The Coldest March
Captain Robert Falcon Scott and four others died in 1912, during a fatal and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole. Ever since, many have claimed that Scott was responsible for the tragedy - a complete blunderer, ignorant of Antarctic weather.
However, in her book The Coldest March: Scott's fatal Antarctic expedition, Dr Susan Solomon demonstrates that Scott and his companions were killed by horrific weather conditions that they could not have predicted.
Dr Solomon has worked at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a research scientist since 1981. In 1986-7, she was head project scientist of the National Ozone Expedition at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. It was her research that provided key measurements and critical understanding of the destruction of the ozone layer in the atmosphere. Among many other awards and honours, in 1994 an Antarctic glacier was named after her in recognition of her contribution to polar science.
In this edited extract, Dr Solomon describes Scott's relationship with the Terra Nova expedition's meteorologist George Simpson ...
The final party to the Pole. From left: Lawrence Oates, Henry Bowers, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Edgar Evans.
At this point, it may be useful to question whether the temperatures reported by the early Antarctic explorers can be considered accurate. The meteorological results taken by navy men on Scott's first expedition had been a target for severe criticisms from scientific circles, although recent analysis implies that those arguments were unfounded. The inclusion of [George] Simpson, a civilian with excellent credentials, including a doctorate in science and experience in meteorology shows Scott's determination to avoid such attacks upon his second expedition.
Standards
In addition to his personal qualifications, Simpson obtained the finest
thermometers of the day - thanks to both the generous financial contributions
of the people off his native Derbyshire and loans of equipment from such
distinguished scientific institutions as the London, Australia and New
Zealand meteorological offices.
Before sailing, he calibrated not just one but two large thermographs at Kew Observatory in London; these were used as the standards to which the expedition's other thermometers were scaled and checked. Each portable thermometer was also meticulously calibrated at Kew before departure. Temperature and wind data were taken at Cape Evans [Scott's base camp] during the Terra Nova expedition, using multiple instruments.
Continuous data stream
Modern measurements lend important support to the care with which
the meteorologists of the Terra Nova expedition conducted their
work. Two years of data were recorded through great personal efforts by
Simpson and his assistant Charles Wright at Cape Evans in 1911-12. The
observers often worked around the clock to ensure a continuous data stream.
Automated weather stations and recording devices began to make the job far easier on its human attendants many decades later. And the data recorded by the men of the Terra Nova expedition compare remarkably well to observations collected by the machines of the late 20th century, supporting Simpson's calibration.
Cross-calibration
Simpson's thermometers were mounted on screens near the main base
camp to allow free airflow past the instruments. In polar regions, it
is particularly critical that temperature be measured in the free airstream
rather than in pockets of air that may be warmer or colder than the surroundings.
On sledging journeys, temperatures were measured with a sling thermometer twirled vigorously by the observer to avoid the possibility of pooling of cold or warm air around the instrument. Because mercury freezes at temperatures below -38°F, the liquid material in the sledging thermometers was 'spirit' (alcohol or toluene). Simpson meticulously cross-calibrated the mercury and spirit thermometers at Cape Evans. He also showed that three different sledging thermometers gave essentially the same result when measurements were taken in close proximity during the trek to the Pole.
Platinum wire resistance thermometers have since replaced the sling thermometer that [Henry] Bowers [one of Scott's companions on the final - and fatal - leg of the expedition] and others so diligently twirled. The wires are generally accurate over a broad range of temperatures, but Simpson's approach of comparing nearby observations to check for instrumental problems is still employed today.
The mystery of summer
While the timing of the coreless Antarctic winter [i.e. one that has
no central core of deep midwinter cold but is simply cold all winter long]
was a challenge to science at the turn of the century, the temperatures
of Antarctic summer were an even bigger mystery. Scientists pondered the
puzzle of why Antarctic summer is so much colder than the corresponding
Arctic season, given the symmetric and powerful warming effect of the
sun at both poles in their respective summer seasons.
It was the insightful Simpson who first solved this conundrum by noting that the highly reflective snow surface - the same surface that plagued [Edward] Wilson [another of Scott's companions] with snow blindness because of his sketching - cools the Antarctic summer by sending the sun's energy back to space instead of absorbing it. Simpson wrote,
Of the solar energy which falls within the Antarctic Circle, such a large proportion is lost by direct reflection from the snow that the remainder is not sufficient to raise the temperature of the air to the freezing point before the solstice is reached, and the energy commences to decrease.
