On 18 January 1912 Captain Robert Scott, Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers, Dr Edward Wilson, Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates and Edgar ‘Taff’ Evans reached the South Pole.
On the long return journey to their base at Cape Evans (almost 900 miles away), Evans then Oates succumbed to frostbite and other ailments. By 22 March Scott, Bowers and Wilson were trapped in a blizzard-bound tent; Scott was immobilised by a badly frost-bitten foot and they were out of fuel and food. Towards the end of March all three died, about 150 miles from Cape Evans.
By that time the Terra Nova had returned from New Zealand, restocked the base, and left again. A party from Cape Evans had tried to meet up with Scott’s party and rush the news back to the ship, but had been thwarted by poor weather. From early April, as darkness fell and temperatures dropped, all the remaining members of the expedition could do was hope that Scott’s party might return. But the five bunks previously occupied by Scott, Bowers, Wilson, Oates and Evans remained empty.
On 29 October a party set out from Cape Evans to try to establish what had happened to the South Pole party. On 11 November they found Bowers, Wilson and Scott dead in their tent, together with letters and journals explaining that all five men had reached the Pole and that Oates and Evans had died earlier. They collapsed Scott’s tent over the three bodies, held a memorial service and built a cairn to commemorate their five friends. Now they could break the news to their companions at Cape Evans but outside world would need to wait until the pack ice allowed the Terra Nova to return in early 1913.
Back in Britain, Birdie Bowers’ mother, Emily, and other expedition family members awaited news. In March 1912 they learned that Roald Amundsen had reached the South Pole in December 1911. In early April news arrived from New Zealand that Scott had included Birdie in the South Pole party but that they had not been expected back at Cape Evans until after the Terra Nova left Antarctica. Newspapers carried pictures of Birdie and his companions and information on the expedition – but soon the headlines were about the sinking of the Titanic with the loss of over 1,500 lives.
Now, all Emily Bowers, and the families of other expedition members could do was to read and re-read letters from loved ones and wait until the Terra Nova sailed again from New Zealand to Antarctica to pick up the remaining members of the party, including, all being well, Scott, Bowers, Wilson, Oates and Evans.
They would need to wait until 10 February 1913 for the long Antarctic silence to be broken when two men landed in Oamaru, New Zealand, with news of the expedition.
To read more about what happened to Scott, Birdie Bowers and their companions, read Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers, Birdie Bowers: Captain Scott’s Marvel. Scott, Birdie Bowers and their companions can be seen at Cape Evans and setting out on their journey in the BFI re-mastered version of Great White Silence.
In February 2013 there will be re-enactments of the landing in New Zealand and other events in Oamaru, New Zealand, see http://www.oamaruscott100.org.nz/