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00:00One hundred years ago, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions set out for the South Pole.
00:15They never returned.
00:18Their epic journey to the end of the Earth would push them beyond the limits of human endurance.
00:25Every generation since has had its own version of this modern legend.
00:31The century on, the diaries and letters of Scott and his fellow explorers, some revealed here for the very first time, tell the story in their own words.
00:55London, 1910, the capital of an empire at its height, ruling over 400 million people on five continents.
01:07This was an age of discovery and adventure, of electricity in the first radios, and of huge ships like the Titanic.
01:17There seemed no limit to mankind's mastery of the Earth.
01:21And yet, there was one place that remained a blank space on the map.
01:26Antarctica, the most remote and hostile corner of the world.
01:31At its heart, the South Pole.
01:35And the man chosen to claim this last place on Earth for the British Empire was Captain Robert Falcon Scott.
01:44The main object of the expedition is to achieve for our country the honor of being the first to reach the South Pole.
01:51And my intention is that the expedition should remain in the far south till the object is accomplished.
01:58In addition to the accomplishment of the main object, important scientific results are looked for.
02:05Scott was born in 1868 to a middle-class family in Devon.
02:10At 13 years old, he joined the Navy.
02:13And in 1901, he took command of an expedition to Antarctica.
02:18This went in fame and opened the door to society, where he met and married the glamorous sculptor Kathleen Bruce in 1908.
02:27Write and tell me that you shall go to the Pole.
02:31Oh, dear me. What's the use of having energy and enterprise if a little thing like that can't be done?
02:37It's got to be done.
02:39So, hurry up. Don't leave a stone unturned.
02:44And love me more and more because I need it.
02:50Joining Scott was his old friend Dr Edward Wilson, a medic and naturalist.
02:56He became chief of the expedition's scientific staff.
02:59Dearest Ori, for real happiness, our marriage would be hard to beat and our married life hard to improve on.
03:07I am the man you have blessed above all.
03:10I always feel so certain that I should be given time to write and publish some of the things that are in my head.
03:17This conviction makes me absolutely fearless as to another journey south.
03:23For whatever happens, I know I shall come back to you.
03:29Scott's crew came from all walks of life, some with no previous polar experience.
03:36Twenty-eight-year-old Naval Lieutenant Henry Bowers joined as ship's storekeeper.
03:42Mother saw me off at Waterloo yesterday.
03:44Dear old mother was very upset, but held up.
03:48Of course, she thinks of the dangers too much.
03:51A truckload of coffins on the platform alongside us hardly led to cheerfulness.
03:58Most of the crew came from the Navy.
04:01The exception, the aristocratic cavalry officer Captain Lawrence Oates.
04:07Dear mother, please excuse pencil.
04:11We are doing a sort of glorified yachting trip now.
04:15Visitors and ladies galore.
04:17On Saturday, we went over to Cowes and came back the same day.
04:20Idea being for Scott to air himself in the clubhouse.
04:24However, I suspect things will be different when we get down south.
04:28We sail from here tomorrow about ten, and expect to arrive Cardiff on the tenth.
04:33At Cardiff, the men waved goodbye to their families.
04:39And on June the 15th, the expedition ship Terra Nova began her 9,000 mile voyage south.
04:47They would be away together for three years.
04:54Scott is a man worth working for, as a man.
04:58No one can say that it will only have been a pole hunt.
05:01Though that, of course, is a sine qua non.
05:04We must get to the pole, but we shall get more too.
05:08We want the scientific work to make the bagging of the pole merely an item in the results.
05:14Dear mother, the reason of being so late is that this ship has only two speeds.
05:20One is slow, and the other is slower.
05:23I am enjoying this trip immensely, and I am almost sorry this part of it is over.
05:28It will mean collars, and clean clothes, and tea parties in the war room at Cape Town.
05:34My own darling, soon there won't be any posts to bring you letters when I am thinking of you.
05:44So I write to you now for you to read some day in England.
05:48I shall be thinking of you always, dear, and picturing your daily life.
05:53Wondering always what you are doing, and whether you are thinking of me.
05:58I shall think of you this day, and all, and every day.
06:03But for you, dearest, it will be better for you to forget all about us until your work is done, and it's time to come home again.
06:09Promise me this thing.
06:11That you won't come back any sooner, or leave any work you might do in order to hasten back to us.
06:17But, of course, you'd never do that.
