Robert Falcon Scott Robert Falcon Scott , CVO ( 6 June 1868 – 29 March 1912 ) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions : the Discovery Expedition , 1901 – 04 , and the ill - fated Terra Nova Expedition , 1910 – 13 . During this second venture , Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912 , only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen ' s Norwegian expedition . On their return journey , Scott and his four comrades all died from a combination of exhaustion , starvation and extreme cold . Before his appointment to lead the Discovery Expedition , Scott had followed the conventional career of a naval officer in peacetime Victorian Britain , where opportunities for career advancement were both limited and keenly sought after by ambitious officers . It was the chance for personal distinction that led Scott to apply for the " Discovery " command , rather than any predilection for polar exploration . However , having taken this step , his name became inseparably associated with the Antarctic , the field of work to which he remained committed during the final twelve years of his life . Following the news of his death , Scott became an iconic British hero , a status maintained for more than 50 years and reflected by the many permanent memorials erected across the nation . In the closing decades of the 20th century , the legend was reassessed as attention focused on the causes of the disaster that ended his and his comrades ' lives , and the extent of Scott ' s personal culpability . From a previously unassailable position , Scott became a figure of controversy , with questions raised about his competence and character . Commentators in the 21st century have on the whole regarded Scott more positively , emphasising his personal bravery and stoicism while acknowledging his errors , but ascribing his expedition ' s fate primarily to misfortune . Early life . Family background . Scott was born on 6 June 1868 , the third child out of six and elder son of John Edward and Hannah ( née Cuming ) Scott of Stoke Damerel , near Devonport , Devon . Although his father was a brewer and magistrate , there were naval and military traditions in the family , Scott ' s grandfather and four uncles all having served in the army or navy . John Scott ' s prosperity came from the ownership of a small Plymouth brewery which he inherited from his father and subsequently sold . In later years , when Scott was establishing his naval career , the family would suffer serious financial misfortune , but his early childhood years were spent in comfort . In accordance with the family ' s tradition , Robert and his younger brother Archibald were predestined for careers in the armed services . Robert spent four years at a local day school before being sent to Stubbington House School , Stubbington , Hampshire , a cramming establishment preparing candidates for the entrance examinations to the naval training ship at Dartmouth . Having passed these exams Scott , aged 13 , began his naval career in 1881 , as a cadet . Early naval career . In July 1883 , Scott passed out of " Britannia " as a midshipman , seventh overall in a class of 26 . By October , he was en route to South Africa to join , the flagship of the Cape squadron , the first of several ships on which he served during his midshipman years . While stationed in St Kitts , West Indies , on , he had his first encounter with Clements Markham , then Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society ( RGS ) , who would loom large in Scott ' s later career . On this occasion , 1 March 1887 , Markham observed Midshipman Scott ' s cutter winning that morning ' s race across the bay . Markham ' s habit was to " collect " likely young naval officers with a view to their undertaking polar exploration work in the future . He was impressed by Scott ' s intelligence , enthusiasm and charm , and the 18 - year - old midshipman was duly noted . In March 1888 Scott passed his examinations for sub - lieutenant , with four first class certificates out of five . His career progressed smoothly , with service on various ships and promotion to lieutenant in 1889 . In 1891 , after a long spell in foreign waters , he applied for the two - year torpedo training course on , an important career step . He graduated with first class certificates in both the theory and practical examinations . A small blot occurred in the summer of 1893 when , while commanding a torpedo boat , Scott ran it aground , a mishap which earned him a mild rebuke . During the research for his dual biography of Scott and Roald Amundsen , polar historian Roland Huntford investigated a possible scandal in Scott ' s early naval career , related to the period 1889 – 90 when Scott was a lieutenant on . According to Huntford , Scott " disappears from naval records " for eight months , from mid - August 1889 until 26 March 1890 . Huntford hints at involvement with a married American woman , of cover - up , and protection from senior officers . Biographer David Crane reduces the missing period to eleven weeks , but is unable to clarify further . He rejects the notion of protection by senior officers on the grounds that Scott was not important or well - connected enough to warrant this . Documents that may have offered explanations are missing from Admiralty records . In 1894 , while serving as torpedo officer on the depot ship , Scott learned of the financial calamity that had overtaken his family . John Scott , having