The expedition’s ship, Terra Nova, sailed from Cardiff as the main transport and supply vessel for Robert Falcon Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition. Scott’s plan combined scientific research with an attempt to be first to the geographic South Pole.
After final preparations and loading animals and equipment, Terra Nova departed from Port Chalmers, New Zealand, heading south. This departure began the expedition’s Antarctic phase, when the team would build a base and start placing supply depots for the polar journey.
The ship was trapped by dense pack ice for roughly 20 days, delaying the landing season and consuming resources. When the ship finally escaped, the expedition could proceed toward Ross Island to establish its main base.
Terra Nova arrived off Ross Island and the expedition began scouting and landing supplies for a winter base. The eventual choice of Cape Evans in McMurdo Sound shaped the route Scott would later use toward the polar plateau.
The prefabricated hut at Cape Evans was made ready for occupation, giving the shore party shelter, storage, and work space. This base became the hub for depot-laying, scientific work, and preparations for the South Pole attempt.
Scott’s team started placing food and fuel depots on the Ross Ice Shelf (then often called the Barrier). These depots were meant to support the long return trip from the Pole, reducing how much the party had to haul at the start.
The largest key depot, “One Ton Depot,” was placed at about 79°29′S, roughly 30 miles (50 km) north of the original target near 80°S. This decision later mattered because Scott’s returning polar party would struggle to reach it in worsening weather and with failing strength.
In midwinter darkness, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, and Apsley Cherry-Garrard set out for Cape Crozier to obtain emperor penguin eggs for scientific study. The trip tested equipment and rations under extreme conditions and became one of the most famous side journeys of the expedition.
Scott’s main sledging journey began from the Cape Evans base, supported at first by a larger group and different transport methods. Over time, support teams turned back, leaving a small final group to push for the Pole.
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen arrived at the geographic South Pole and left evidence of his attainment there. His success set the immediate context for Scott’s arrival weeks later and shaped how the expedition would be received by the public.
Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates, and Edgar Evans reached the South Pole and found Amundsen’s tent and flag, confirming they were second. The discovery marked a major turning point: the journey’s focus shifted from achievement to survival on the long return.
As the party descended from the polar plateau, Edgar Evans’s health collapsed after injury and exhaustion, and he died on the return route. His loss reduced the team’s strength for hauling sledges and increased pressure on food and fuel supplies.
Suffering severe frostbite and weakness, Lawrence Oates left the tent during a storm, intending to improve his companions’ chances by removing himself as a burden. Scott’s diary describes the act as deliberate and final; Oates was never seen again.
Scott made his last diary entry on this date and also wrote a “Message to the Public,” explaining the party’s situation and asking for support for dependents. These documents became central to how the expedition’s outcome was understood after the bodies were found.
A search party from Cape Evans discovered the tent containing the bodies of Scott, Edward Wilson, and Henry Bowers, along with journals and letters that explained what happened. The finds confirmed that the polar party had died on the return, turning the expedition into a story of loss as well as exploration.
After the final season, the expedition ship returned and the Cape Evans hut was closed up, ending the field phase of the British Antarctic Expedition. The expedition left behind major scientific collections and records, but it was remembered most publicly for the polar party’s deaths and the recovery of their written accounts.
Terra Nova Expedition (Robert F. Scott, 1910–1913)