Part 1 (2/2)
his first voyage in the Antarctic and all England was talking of him, one of his most novel adventures was at last to go to a first-cla.s.s tailor and be provided with a first-cla.s.s suit. He was as elated by the possession of this as a child. When going about the country lecturing in those days he traveled third cla.s.s, though he was sometimes met at the station by mayors and corporations and red carpets.
The hot tempers of his youth must still have lain hidden, but by now the control was complete. Even in the naval cadet days of which unfortunately there is so little to tell, his old friends who remember the tempers remember also the sunny smile that dissipated them. When I knew him the sunny smile was there frequently, and was indeed his greatest personal adornment, but the tempers never reached the surface. He had become master of his fate and captain of his soul.
In 1886 Scott became a middy on the _Boadicea_, and later on various s.h.i.+ps, one of them the _Rover_, of which Admiral Fisher was at that time commander. The Admiral has a recollection of a little black pig having been found under his bunk one night. He cannot swear that Scott was the leading culprit, but Scott was certainly one of several who had to finish the night on deck as a punishment.
In 1888 Scott pa.s.sed his examinations for sub-lieutenant, with four first-cla.s.s honours and one second, and so left his boyhood behind. I cannot refrain however from adding as a conclusion to these notes a letter from Sir Courtauld [Page 11]
Thomson that gives a very attractive glimpse of him in this same year:
'In the late winter a quarter of a century ago I had to find my way from San Francisco to Alaska. The railway was snowed up and the only transport available at the moment was an ill-found tramp steamer. My fellow pa.s.sengers were mostly Californians hurrying off to a new mining camp and, with the crew, looked a very unpleasant lot of ruffians. Three singularly unprepossessing Frisco toughs joined me in my cabin, which was none too large for a single person. I was then told that yet another had somehow to be wedged in. While I was wondering if he could be a more ill-favored or dirtier specimen of humanity than the others the last comer suddenly appeared--the jolliest and breeziest English naval Second Lieutenant. It was Con Scott. I had never seen him before, but we at once became friends and remained so till the end. He was going up to join his s.h.i.+p which, I think, was the _Amphion_, at Esquimault, B. C.
'As soon as we got outside the Golden Gates we ran into a full gale which lasted all the way to Victoria, B. C. The s.h.i.+p was so overcrowded that a large number of women and children were allowed to sleep on the floor of the only saloon there was on condition that they got up early, so that the rest of the pa.s.sengers could come in for breakfast and the other meals.
'I need scarcely say that owing to the heavy weather hardly a woman was able to get up, and the [Page 12]
saloon was soon in an indescribable condition. Practically no attempt was made to serve meals and the few so-called stewards were themselves mostly out of action from drink or sea-sickness.
'Nearly all the male pa.s.sengers who were able to be about spent their time drinking and quarrelling. The deck cargo and some of our top hamper were washed away and the cabins got their share of the waves that were was.h.i.+ng the deck.
'Then it was I first knew that Con Scott was no ordinary human being. Though at that time still only a boy he practically took command of the pa.s.sengers and was at once accepted by them as their Boss during the rest of the trip. With a small body of volunteers he led an attack on the saloon--dressed the mothers, washed the children, fed the babies, swabbed down the floors and nursed the sick, and performed every imaginable service for all hands. On deck he settled the quarrels and established order either by his personality, or, if necessary, by his fists. Practically by day and night he worked for the common good, never sparing himself, and with his infectious smile gradually made us all feel the whole thing was jolly good fun.
'I daresay there are still some of the pa.s.sengers like myself who, after a quarter of a century, have imprinted on their minds the vision of this fair-haired English sailor boy with the laughing blue eyes who at that early age knew how to sacrifice himself for the welfare and happiness of others.'
[Page 13]
THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY'
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE 'DISCOVERY'. Reproduced from a drawing by Dr.
E. A. Wilson.]
[Page 15]
CHAPTER I
THE _DISCOVERY_
Do ye, by star-eyed Science led, explore Each lonely ocean, each untrodden sh.o.r.e.
In June, 1899, Robert Falcon Scott was spending his short leave in London, and happened to meet Sir Clements Markham in the Buckingham Palace Road. On that afternoon he heard for the first time of a prospective Antarctic expedition, and on the following day he called upon Sir Clements and volunteered to command it. Of this eventful visit Sir Clements wrote: 'On June 5, 1899, there was a remarkable coincidence. Scott was then torpedo lieutenant of the _Majestic_. I was just sitting down to write to my old friend Captain Egerton[1]
about him, when he was announced. He came to volunteer to command the expedition. I believed him to be the best man for so great a trust, either in the navy or out of it. Captain Egerton's reply and Scott's testimonials and certificates most fully confirmed a foregone conclusion.'
[Footnote 1: Now Admiral Sir George Egerton, K.C.B.]
The tale, however, of the friends.h.i.+p between Sir [Page 16]
Clements and Scott began in 1887, when the former was the guest of his cousin, the Commodore of the Training Squadron, and made the acquaintance of every mids.h.i.+pman in the four s.h.i.+ps that comprised it. During the years that followed, it is enough to say that Scott more than justified the hopes of those who had marked him down as a mids.h.i.+pman of exceptional promise. Through those years Sir Clements had been both friendly and observant, until by a happy stroke of fortune the time came when he was as anxious for this Antarctic expedition to be led by Scott as Scott was to lead it. So when, on June 30, 1900, Scott was promoted to the rank of Commander, and shortly afterwards was free to undertake the work that was waiting for him, one great anxiety was removed from the shoulders of the man who had not only proposed the expedition, but had also resolved that nothing should prevent it from going.
Great difficulties and troubles had, however, to be encountered before the _Discovery_ could start upon her voyage. First and foremost was the question of money, but owing to indefatigable efforts the financial horizon grew clearer in the early months of 1899. Later on in the same year Mr. Balfour expressed his sympathy with the objects of the undertaking, and it was entirely due to him that the Government eventually agreed to contribute 45,000, provided that a similar sum could be raised by private subscriptions.
In March, 1900, the keel of the new vessel, that the [Page 17]
special s.h.i.+p Committee had decided to build for the expedition, was laid in the yard of the Dundee s.h.i.+pbuilding Company. A definite beginning, at any rate, had been made; but very soon after Scott had taken up his duties he found that unless he could obtain some control over the various committees and subcommittees of the expedition, the only day to fix for the sailing of the s.h.i.+p was Doomsday. A visit to Norway, where he received many practical suggestions from Dr.
Nansen, was followed by a journey to Berlin, and there he discovered that the German expedition, which was to sail from Europe at the same time as his own, was already in an advanced state of preparation.
Considerably alarmed, he hurried back to England and found, as he had expected, that all the arrangements, which were in full swing in Germany, were almost at a standstill in England. The construction of the s.h.i.+p was the only work that was progressing, and even in this there were many interruptions from the want of some one to give immediate decisions on points of detail.
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