sold the brewery and invested the proceeds unwisely , had lost all his capital and was now virtually bankrupt . At the age of 63 , and in poor health , he was forced to take a job as a brewery manager and move his family to Shepton Mallet , Somerset . Three years later , while Robert was serving with the Channel squadron flagship , John Scott died of heart disease , creating a fresh family crisis . Hannah Scott and her two unmarried daughters now relied entirely on the service pay of Scott and the salary of younger brother Archie , who had left the army for a higher - paid post in the colonial service . Archie ' s own death in the autumn of 1898 , after contracting typhoid fever , meant that the whole financial responsibility for the family rested on Scott . Promotion , and the extra income this would bring , now became a matter of considerable concern to Scott . Early in June 1899 , while home on leave , he had a chance encounter in a London street with Clements Markham ( now knighted and RGS President ) , and learned for the first time of an impending Antarctic expedition under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society . It was an opportunity for early command and a chance to distinguish himself . What passed between them on this occasion is not recorded , but a few days later , on 11 June , Scott appeared at the Markham residence and volunteered to lead the expedition . Discovery Expedition 1901 – 1904 . The British National Antarctic Expedition , later known as the Discovery Expedition , was a joint enterprise of the RGS and the Royal Society . A long - cherished dream of Markham ' s , it required all of his skills and cunning to bring the expedition to fruition , under naval command and largely staffed by naval personnel . Scott may not have been Markham ' s first choice as leader but , having decided on him , the older man ' s support remained constant . There were committee battles over the scope of Scott ' s responsibilities , with the Royal Society pressing to put a scientist in charge of the expedition ' s programme while Scott merely commanded the ship . Eventually , however , Markham ' s view prevailed ; Scott was given overall command , and was promoted to the rank of commander before " Discovery " sailed for the Antarctic on 6 August 1901 . King Edward VII , who showed a keen interest in the expedition , visited the Discovery the day before the ship left British shores in August 1901 , and during the visit appointed Scott a Member of the Royal Victorian Order ( MVO ) , his personal gift . Experience of Antarctic or Arctic waters was almost entirely lacking within the 50 - strong party and there was very little special training in equipment or techniques before the ship set sail . Dogs were taken , as were skis , but hardly anyone knew how to use them . In Markham ' s view , professionalism was considered less praiseworthy than " unforced aptitude " , and possibly Scott was influenced by Markham ' s belief . In the first of the two full years which " Discovery " spent in the ice , this insouciance was severely tested , as the expedition struggled to meet the challenges of the unfamiliar terrain . During an early attempt at ice travel , a blizzard trapped expedition members in their tent and their decision to leave it resulted in the death of George Vince , who slipped over a precipice on 11 March 1902 . The expedition had both scientific and exploration objectives ; the latter included a long journey south , in the direction of the South Pole . This march , undertaken by Scott , Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson , took them to a latitude of 82° 17 ′ S , about from the pole . A harrowing return journey brought about Shackleton ' s physical collapse and his early departure from the expedition . The second year showed improvements in technique and achievement , culminating in Scott ' s western journey which led to the discovery of the Polar Plateau . This has been described by one writer as " one of the great polar journeys " . The scientific results of the expedition included important biological , zoological and geological findings . Some of the meteorological and magnetic readings , however , were later criticised as amateurish and inaccurate . At the end of the expedition it took the combined efforts of two relief ships and the use of explosives to free " Discovery " from the ice . Afterwards , Scott remained unconvinced that dogs and ski were the keys to efficient ice travel . In the following years he continued to express the British preference for man - hauling ( the practice of propelling sledges by manpower , unassisted by animals ) , a view he maintained until very late in his Antarctic career . His insistence during the expedition on Royal Navy formalities had made for uneasy relations with the merchant navy contingent , many of whom departed for home with the first relief ship in March 1903 . Second - in - command Albert Armitage , a merchant officer , was offered the chance to go home on compassionate grounds , but chose to interpret the offer as a personal slight , and refused . Armitage also promoted the idea that the decision to send Shackleton home on the relief ship arose from Scott ' s animosity rather than Shackleton ' s physical breakdown . Although there were later tensions between Scott and Shackleton , when their polar ambitions directly clashed , in public mutual civilities were preserved ; Scott joined in the official receptions that greeted