06:25After six months, the Terra Nova made landfall in Antarctica.
06:33Scott and his men were setting foot in the coldest, driest, and windiest place on Earth.
06:40Their survival in this, the world's most extreme environment,
06:44would push the boundaries of their medical knowledge.
06:48With the Antarctic winter approaching,
06:50their first task was to build a hut for shelter.
06:58The hut is becoming the most comfortable dwelling place imaginable.
07:02Such a noble dwelling transcends the word hut,
07:05and we pause to give it a more fitting title,
07:08only from lack of the appropriate suggestion.
07:14To be continued...
07:15After breakfast this morning, I found Bowers making cubicles as I had arranged,
07:28but I soon saw these would not fit in,
07:30so instructed him to build a bulkhead of cases,
07:32which quite shut off the officer's space from the men's.
07:35I'm quite sure, to the satisfaction of both.
07:39In April, the sun set for six months.
07:42In the stormy winter darkness, temperatures fell as low as minus 39 Celsius, minus 36 Fahrenheit.
07:50Twenty-four-year-old Apsley Cherry Garrard was one of the youngest men on the expedition.
07:55He had been sent to Antarctica by his father to toughen up.
07:59The blizzard, which has been threatening so long, broke last night.
08:04I woke at about 4 a.m., lay awake sometime, listening to the wind and the shaking of the hut,
08:09and found myself wondering...
08:12what would be the best thing to do if the roof blew off?
08:15As I get more and more fit, I find I get times when I get a bit down.
08:23But first, I felt rather that way continually, wanting to do nothing.
08:30Once I got very down about the southern journey, feeling that the whole thing was an impossibility.
08:37The hut was an 800-mile march from the pole.
08:43The men's diet had to provide far more energy than needed in normal life,
08:48if they were to survive this journey.
08:52It takes about 300-odd foot-pounds of energy for a man to simply exist.
08:58And the more you can stick into him, over and above this, the more he can do.
09:01Fat, pure and simple, gives the most energy. There is no doubt.
09:08My theory is that you want something filling as well.
09:12Fat makes up nearly 60% of modern polar rations.
09:16In Scots, it made up a quarter.
09:19At times, the men would be getting little more than half the energy they needed.
09:23They didn't know it, but they would be starving with every step.
09:27In 1911, there was also no understanding of vitamins.
09:30Without enough vitamin C, the men would get scurvy,
09:34which weakens blood vessels, leading to fatigue and chronic bleeding.
09:43Spring came in October, and on the 31st, it was time to set out for the pole.
09:48The transport, the men had one dog sled team and two prototype motor sledies.
09:57But above all, they placed their trust in human strength and ten Siberian ponies.
10:07So here end the entries in this diary with the first chapter of our history.
10:14The future is in the lap of the gods.
10:18I can think of nothing left undone to deserve success.
10:21But the gods did have other ideas.
10:27Somewhere to the south, a rival South Pole expedition was already on its way.
10:33On November the 1st, 1911, Captain Scott and his companions began their 800-mile trek to the South Pole.
10:50They were not alone.
10:52They were not alone.
10:57Roald Amundsen was a celebrated Norwegian explorer.
11:01He'd had ambitions to be the first man to the North Pole, but in 1910 was beaten to it.
11:07So he turned his gaze south.
11:09While Scott's ship, the Terra Nova, left to Imperial fanfare, Amundsen's Fram set sail in secret.
11:20For a whole month, not even his crew knew their true destination.
11:26At 6pm, I called all the men together and told them my intention to go to the South Pole.
11:31When I asked if they were willing to go with me, I got a unanimous yes.
11:40We set sail and made fine speed for the South Pole.
11:46I often wished that Scott could have known my decision,
11:51so that it didn't look like I tried to get ahead of him without his knowledge.
11:55But I've been afraid that any public announcement would stop me.
11:59Only once he was safely on his way to Antarctica did Amundsen reveal his plans.
12:06To Scott, he sent a short telegram.
12:09Back to inform you, preceding Antarctic. Amundsen.
12:15The proper, as well as the wiser course for us, is to proceed exactly as though this had not happened.
12:22To go forward and do our best for the honour of the country without fear or panic.
12:29Any attempt to race must have wrecked my plan, besides which it doesn't appear the sort of thing one is out for.
12:36After all, it is the work that counts, not the applause that follows.
12:41They say Amundsen has been underhand in the way he has gone about it.
