A First Rate Tragedy (50 page)

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Authors: Diana Preston

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Announcement of Scott’s marriage,
The Tatler
, 1908. A conventional end to an unconventional courtship.

The wood-panelled room in the Royal Hotel, Cardiff, where a farewell banquet was given to Captain Scott and Petty Officer Edgar Evans made his memorable impromptu speech.

Captain Scott and Kathleen Scott aboard the
Terra Nova
. Kathleen took a close interest in the loading of the ship which was not always appreciated by Scott’s men.

Captain Oates tending the ponies on the
Terra Nova
. He called them ‘crocks’ but his devotion to them never wavered.

Captain Scott at work in the hut at Cape Evans. His men called his cubicle ‘the holy of holies’.

Captain Scott’s ‘den’ in the hut at Cape Evans today.

Captain Scott’s last birthday dinner. Teddy Evans and Edward Wilson are seated on either side of him. An amused Captain Oates, standing to the left, looks on.

Wilson at work at Cape Evans. He worried needlessly that, working by artificial light in the hut, he would be unable to capture Antarctica’s subtle colours in his drawings. However, his eye and memory for colour were faultless.

A page from the
South Polar Times
showing Wilson’s lovely fluid drawings of the wild life. Here a leopard seal swoops after penguins.

Edgar Evans in outdoor clothes at Cape Evans. He had a remarkable physique and was one of the strongest men on the expedition. He was also noted for his extensive fund of oaths.

Captain Oates, the only army man on the expedition and a wry observer of his comrades.

Cherry-Garrard, Bowers, Oates, Meares and Atkinson in their quarters in the Cape Evans hut, nicknamed ‘the tenements’ for their austerity. Oates’s only luxury was a bust of his hero Napoleon.

The end of the Winter Journey. The physical cost of the extraordinary journey to Cape Crozier to collect emperor penguin eggs by Wilson, Bowers and Cherry-Garrard can be seen in their faces.

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