Shackleton on his return in 1909 after the Nimrod Expedition , and the two were exchanging polite letters about their respective ambitions in 1909 – 10 . Between expeditions . Popular hero . " Discovery " returned to Britain in September 1904 . The expedition had caught the public imagination , and Scott became a popular hero . He was awarded a cluster of honours and medals , including many from overseas , and was promoted to the rank of captain . He was invited to Balmoral Castle , where King Edward VII promoted him a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order ( CVO ) . Scott ' s next few years were crowded . For more than a year he was occupied with public receptions , lectures and the writing of the expedition record , " The Voyage of the Discovery " . In January 1906 , he resumed his full - time naval career , first as an Assistant Director of Naval Intelligence at the Admiralty and , in August , as flag - captain to Rear - Admiral Sir George Egerton on . He was now moving in ever more exalted social circles — a telegram to Markham in February 1907 refers to meetings with the Queen and Crown Prince of Portugal , and a later letter home reports lunching with the Commander - in - Chief of the Fleet and Prince Heinrich of Prussia . Dispute with Shackleton . By early 1906 , Scott had sounded out the RGS about the possible funding of a future Antarctic expedition . It was therefore unwelcome news to him that Ernest Shackleton had announced his own plans to travel to " Discovery " s old McMurdo Sound base and launch a bid for the South Pole from there . Scott claimed , in the first of a series of letters to Shackleton , that the area around McMurdo was his own " field of work " to which he had prior rights until he chose to give them up , and that Shackleton should therefore work from an entirely different area . In this , he was strongly supported by " Discovery " s former zoologist , Edward Wilson , who asserted that Scott ' s rights extended to the entire Ross Sea sector . This Shackleton refused to concede . Finally , to end the impasse , Shackleton agreed , in a letter to Scott dated 17 May 1907 , to work to the east of the 170° W meridian and therefore to avoid all the familiar " Discovery " ground . In the end it was a promise that he was unable to keep after his search for alternative landing grounds proved fruitless . With his only other option being to return home , he set up his headquarters at Cape Royds , close to the old " Discovery " base . For this he was roundly condemned by the British polar establishment at the time . Among modern polar writers , Ranulph Fiennes regards Shackleton ' s actions as a technical breach of honour , but adds : " My personal belief is that Shackleton was basically honest but circumstances forced his McMurdo landing , much to his distress " . The polar historian Beau Riffenburgh states that the promise to Scott " should never ethically have been demanded " , and compares Scott ' s intransigence on this matter unfavourably with the generous attitudes of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen , who gave freely of his advice and expertise to all , whether they were potential rivals or not . Marriage . Scott , who because of his " Discovery " fame had entered Edwardian society , first met Kathleen Bruce early in 1907 at a private luncheon party . She was a sculptress , socialite and cosmopolitan who had studied under Auguste Rodin and whose circle included Isadora Duncan , Pablo Picasso and Aleister Crowley . Her initial meeting with Scott was brief , but when they met again later that year , the mutual attraction was obvious . A stormy courtship followed ; Scott was not her only suitor — his main rival was would - be novelist Gilbert Cannan — and his absences at sea did not assist his cause . However , Scott ' s persistence was rewarded and , on 2 September 1908 , at the Chapel Royal , Hampton Court Palace , the wedding took place . Their only child , Peter Markham Scott , was born on 14 September 1909 . By this time , Scott had announced his plans for his second Antarctic expedition . Shackleton had returned , having narrowly failed to reach the Pole , and this gave Scott the impetus to proceed . On 24 March 1909 , he had taken the Admiralty - based appointment of naval assistant to the Second Sea Lord which placed him conveniently in London . In December he was released on half - pay , to take up the full - time command of the British Antarctic Expedition 1910 , to be known as the Terra Nova Expedition from its ship , " Terra Nova " . Terra Nova Expedition 1910 – 1912 . Preparation . It was the expressed hope of the RGS that this expedition would be " scientific primarily , with exploration and the Pole as secondary objects " but , unlike the Discovery Expedition , neither they nor the Royal Society were in charge this time . In his expedition prospectus , Scott stated that its main objective was " to reach the South Pole , and to secure for the British Empire the honour of this achievement " . Scott had , as Markham observed , been " bitten by the Pole mania " . Scott did not know that he would be in a race until he received Amundsen ' s telegram in Melbourne , in October 1910 . Before this , he had set about fashioning the expedition according to his own preferences , without the restraints of a joint committee . So far as transport was concerned , he decided that dogs would be one element in a complex strategy that also involved horses and motor sledges , and much man - hauling . Scott knew nothing of horses , but felt that as they had seemingly served Shackleton well , he ought to use them . Dog expert Cecil Meares was going to Siberia to select the dogs , and Scott ordered that , while he was there , he should deal with the purchase of Manchurian ponies . Meares was not an experienced horse - dealer , and the ponies he chose proved mostly of poor quality , and ill - suited to prolonged Antarctic work . Meanwhile , Scott spent time in France and Norway , testing motor - sledges , and recruited Bernard Day , from Shackleton ' s expedition , as his motor expert . First season . The expedition itself suffered a series of early misfortunes , which hampered the first season ' s work and impaired preparations for the main polar march . On its journey from New Zealand to the Antarctic , " Terra Nova " was trapped in pack ice for 20 days , far longer than other ships had experienced , which meant a late - season arrival and less time for preparatory work before the Antarctic winter . One of the motor sledges was lost during its unloading from the ship , breaking through the sea ice and sinking . Deteriorating weather conditions and weak , unacclimatised ponies affected the initial depot - laying journey , so that the expedition ' s main supply point , One Ton Depot , was laid north of its planned location at 80° S . Lawrence Oates , in charge of the ponies , advised Scott to kill ponies for food and advance the depot to 80° S , which Scott refused to do . Oates is reported as saying to Scott , " Sir , I ' m afraid you ' ll come to regret not taking my advice . " Six ponies died during this journey either from the cold or because they slowed the team down so they were shot . On its return to base , the expedition learned of the presence of Amundsen , camped with his crew and a large contingent of dogs in the Bay of Whales , 200 miles ( 320 km ) to their east . Scott refused to amend his schedule to deal with the Amundsen threat , writing , " The proper , as well as the wiser course , is for us to proceed exactly as though this had not happened " . While acknowledging that the Norwegian ' s base was closer to the pole and that his experience as a dog driver was formidable , Scott had the advantage of travelling over a known route pioneered by Shackleton . During the 1911 winter his confidence increased ; on 2 August , after the return of a three - man party from their winter journey to Cape Crozier , Scott wrote , " I feel sure we are as near perfection as experience can direct " . Journey to the Pole . Scott outlined his plans for the southern journey to the entire shore party , but left open who would form the final polar team . Eleven days before Scott ' s teams set off towards the pole , Scott gave the dog driver Meares the following written orders at Cape Evans dated 20 October 1911 to secure Scott ' s speedy return from the pole using dogs : The march south began on 1 November 1911 , a caravan of mixed transport groups ( motors , dogs , horses ) , with loaded sledges , travelling at different rates , all designed to support a final group of four men who would make a dash for the Pole . The southbound party steadily reduced in size as successive support teams turned back . Scott reminded the returning Atkinson of the order " to take the two dog - teams south in the event of Meares having to return home , as seemed likely " . By 4 January 1912 , the last two four - man groups had reached 87° 34 ′ S . Scott announced his decision : five men ( Scott , Edward Wilson , Henry Bowers , Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans ) would go forward , the other three ( Teddy Evans , William Lashly and Tom Crean ) would return . The chosen group marched on , reaching the Pole on 17 January 1912 , only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by five weeks . Scott ' s anguish is indicated in his diary : " The worst has happened " ; " All the day dreams must go " ; " Great God ! This is an awful place " . Last march . The deflated party began the return journey on 19 January . " I ' m afraid the return journey is going to be dreadfully tiring and monotonous " , wrote Scott on the next day . However , the party made good progress despite poor weather , and had completed the Polar Plateau stage of their journey , approximately 300 miles ( 500 km ) , by 7 February . In the following days , as the party made the descent of the Beardmore Glacier , the physical condition of Edgar Evans , which Scott had noted with concern as early as 23 January , declined sharply . A fall on 4 February had left Evans " dull and incapable " , and on 17 February , after a further fall , he died near the glacier foot . Meanwhile back at Cape Evans , the " Terra Nova " arrived at the beginning of February , and Atkinson decided to unload the supplies from the ship with his own men rather than set out south with the dogs to meet Scott as ordered . When Atkinson finally did leave south for the planned rendezvous with Scott , he encountered the scurvy - ridden Edward ( " Teddy " ) Evans who needed his urgent medical attention . Atkinson therefore tried to send the experienced navigator Wright south to meet Scott , but chief meteorologist Simpson declared he needed Wright for scientific work . Atkinson then decided to send the short - sighted Cherry - Garrard on 25 February , who was not able to navigate , only as far as One Ton depot ( which is within sight of Mount Erebus ) , effectively cancelling Scott ' s orders for meeting him at latitude 82 or 82 . 