12:46But I personally don't see it as underhand to keep your mouth shut.
12:49I myself think these Norskis are a very tough lot.
12:54They have 200 dogs.
12:55And also, they are very good ski runners, while we can only walk.
13:04They are very good.
13:05They are very good.
13:06They are very good.
13:08Amundsen and his men set off from his winter station, Framheim, on October 20th, 1911.
13:15Their route to the pole was 60 miles shorter than Scott's, but lay across unknown terrain.
13:21We settled our walkers, 13 dogs for each of the four sledges, and set off.
13:28Suddenly, a large piece of the surface fell in, and a horrible castle opened just by the snatch, big enough to swallow all of us.
13:37Luckily, we were sufficiently to the side of it that we managed.
13:43Well, we take our lives on our hands, but it is amusing to hear that no one wants to turn back.
13:50No, these are chaps who want to go forward.
13:54At whatever cost.
13:57Scott was following in the footsteps of the British explorer, Ernest Shackleton, who had reached the Polar Plateau in 1909.
14:08From his past experience, Scott had concluded that Antarctica was too cold for dogs.
14:17So, whilst Amundsen trusted in dogs, Scott used a combination of one dog sled, two motor sledges, and ten ponies.
14:31My pony, little Michael, will have enjoyed the few weeks or so before his death,
14:35for he enjoys every incident, pricking up his ears and getting quite excited when anything happens,
14:41and the arrival of the dog teams each morning must send him to bed with much to dream of.
14:46I must say, his master dreams pretty regularly too.
14:50Just a few days into the march, both motor sledges broke down.
15:02All day yesterday we were coming across derelict cans of petrol, lubricating oil, and eventually the derelict car itself.
15:11One thousand pounds at the wayside.
15:16Ponies came through all well, but I am anxious about these beasts.
15:23Very anxious.
15:24They are not the ponies they ought to have been, and if they pull through well, all the thanks will be due to oats.
15:34We started the winter with ten ponies, and have ten now, and they are very fit and well.
15:43But they are, without exception, the greatest lot of crocs I have ever seen, that were seriously meant for use.
15:48Four of them are lame now, and another only wants a day's hard work to be lame too.
15:54The dogs are doing splendidly, and will take a heavier load from tomorrow.
16:00We kill another pony tomorrow night, if we get our march off, and she'll then have nearly three days' food for the other five.
16:08In fact, everything looks well, if the weather will only give us a chance to see our way to the glacier.
16:15In London, Kathleen Scott waited for news of her husband's progress.
16:20They had already been apart for eighteen months.
16:25She wrote to him regularly, even though she didn't know when, or if, he would receive her letters.
16:32I woke up having had a bad dream about you, and then Peter came very close to me, and he said, empathetically,
16:41Daddy won't come back, as though in answer to my silly thoughts.
16:50By the time you read this, you will probably be comfortably lounging in an armchair on a P&O near Colombo or something,
16:56and will say contentedly, silly little maid.
16:59And you'll probably be right.
17:03My dear love.
17:05My dear, dear love.
17:09I do love you so.
17:12How glad I am that you are the father of my baby.
17:15How happy we three shall be when you come home, back with or without success.
17:22How happy we three shall be.
17:23How happy we three shall be.
17:29For both expeditions, reaching the pole meant first crossing the 400-mile-wide Great Ice Barrier to the Antarctic coast,
17:38before climbing over a chain of mountains to the plateau.
17:41Armisen's dogs travelled quickly.
17:46Just a month after setting off, they had begun their climb.
17:53It was wonderful where the dogs performed today.
17:5717 kilometers with a climb of 5,000 feet.
18:02The comments say that dogs are users here.
18:06In four days, we've come from the coast to the plateau, 44 kilometers.
18:1110,600 feet.
18:14They've also, 24 of our best comrades, been given the best reward.
18:20Death.
18:22On arriving at 8 p.m., they were shot and their intestines removed.
18:27They'll be skinned tomorrow.
18:31We now have 18 of the best left.
18:34The surviving dogs would feed on their dead comrades for the rest of the journey.
18:41On the Great Ice Barrier, Scott was struggling with Antarctica's unpredictable weather.
18:49We awoke this morning through a raging, howling blizzard.
18:53After a minute or two in the open, one is covered from head to foot.
18:56The temperature is high, so that what falls and drives against one sticks.
19:02The ponies, head, tails, legs and all parts not protected by their rugs are covered with ice.
