CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 
5 
I 
I 
I 
Misfortunes at the Start. 
WORK IN HIS DEN AT THE MAIN HUT. CAPE EVANS. 
CROWDED WITH HIS PERSONAL BELONGINGS, AMONG WHICH MAY BE 
TRAITS OF LADY SCOTT AND THEIR SON PETER ON THE WALL BY HIS SIDE 
IN THE TOP LEFT-HAND CORNER, THE VOLUMES OF HIS JOURNALS. 
room. “ They were prepared to pig it, any- 
how, and a few cubic feet of space didn’t 
matter ; such is their spirit.” 
Nevertheless, there remained a heavy deck- 
cargo, including thirty tons of coal, two and 
a half tons of petrol, bales of fodder, meat, in 
the ice-house, and the three motor-sledges, 
each in a package sixteen feet by five by 
four, so carefully covered with tarpaulin that 
they emerged spick and span after the tem- 
pestuous voyage. Besides thirty-three dogs, 
there were nineteen Siberian ponies on 
board, for experience had shown their great 
value as load-haulers over the comparative 
level of the Barrier ice. Of the dogs, a 
splendid collection, there were high hopes ; 
it was not till w T ell on in the winter, 
after alternate satisfaction and disappoint- 
ments and careful discussion, that the 
Southern party resolved not to take them up 
From the first the ex- 
pedition had more than its 
due share of ill-fortune. 
On November 26th, 1910, 
the Terra Nova sailed out 
of Lyttelton Harbour amid 
a scene of great enthusiasm 
on the part of the hos- 
pitable and helpful New 
Zealanders, a gay scene 
repeated three days later 
at Port Chalmers, where 
Scott joined the ship. 
If anything, more craft 
followed her out of the harbour, the tugs 
keeping company for a couple of hours. But 
the Southern Seas in “the roaring forties” 
are fierce and strong. Dirty weather began 
at once, and on the third day out a great 
gale nearly sent them all to the bottom. 
It was no longer the time to smile at individual 
struggles against sea-sickness, or the spectacle 
of the undaunted photographer, a developing- 
dish in one hand, an ordinary basin in the 
other. 
Nearly Wrecked in a Gale. 
At 4 p.m. on December 1st the storm came 
on. “ Soon,” writes Scott, “ we were plung- 
ing heavily and taking much water over the 
lee rail. Cases of petrol, forage, etc., began 
to break loose on the upper deck. The 
principal trouble was caused by the loose 
the broken surface of the 
glacier, and so to the long 
expanse of the summit. 
The difference between 
dogs and men as travellers 
under such trying, mono- 
tonous conditions is 
curious. Dogs seem to feel 
the lack of variety and 
interest more than the toil. 
Where they would grow 
dispirited under the im- 
pression of the day, men 
could endure, looking to 
the future ; and this, it 
appears, apart from the 
detestable necessity of kill- 
ing off the animals on the 
return trip, was one of 
the reasons for trusting to 
man-haulage on the later 
stages of the long journey. 
