The Antarctic Tragedy
From Dr. Cook's narrative to the journals of Captain Scott is a step from the ridiculous to the sublime. Here, again, there had been rivalry, but rivalry without dispute. The goal had been reached by Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, only a few weeks before Scott and his four companions, Captain Oates, Dr. Wilson, Lieutenant Bowers and Petty Officer Evans—all of them "names to resound for ages." In March, 1912, "Captain Scott and his gallant comrades reached the South Pole and died on their homeward way." With this brief sentence Punch prefaces his memorial verses on what was at once the most tragic and heroic episode in all the long annals of Polar exploration:—
Not for the fame that crowns a gallant deed,
They fixed their fearless eyes on that far goal,
Steadfast of purpose, resolute at need
To give their lives for toll.
But in the service of their kind they fared,
To probe the secrets which the jealous Earth
Yields only as the prize of perils dared,
The wage of proven worth.