19:07What on earth does such weather mean at this time of year?
19:13It is more than a share of ill fortune, I think.
19:16But the luck may turn yet.
19:19Everything soaking wet.
19:21Sleeping bags sodden, tent dripping, water everywhere.
19:24Been living in pants only.
19:28Windproofs all ringing wet, so all sleeping boots, socks, gloves.
19:33Everything.
19:34Everything.
19:40On the other side of the mountains, Amundsen was facing a greater obstacle.
19:47The largest of our unblessed surprises was a very large glacier, which ran east-west as far as I could see, right on our course in fact.
19:56This devil's glacier has shown itself worthy of its name.
20:09One must cover two miles to go one.
20:12Abyss after abyss and gap after gap must be gone around.
20:17Frightening crevasses everywhere make advancing extremely difficult.
20:20During the night the winter swept large parts of the glacier, bare and shining.
20:32It looked really... horrible.
20:35We'd left our crampons at the butcher shop and without them a climb on bare eyes would be almost impossible.
20:41A thousand thoughts ran through my head.
20:44The pole lost through such a trifle.
20:51The situation is now serious.
21:06One small feed remains for the ponies after today.
21:09So we must either march tomorrow or sacrifice the animals.
21:18The next morning the blizzard lifted just enough for the ponies to be driven on.
21:25It was beastly work.
21:28And the horses constantly collapsed and lay down and sank down.
21:32And eventually we could only get them on for five or six yards at a time.
21:38They were clean done.
21:40Then we camped.
21:41Shot them all.
21:43And then before turning in had an hour or two of butcher's work.
21:47Cutting them up and skinning them for dog food.
21:49And for a depot for ourselves.
21:51For our return journey.
21:52Thank God the horses are now all done.
21:57And we begin the heavier work.
22:00Ourselves.
22:02Poor beasts.
22:04They have done wonderfully well considering the terrible circumstances under which they worked.
22:09But yet it is hard to have to kill them so early.
22:16For the 400 miles to the pole.
22:19The 800 miles back.
22:22And with the dog team soon to be sent back.
22:25Scott and his men would have to haul all their supplies themselves.
22:29By the middle of December 1911.
22:41Captain Scott's expedition was climbing fast towards the freezing high altitude plateau at the center of Antarctica.
22:49At its heart.
22:51Their great goal.
22:53The last unconquered corner of the earth.
22:56The South Pole.
22:59I'm feeling very cheerful about everything tonight.
23:02For once one can say.
23:04Sufficient for the day is the good thereof.
23:07A luck may be on the turn.
23:09I think we deserve it.
23:11We've had an exciting day.
23:13This morning was just like the scenic railway at Earl's Court.
23:17We got straight onto the big pressure waves of ice.
23:20It was a hard pluck up the waves.
23:21Very often a standing pause.
23:23But going down the other side was the exciting part.
23:26All we could do was to set the sledge straight.
23:29Hang on to the straps.
23:30Give our little push.
23:31And rush down the slope which was sometimes so sheer that the sledge was in the air.
23:36Scott is quite wonderful in his selections of route.
23:40As we have escaped excessive dangers and difficulties all along.
23:44In this case we had fairly good going.
23:48But got into a perfect mass of crevasses into which we continually fell.
23:53Some to the length of their harnesses to be hauled out with the Alpine Road.
23:57Scott planned to choose just four men to accompany him to the pole.
24:05The others will be sent back.
24:10Scott came up to me and said that he was afraid he had rather a blow for me.
24:15Of course I knew what he was going to say.
24:20I could hardly grasp that I was going back tomorrow night.
24:28I have been selected to go to the pole with Scott as you will have seen by the papers.
24:32I am of course delighted.
24:35But I am sorry I shall not be home for another year as we shall miss the ship.
24:40We shall get to the pole all right.
24:43What a lot we should have to talk about when I get back.
24:47The four chosen to accompany Scott to the pole.
24:51Oates, Wilson, petty officer Edgar Evans and Henry Birdie Bowers.
24:57But unknown to Scott and his men, Armundsen's expedition had reached the polar plateau three weeks before them.
25:08They had struggled through a maze of crevasses.
25:12But once on the plateau, they had picked up speed.
25:16The plateau, which we are now crossing, resembles a stiffened sea.
25:21A huge dome of ice broken up by quite small, evenly jacked crevasses.
25:30And so, at last, we reached our destination and planted our flag on the geographical south pole.
