This is, in some respects, the greatest polar journey on record without dogs. The only comparison can be with the journeys of M’Clintock and Mecham. But they had not the intense cold, the danger from crevasses, and the great height to climb. Nor can any one journey be compared with it as regards the value and importance of its results. Scott discovered the vast Antarctic ice-cap and explored it for 200 miles, and his observations enabled Captain Chetwynd to fix the position of the south magnetic pole.
Barne and Mulock marched to the south, but, after leaving Minna Bluff, they were much hampered by southerly gales which confined them to the tent for ten days. They had barely reached the mouth of the inlet which they were to explore when they were obliged to return. The ground was scarcely passable, and they had to cross wide crevasses, and clamber over steep ridges. Mulock was indefatigable in the use of the theodolite, so that this stretch of coast-line has been very accurately plotted. But the most important result of Barne’s journey was the discovery that the ice on the barrier moved. Depôt A lay on an alignment with a small peak on Minna Bluff and Mount Discovery in 1902. Barne found the depôt was no longer on with this small peak and Mount Discovery and, therefore, that it must have moved. Thirteen and a half months after the establishment of Depôt A Barne measured the displacement, and found that it had moved 608 yards. Barne and his party were absent 68 days.
The journey of Royds and Bernacchi over the ice of the barrier to the S.E. occupied thirty days. Scott wrote, “It deserves to rank very high in our sledging efforts, for every detail was carried out in the most thoroughly efficient manner.” A very interesting series of magnetic observations were taken by Bernacchi, who carried with him the Barrow dip circle, a specially delicate instrument. The party returned on the 10th December, having accomplished an exceedingly fine journey. There were several shorter journeys. Dr Wilson was at Cape Crozier again to study the habits of the Emperor penguins during twelve days, and Armitage explored the Koettlitz glacier, previously only seen from Brown Island, and obtained some excellent photographs.
Captain Scott ordered all the parties, when they returned from sledging and had rested, to join the sawing camp about ten miles to the north, where work was being proceeded with for cutting the ship out of the ice. But it was soon found that the task was an impossible one, and it was accordingly relinquished.
The Morning was got ready for her second voyage, with arrangements complete for taking all the Discovery’s officers and men on board if necessary, which was very unlikely. But the Government began to interfere. The Terra Nova, Captain MacKay, was bought and sent out as well as the Morning, which was quite unnecessary and a great waste of public money, for all that was required could have been perfectly done by the Morning. The two ships arrived at the edge of the ice on the 5th January, 1904. The Discovery was freed from the ice on the 16th February. A large wooden cross, with an inscription, had been made in memory of Vince, and this was erected on the summit of Hut Point before their departure.
On the 17th a furious gale of wind sprang up. A heavy anchor was down. Steam was got up, but the wind was more powerful and the ship was driven upon a shoal near Hut Point at 11 a.m. The gale kept increasing in force, the seas broke over the Discovery’s starboard quarter and she listed heavily to port, the keel constantly pounding and grinding on the stones. Late in the afternoon the wind abated and the ship began working astern. The engines were put full speed astern, and she slid gently into deep water. There was no leakage, an eloquent testimony to the solid structure of the ship, and what showed every sign of becoming a great disaster was happily averted.
The Discovery then received her coal from the relief ships, Colbeck reducing himself to the very narrowest limits, keeping just enough to take him back to New Zealand. Scott intended to explore westward from Cape North. In the voyage northward the rudder was damaged, and the Discovery, after rounding Cape Adare, anchored in Robertson Bay, where the rudder was shifted. As soon as the spare rudder was in place the vessel put to sea again, February 25th, and was soon in the thick of the icebergs. There was a great mass of closely-packed ice towards Cape North. Captain Scott, therefore, altered course and sighted the Balleny Islands on the 2nd March, afterwards proceeding west to beyond 159°E., where the ship was actually behind Wilkes’s alleged land. On March 4th she was in 67° 23′ S. and 155° 30′ E., and it was quite clear that Eld’s Peak and Ringgold’s Knoll did not exist. Cape Hudson is also imaginary, and there is no case for any land near that latitude eastward of Adélie Land. The coast turns S.E. to Cape North. On April 1st the Discovery arrived at Lyttelton, where a most cordial reception awaited her.
The Discovery sailed again June 8th, completing her magnetic survey across the South Pacific. Passing through Magellan Strait, Port Stanley was visited for coal, and on the 10th September the good ship was anchored at Spithead. Never has any polar expedition returned with so great a harvest of results. The discoveries alone were remarkable—the entirely new land of King Edward VII, the nature of the ice on the barrier, the great Victorian range of mountains, the volcanic region of Ross and the smaller islands, the glaciers and the remarkable phenomenon of their recession, the great Antarctic ice-cap over which Captain Scott and two companions travelled for 200 miles, the discovery of the position of the south magnetic pole, and the lines of deep sea soundings with serial temperatures and dredgings. Yet these are only the skeleton which is provided with flesh and blood by the scientific results and observations which are contained in the twelve large volumes published on the voyage.
Captain Scott’s own narrative, in two volumes, beautifully illustrated by Dr Wilson, was worthy of the expedition. It was his first literary effort, but the great explorer had a natural gift, and there are few polar stories to be compared with the Voyage of the Discovery either in literary merit or in scientific interest.