30 on 1 March . With 400 miles ( 670 km ) still to travel across the Ross Ice Shelf , Scott ' s party ' s prospects steadily worsened as , with deteriorating weather , frostbite , snow blindness , hunger and exhaustion , and no sign of the dog - teams , they struggled northward . On 16 March , Oates , whose condition was aggravated by an old war - wound to the extent that he was barely able to walk , voluntarily left the tent and walked to his death . Scott wrote that Oates ' last words were " I am just going outside and may be some time " . After walking a further 20 miles , the three remaining men made their final camp on 19 March , short of One Ton Depot , but 24 miles ( 38 km ) beyond the original intended location of the depot . The next day a fierce blizzard prevented their making any progress . During the next nine days , as their supplies ran out , with frozen fingers , little light , and storms still raging outside the tent , Scott wrote his final words , although he gave up his diary after 23 March , save for a final entry on 29 March , with its concluding words : " Last entry . For God ' s sake look after our people " . He left letters to Wilson ' s mother , Bowers ' mother , a string of notables including his former commander Sir George Egerton , his own mother and his wife . He also wrote his " Message To The Public " , primarily a defence of the expedition ' s organisation and conduct in which the party ' s failure is attributed to weather and other misfortunes , but ending on an inspirational note , with these words : Scott is presumed to have died on 29 March 1912 , possibly a day later . The positions of the bodies in the tent when it was discovered eight months later suggested that Scott was the last of the three to die . Reputation . Glorification . The bodies of Scott and his companions were discovered by a search party on 12 November 1912 and their records retrieved . Their final camp became their tomb ; a high cairn of snow was erected over it , topped by a roughly fashioned cross . In January 1913 , before " Terra Nova " left for home , a large wooden cross was made by the ship ' s carpenters , inscribed with the names of the lost party and Tennyson ' s line from his poem " Ulysses " : " To strive , to seek , to find , and not to yield " , and was erected as a permanent memorial on Observation Hill , overlooking Hut Point . The world was informed of the tragedy when " Terra Nova " reached Oamaru , New Zealand , on 10 February 1913 . Within days , Scott became a national icon . A fierce nationalistic spirit was aroused ; the " London Evening News " called for the story to be read to schoolchildren throughout the land , to coincide with the memorial service at St Paul ' s Cathedral on 14 February . Robert Baden - Powell , founder of the Boy Scouts Association , asked : " Are Britons going downhill ? No ! . . . There is plenty of pluck and spirit left in the British after all . Captain Scott and Captain Oates have shown us that " . Eleven - year - old Mary Steel wrote a poem which ended : The survivors of the expedition were suitably honoured on their return , with polar medals and promotions for the naval personnel . In place of the knighthood that might have been her husband ' s had he survived , Kathleen Scott was granted the rank and precedence of a widow of a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath . In 1922 , she married Edward Hilton Young , later Lord Kennet ( she becoming Lady Kennet ) , and remained a doughty defender of Scott ' s reputation until her death , aged 69 , in 1947 . An article in " The Times " , reporting on the glowing tributes paid to Scott in the New York press , claimed that both Amundsen and Shackleton were " [ amazed ] to hear that such a disaster could overtake a well - organized expedition " . On learning the details of Scott ' s death , Amundsen is reported as saying , " I would gladly forgo any honour or money if thereby I could have saved Scott his terrible death " . Scott was much the better wordsmith of the two , and the story that spread throughout the world was largely that told by him , with Amundsen ' s victory reduced in the eyes of many to an unsporting stratagem . Even before Scott ' s death was known , Amundsen had been offended by what he felt was a " sneering toast " ' from RGS President Lord Curzon , at a meeting held supposedly to honour the polar victor . Curzon had called for " three cheers for the dogs " . According to Huntford ' s account , this slight caused Amundsen to resign his honorary RGS fellowship . The response to Scott ' s final plea on behalf of the dependents of the dead was enormous by the standards of the day . The Mansion House Scott Memorial Fund closed at £75 , 000 ( 2009 approximation £5 . 5 million ) . This was not equally distributed ; Scott ' s widow , son , mother and sisters received a total of £18 , 000 ( £1 . 