25:37King Haakon VII's plateau.
25:41Thank God.
25:43A very, very moving day.
25:47The sun travels around the heavens at practically the same height and warms from a cloudless sky.
25:56It's still this evening.
25:59And so, peaceful.
26:05The dogs lie happily stretched out in the baking sun and are, in spite of their meager diet, apparently quite well.
26:12Hm.
26:15We're definitely the first here.
26:18We've set up the little tent with the Norwegian flag, waving from the top of the tent pole.
26:25And so, farewell dear Poe.
26:28We won't meet again.
26:30A few miles north of the pole, Amundsen and his men left a warning to Scott.
26:46A black flag.
26:47Three weeks later, Scott and his men were nearing their goal.
27:05But with the freezing polar plateau's high altitude, the men's daily rations now only provided about half the calories their bodies were burning.
27:20Another hard grind in the afternoon and five miles added.
27:24About seventy-four miles from the pole.
27:26Can we keep this up for seven days?
27:30It takes it out of us like anything.
27:33None of us ever had such hard work before.
27:37At altitude, the air is thinner.
27:43So Scott and his men's bodies had to work harder to carry enough oxygen to their muscles and vital organs.
27:49Burning ever more energy.
27:53Their oxygen-starved blood became thicker and slow-moving, making them more vulnerable to frostbite.
28:00The water in their bodies froze, damaging the cells and causing their skin to blister and blacken.
28:10My feet are giving me a lot of trouble.
28:15They've been continually wet since leaving Hotpoint.
28:20And now walking along this hard ice and frozen crampons has made rather hay of them.
28:26The twenty-four hour sunshine was also a danger.
28:30The men found their goggles uncomfortable.
28:33But without them, the high altitude UV light burnt the backs of their eyes.
28:39Snow blinders.
28:40The eyeballs are full of stabbing pains and seem dry and hot all the time, though they simply squelch out water.
28:51The pain seems in spasms and sleep or anything else is impossible.
28:57It is wonderful to think that two long marches would land us at the Pole.
29:09We left our depot today with nine days' provisions, so that it ought to be a certain thing now.
29:15And the only appalling possibility, the sight of the Norwegian flag, four stalling hours.
29:23Only twenty-seven miles from the Pole.
29:27We ought to do it now.
29:29As the weakening party approached the Pole, Amundsen was just over a week away from arriving back at his base, Framheim.
29:47Framheim lay as we left it, bathed in the morning sun.
29:50At four a.m. we stood once more in our little house, warmly greeted by our somewhat surprised comrades.
29:58They hadn't expected us for some time yet.
30:01We heard a...
30:03a mass of news.
30:06Some people appear to be indignant at our being here.
30:11A breach of etiquette.
30:13Are these people mad?
30:16Is the quest for the Pole exclusively given to Scots assault?
30:22We couldn't care less.
30:26These...
30:28idiots.
30:30The Norwegians loaded the ship and set sail to tell the world their news.
30:36The worst has happened.
30:47Or nearly the worst.
30:50About the second hour of the march, Bower's sharp eyes detected what he thought was a cairn.
30:55We marched on.
30:57Found that it was a black flag tied to a sledge bearer.
31:01Nearby the remains of a camp.
31:04Sledge tracks and ski tracks going and coming.
31:07And a clear trace of the dog's paws.
31:11Many dogs.
31:13This told us the whole story.
31:16The Norwegians have forestalled us.
31:19And are first at the Pole.
31:20We camped on the Pole itself at 6.30 p.m. this evening.
31:37It blew from force 4 to 6 all day in our teeth with temp minus 22.
31:44The coldest march I can ever remember.
31:47It was a very bitter day.
31:50Great God, this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have labour to it without the reward of priority and a desperate struggle to get the news through first.
32:09Now for the run home.
32:11I wonder if we can do it.
32:13I wonder if we can do it.
32:14I wonder if we can do it.
32:15Things beginning to look a little serious.
32:32A strong wind at the start has developed into a full blizzard of lunch.
32:37Is the weather breaking up?
32:40If so, God help us.
32:45With the tremendous summer journey and the scant food.
32:55By now the men were starving.
32:58With no fat left, their bodies had started to burn muscles and even vital organs for fuel.
33:04Although the fresh pony meat which supplemented their tinned rations contained some vitamin C, it wasn't enough.
33:11Scurvy was a constant risk.
