1/4/11

"This Work is Full of Surprises"


Scott and company reach land today, 4 January 1911. Scott renames the cape on which they are determined to spend the coming winter "Cape Evans" as a tribute to "our excellent second in command." (Journals, p. 67, Carroll & Graf [1996]). What a portentous tribute to Evans, knowing that he would be the first of the polar expedition to die in little more than a year's time. But on this day one hundred years ago things were still hopeful. Scott wrote that "fortune has treated us to the kindest smile -- for twenty-four hours we have had a clam with brilliant sunshine. Such weather in such a place comes nearer to satisfying my ideal of perfection than any condition that I have ever experienced." (Journals, p. 67, Carroll & Graf [1996]). With the Terra Nova "docked" at thick pack ice, the crew unloaded their stores and began to set up the winter camp that would become "Hut Point". Scott fell asleep after a 48 hour working binge, "to dream happily" of the first effects "of all the months of preparation and organization." (Journals, p. 72, Carrol & Graf [1996]).