3 million ) . Wilson ' s widow got £8 , 500 ( £600 , 000 ) and Bowers ' s mother £4 , 500 ( £330 , 000 ) . Edgar Evans ' s widow , children and mother received £1 , 500 ( £109 , 000 ) between them . In the dozen years following the disaster , more than 30 monuments and memorials were set up in Britain alone . These ranged from simple relics ( Scott ' s sledging flag in Exeter Cathedral ) to the foundation of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge . Many more were established in other parts of the world , including a statue crafted by his widow for his New Zealand base in Christchurch . A century of storms and snow have covered the cairn and tent , which are now encased in the Ross Ice Shelf as it inches towards the Ross Sea . In 2001 glaciologist Charles R . Bentley estimated that the tent with the bodies was under about 75 feet ( 23 m ) of ice and about 30 miles ( 48 km ) from the point where they died ; he speculated that in about 275 years the bodies would reach the Ross Sea , and perhaps float away inside an iceberg . Modern reaction . Scott ' s reputation survived the period after World War II , beyond the 50th anniversary of his death . In 1966 , Reginald Pound , the first biographer given access to Scott ' s original sledging journal , revealed personal failings which cast a new light on Scott , although Pound continued to endorse his heroism , writing of " a splendid sanity that would not be subdued " . Within the following decade , further books appeared , each of which to some degree challenged the prevailing public perception . The most critical of these was David Thomson ' s " Scott ' s Men " ( 1977 ) ; in Thomson ' s view , Scott was not a great man , " at least , not until near the end " ; his planning is described as " haphazard " and " flawed " , his leadership characterised by lack of foresight . Thus by the late 1970s , in Jones ' s words , " Scott ' s complex personality had been revealed and his methods questioned " . In 1979 came the most sustained attack on Scott , from Roland Huntford ' s dual biography " Scott and Amundsen " in which Scott is depicted as a " heroic bungler " . Huntford ' s thesis had an immediate impact , becoming the new orthodoxy . Even Scott ' s heroism in the face of death is challenged ; Huntford sees Scott ' s Message to the Public as a deceitful self - justification from a man who had led his comrades to their deaths . After Huntford ' s book , debunking Captain Scott became commonplace ; Francis Spufford , in a 1996 history not wholly antagonistic to Scott , refers to " devastating evidence of bungling " , concluding that " Scott doomed his companions , then covered his tracks with rhetoric " . Travel writer Paul Theroux summarised Scott as " confused and demoralised . . . an enigma to his men , unprepared and a bungler " . This decline in Scott ' s reputation was accompanied by a corresponding rise in that of his erstwhile rival Shackleton , at first in the United States but eventually in Britain as well . A 2002 nationwide poll in the United Kingdom to discover the " 100 Greatest Britons " showed Shackleton in eleventh place , Scott well down the list at 54th . The early years of the 21st century have seen a shift of opinion in Scott ' s favour , in what cultural historian Stephanie Barczewski calls " a revision of the revisionist view " . Meteorologist Susan Solomon ' s 2001 account " The Coldest March " ties the fate of Scott ' s party to the extraordinarily adverse Barrier weather conditions of February and March 1912 rather than to personal or organizational failings , although Solomon accepts the validity of some of the criticisms of Scott . In 2004 polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes published a biography which was a strong defence of Scott and an equally forthright rebuttal of Huntford ; the book is dedicated " To the Families of the Defamed Dead " . Fiennes was later criticised by the reviewer of another book for the personal nature of his attacks on Huntford , and for his apparent assumption that his own experiences as a polar explorer gave him unique authority . In 2005 David Crane published a new Scott biography which , according to Barczewski , goes some way towards an assessment of Scott " free from the baggage of earlier interpretations " . What has happened to Scott ' s reputation , Crane argues , derives from the way the world has changed since the heroic myth was formed : " It is not that we see him differently from the way they [ his contemporaries ] did , but that we see him the same , and instinctively do not like it . " Crane ' s main achievement , according to Barczewski , is the restoration of Scott ' s humanity , " far more effectively than either Fiennes ' s stridency or Solomon ' s scientific data . " " Daily Telegraph " columnist Jasper Rees , likening the changes in explorers ' reputations to climatic variations , suggests that " in the current Antarctic weather report , Scott is enjoying his first spell in the sun for twenty - five years " . The " New York Times Book Review " was more critical , pointing out Crane ' s support for Scott ' s discredited claims regarding the circumstances of the freeing of the " Discovery " from the pack ice , and concluded " For all the many attractions of his book , David Crane offers no answers that convincingly exonerate Scott from a significant share of responsibility for his own demise . " In 2012 , Karen May published her discovery that Scott had issued written orders , before his march to the Pole , for Meares to meet the returning party with dog - teams , in contrast to Huntford ' s assertion that Scott issued those vital instructions only as a casual oral order to Evans during the march to the Pole . This misrepresentation has given a generation of modern scholars since 1979 the impression that Scott had left his subordinates back at base unsure of his intentions , who would consequently have failed to use the dogs in a concerted attempt to relieve the returning polar party when the need arose .