching them in historic value have ever before been published in Australasia.”