![]() ![]() By October, he was en route to South Africa to join HMS Boadicea, the flagship of the Cape squadron, the first of several ships on which he served during his midshipman years. In July 1883, Scott passed out of Britannia as a midshipman, seventh overall in a class of 26. Having passed these exams Scott began his naval career in 1881, as a 13-year-old cadet. Scott spent four years at a local day school before being sent to Stubbington House School in Hampshire, a cramming establishment that prepared candidates for the entrance examinations to the naval training ship HMS Britannia at Dartmouth. In accordance with the family's tradition, Scott and his younger brother Archie were predestined for careers in the armed services. Scott's early childhood years were spent in comfort, but some years later, when he was establishing his naval career, the family suffered serious financial misfortune. John Scott's prosperity came from the ownership of a small Plymouth brewery which he had inherited from his father and subsequently sold. There were also naval and military traditions in the family, Scott's grandfather and four uncles all having served in the army or navy. Scott was born on 6 June 1868, the third of six children and elder son of John Edward, a brewer and magistrate, and Hannah (née Cuming) Scott of Stoke Damerel, near Devonport. Commentators in the 21st century have regarded Scott more positively after assessing the temperature drop below −40 ☌ (−40 ☏) in March 1912, and after re-discovering Scott's written orders of October 1911, in which he had instructed the dog teams to meet and assist him on the return trip. However, in the last decades of the 20th century, questions were raised about his competence and character. ![]() Having taken this step, his name became inseparably associated with the Antarctic, the field of work to which he remained committed during the final 12 years of his life.įollowing the news of his death, Scott became a celebrated hero, a status reflected by memorials erected across the UK. In 1899, he had a chance encounter with Sir Clements Markham, the president of the Royal Geographical Society, and thus learned of a planned Antarctic expedition, which he soon volunteered to lead. īefore his appointment to lead the Discovery expedition, Scott had a career as a naval officer in the Royal Navy. The fossils were determined to be from the Glossopteris tree and proved that Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents. When Scott and his party's bodies were discovered, they had in their possession the first Antarctic fossils ever discovered. On the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, less than five weeks after Amundsen's South Pole expedition.Ī planned meeting with supporting dog teams from the base camp failed, despite Scott's written instructions, and at a distance of 162 miles (261 km) from their base camp at Hut Point and approximately 12.5 miles (20 km) from the next depot, Scott and his companions died. On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. 29 March 1912) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition of 1910–1913. Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO, (6 June 1868 – c.
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