33:13It weakened their blood vessels, meaning their wounds took longer to heal.
33:18We're all pretty hungry.
33:21Could eat twice what we have, especially at breakfast.
33:25Evans has a number of badly blistered finger ends, which he got at the Pole.
33:30Oates's big toe is turning blue-black.
33:40By the middle of February, and with no word yet from her husband, Kathleen was getting worried.
33:47I was very taken up with you all evening.
33:53I wonder if anything special is happening to you.
33:57Like something odd to happen to the clocks and watches between 9 and 10 pm.
34:02I was still rather taken up by you and a wee bit depressed.
34:11As you ought about now be returning to ship, I see no reason for depression.
34:16I wonder.
34:179,000 miles away and Scott had faced a crisis.
34:29Evans has nearly broken down in brain, we think.
34:35He's absolutely changed from his normal self, reliant self.
34:40He was comatose when we got him into the tent.
34:43And, um, he died without recovering consciousness at about 10 pm that night.
34:56He died.
34:57He died.
35:01At the hut too, the men were getting concerned.
35:05Apsley Cherry Garrard was ordered to lead two dog sleds to meet Scott at the big supply camp, known as One Ton Depot.
35:13But by now, the Polar Party, still hauling their supplies, including precious geological specimens, were running short of food and fuel.
35:23God help us.
35:28We can't keep up this pulling that is said.
35:33Amongst ourselves, we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man feels in his heart, I can only guess.
35:42One Ton Depot.
35:45There is no sign of Scott here.
35:48And perhaps he will get in soon and all will be well.
35:52I've decided to wait for two days and then settle what we will do.
35:58I think he must be in, in two or three days.
36:01We cannot help each other.
36:06Each has enough to do to take care of himself.
36:10Poor Oates is unable to pull.
36:13He sits on the sledge when we are track searching.
36:15He is wonderfully plucky, as his feet must be giving him great pain.
36:22It is a very cold wait.
36:26Waiting and thinking.
36:29I was so sure I saw them coming last night that I, I nearly started to watch them.
36:39That same day, March the 7th, Amundsen reached Australia.
36:45Today came the clash and turmoil.
36:51There were cables right and left to say, Amundsen arrived, Hobart states, Scott has reached the Pole.
36:58Thank all the gods I was not taken in.
37:01And whilst the posters shrieked, Scott at the South Pole, brilliant victory.
37:05I was certain that something was wrong.
37:08This morning received a telegram from my brother Leon, who told me to send the main telegrams to the Daily Chronicle London.
37:17That was done at once, and since then I kept silent.
37:21When I went to bed at 10pm, the telegrams began to rain in.
37:27The Pole's conquest was official.
37:30In the morning papers, Kathleen found her suspicions confirmed.
37:41Peter said this morning, Mummy, is Amundsen a good man?
37:48And I said, yes, I think he is.
37:53Then he said, Amundsen and Daddy both got to the Pole. Daddy has stopped working now.
38:06By now, Cherry Garrard was running low on supplies.
38:12All ready to start tomorrow with eight days' dog food.
38:17Please, God, we can get off.
38:19It's...
38:23It's terribly anxious work.
38:32As the rescue party turned for home, Scott and his companions were just 50 miles away.
38:39At lunch the day before yesterday, poor Titus Oates said he couldn't go on.
38:45He proposed we should leave him in his sleeping bag.
38:50That we could not do, and we induced him to come on.
38:54At night it looked worse, and we knew the end had come.
38:59But should this be found, I want these facts recorded.
39:03He slept through the night before last, hoping not to wake.
39:08But he woke in the morning yesterday.
39:11It was blowing the blizzard.
39:13He said,
39:15I am just going outside, and maybe sometime.
39:19He went out into the blizzard, and we have not seen him since.
39:24They didn't do it themselves.
39:40This is a general command, and this is a great to meet him.
39:43October 1912.
39:44The Antarctic Spring.
39:48Nothing had been heard of Captain Scott and his companions since January.
39:53So after six months sheltering in the hut from the winter darkness,
39:57a relief expedition set off south.
40:00They marched to a point 11 miles south of one tonne depot.
40:08We have found them.
40:11The tent was there.
40:14It was covered with snow and looked just like a cairn.
40:17Only a gathering of snow showed where the ventilation was,
40:20and so we found the door.
40:29Scott lay in the center,
40:33Bill on his left with his head toward the door,
40:36and Birdie on his right, lying with his feet toward the door.
