"…and the end cannot be far” was the last entry in the diary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, written on this day, 23rd March in 1912.
Two years earlier, Scott and his companions had set off on the Terra Nova for the Antarctic, hoping to beat Amundsen to the South Pole. After marching nearly 350 miles across the ice, they discovered that Amundsen had got there more than a month before.
On the journey back, the party was repeatedly hit by blizzards, with Captain Oates stumbling out of the tent to die on 17th March, hoping that his companions could travel faster without him. But that was not to be. Just 11 miles from their base camp, the party travelled no further. Their bodies were found 8 months later.
Two years earlier, Scott and his companions had set off on the Terra Nova for the Antarctic, hoping to beat Amundsen to the South Pole. After marching nearly 350 miles across the ice, they discovered that Amundsen had got there more than a month before.
On the journey back, the party was repeatedly hit by blizzards, with Captain Oates stumbling out of the tent to die on 17th March, hoping that his companions could travel faster without him. But that was not to be. Just 11 miles from their base camp, the party travelled no further. Their bodies were found 8 months later.