In contrast, the oceans of the north absorb the summer energy provided by the sun and thereby warm more readily. The Antarctic therefore begins and ends its summer at temperatures well below freezing, maintaining a continual reflective mirror of snow and setting the stage for a very cold winter.
'Admirable'
Scott's esteem for his meteorologist is reflected in his description
of 'Sunny Jim' Simpson: 'Admirable as a worker, admirable as a scientist
and admirable as a lecturer.' Simpson was put in command of Cape Evans
when Scott and the polar party left it for the last time in late October
1911. Scott began his parting letter of detailed instructions for such
matters as changes that ought to be made to the hut in his absence with
the warm words 'My Dear Simpson', and he noted that Simpson was 'fully
aware of my plans and wishes', suggesting that the two talked frequently.
On 18 February 1911, during the depot journey, Scott noted in his diary that the minimum temperature was -16ºF when camp was broken; next to this sentence, he made a note to himself: 'Inform Simpson!' This confirms that the two men discussed such key matters as the observations of temperatures on the Barrier.
The truest of scientists
Simpson's three-volume treatise summarising the meteorological findings
of the expedition was published after many years of painstaking analysis,
long after Scott was dead. In completing the preface to his great labour
in 1919, Simpson wrote:
Over and over again as point after point was cleared up, I have longed to be able to show the result to Captain Scott, for there was hardly a problem of Antarctic meteorology which we had not discussed together ... To most of us who have given our lives to science, our investigations are frequently tinged with an unscientific desire to increase our scientific reputations, but with him it was the added knowledge alone which gave pleasure.'
Thus as he penned the preface to the book culminating his efforts of nearly a decade, Simpson described Scott as the truest of scientists, a seeker of understanding and not of status. It is evident that the two men enjoyed sharing their thoughts about meteorology while in Antarctica, and that their relationship was a close one.
Find out more
Websites
Endurance: Shackleton and the Antarctic
www.channel4.com/history/microsites/E/
ends/shackleton_intro.html
This Channel 4 website contains a wealth of background information on
Antarctica and Scott, as well as details of Ernest Shackleton's last polar
expedition.
Scott Polar Research Institute
www.spri.cam.ac.uk/
The most important polar library and archive in the world. Founded
in 1920, this Cambridge-based institute is a memorial to Captain Robert
Falcon Scott. The museum contains relics from polar expeditions, diaries,
sleds and a display of what life is like for people in the Arctic.
South Pole
www.south-pole.com
Illustrated on this site is a postcard taken from a set of four 'Links
of the Empire' cards that were released in 1901, in support of Robert
Scott's British National Antarctic Expedition. Also contains extensive
biographical information on Scott.
South: The race to the pole
http://212.219.145.16/south/
Website that supported an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum
in London. Information on Shackleton's Nimrod and Endurance expeditions,
Amundsen's Fram expedition and Scott's Discovery and Terra Nova expeditions.
Heritage Antarctica
www.heritage-antarctica.org
Promotes the restoration, preservation and protection of the structures,
artefacts and records that reflect the history of human endeavour in Antarctica,
as a means to increase understanding of the importance of the Antarctic
environment and as an inspiration for future generations.
National Geographic Society
www.nationalgeographic.com
Has information on Scott, Shackleton and other arctic explorers, with
special sections for children.
Books
The Coldest March: Scott's fatal Antarctic expedition by
Susan Solomon (Yale University Press, January 2003)
Written by a senior scientist and key contributor to the Channel
4 programme, Solomon's brilliant and well-researched story vindicates
Scott and his ill-fated expedition. Get this book from Amazon.
A First-Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the race to the
South Pole by
Diana Preston (Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
Factual account by another of the programme contributors, which
chronicles the ill-fated attempt by explorer Robert Falcon Scott
and his four companions to reach the South Pole in 1912. Get this book from Amazon.
The Great White South: Travelling with Robert F Scott's doomed
South Pole expedition by Herbert G Ponting (Cooper Square, 2002)
An account of Scott's last Antarctic expedition presents 175 stunning
black-and-white photographs taken by the expedition's official photographer.
Get this book from Amazon.