40:39Scott had thrown back the flaps of his bag at the end,
40:46and his left hand was stretched over Wilson, his lifelong friend.
40:52Beneath the head of his bag, between the bag and the floorcloth,
40:55was the green wallet in which he carried his diary.
40:58The brown books and diary were inside and on the floorcloth were some letters.
41:07Atkinson read the lesson from the burial service from Corinthians.
41:10Perhaps it has never been read in a more magnificent cathedral and under more impressive circumstances,
41:20for it is a grave which kings must envy.
41:23The diaries and last letters revealed the Polar Party's fate,
41:32frozen to death in a storm-bound tent,
41:35unable to reach their depot.
41:37My own dearest mother,
41:42as this very possibly will be my last letter to you.
41:46I am sorry it is such a short scribble.
41:49When man's extremity is reached,
41:52God's help may put things right,
41:55and though the end will be painless enough for myself,
41:59I should so like to come through this for your dear sake.
42:02Your ever-loving son to the end of this life and the next,
42:08where we will meet,
42:11and where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.
42:16Don't be unhappy.
42:19All is for the best.
42:21We are playing a good part in a great scheme,
42:25arranged by God himself,
42:27and all is well.
42:28My own dear wife,
42:32goodbye for the present.
42:34I do not cease to pray for you,
42:36to the very last.
42:39I do not think we can hope for any better things now.
42:42We shall stick it out to the end,
42:45but we're getting weaker, of course,
42:49and the end cannot be far.
42:51It seems a pity,
42:55but
42:55I do not think I can write more.
43:02R. Scott.
43:05Last entry.
43:08For God's sake,
43:11look after our people.
43:12R. Scott.
43:12R. Scott.
43:21Alongside Scott's diary,
43:29the relief expedition also found a small leather case,
43:33which has been kept private by Scott's family,
43:37until now.
43:38Now, this is the red Morocco case
43:45that was found on my grandfather's body,
43:50in the tent.
43:54He would have had this
43:56when he went to the South Pole.
43:58Inside, there's a little note saying,
44:00found on Scott's person.
44:04And it's a picture of Kathleen.
44:14And on the other side,
44:15a picture of my father when he was a child.
44:19And then, also,
44:22tucked in here,
44:24is a letter
44:24from Kathleen.
44:27This would have been the last letter
44:29he received from Kathleen.
44:34Kathleen's letter
44:36and the letter written by Scott to her
44:39in his final hours
44:40would be their last words to each other.
44:56My dear one,
44:58how can I guess
44:59how things will be with you
45:01when you get this?
45:01Oh, dearie,
45:04I am full of hope.
45:06My brave man will win.
45:08With his own right hand
45:09and with his mighty arm
45:11hath he gathered himself to victory.
45:14I don't know if you'll ever get
45:15these silly little letters.
45:18And it's truly to tell you
45:20that I love you more
45:21than is at all comfy.
45:23And moreover,
45:24I think you're splendid.
45:25When you come home,
45:26we'll feel closer and closer together
45:28and the long time we've been apart
45:29will seem only a little hour.
45:31May all the good gods
45:33conspire to bring my corn
45:34through his great difficulties
45:35with a glad heart
45:37and a constant hope.
45:41Bless you, dearest of men.
45:44Kay.
45:44To my widow.
45:47You know I have loved you.
45:52You know my thoughts
45:53must have constantly dwelt on you
45:55and, oh dear me,
45:56you must know
45:57that quite the worst aspect
45:58of this situation
45:59is the thought
46:00that I shall not see you again.
46:04What lots and lots
46:05I could tell you
46:06of this journey.
46:08How much better it has been
46:10than lounging at comfort at home.
46:11What tales you would have
46:14for the boy.
46:16But oh, what a price to pay
46:18to forfeit the sight
46:21of your dear,
46:22dear face.
46:24To that,
46:25So,
46:27and you already know
46:28I have to say
46:29for sure to have you
46:30here together
46:31and see what they're going through.
46:31You know I have to wait
46:32under and see you again,
46:33go in next.
46:33Hurry up,
46:35I have to wait
46:37before you nice
46:38any questions
46:39before from you
46:41and probably
46:41and Bowl
46:43start
46:45And I'll see you again
46:45after you
46:46approaching
46:47the holometer
46:47and Mr.
46:48and Me
46:48may
46:49continue
46:49to
46:51sit
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