Captain R. F. Scott, the famous Antarctic explorer, and four other members of the British South Polar Expedition have died amidst the Southern ice. The five men were the whole Southern party. They had reached the Pole on January 18, 1912, just over a month after Captain Amundsen, the Norwegian, and had struggled far back towards safety when they were overcome. Captain Scott and his last two companions died, it is believed, on the 29th of March, 1912. They had descended the glacier from the great inland plateau on which is the Pole. From its foot they had marched northward to within a few miles of a stock of provisions at a place named by them One Ton Depot. There, almost in reach of succour, the struggle ended. Presumably, the bodies were found by a search party sent out from the base on McMurdo Sound, for Lieutenant Evans, of the Terra Nova, Scott╒s ship, who reports the disaster, gives details which must have been learnt from the dead men╒s records. One is that the explorers found at the Pole a Norwegian tent and so knew that Amundsen had been there before them. Death was due to exposure and want. On the journey southward, the party left One Ton Depot on November 17; on January 18 they were at the Pole; on March 29 the last survivors died near One Ton Depot. Thus 62 days were spent on the march south and 71 at the Pole and on the way back. Those few day╒s delay, due very likely to bad weather, were perhaps the cause of the final disaster. It should be noted that even in the 62 days are included five days delays, due to a storm encountered during the ascent in December of the Beadmon glacier.
Mrs. Scott, the wife of the explorer, is now on her way to New Zealand. Her plan was to meet her husband there on his return from the Antarctic. She left San Francisco for Auckland a few days ago, and is now out of reach of news. She will not hear of the disaster until the steamer on which she is travelling establishes wireless telegraphic communication with New Zealand.
The names of the men who reached the Pole and perished are:-
Captain Scott, Royal Navy.
Dr Wilson, chief of the scientific staff.
Captain Oates, Inniskilling Dragoons (in charge of ponies and mules).
Lieutenant Bowers, Royal Indian Marine (commissariat officer).
Petty Officer Evans, R.N. (in charge of sledges and equipment).
HOW THE NEWS CAME.
(CENTRAL NEWS SPECIAL TELEGRAM.)
News of the disaster to the expedition reached London yesterday in the following messages, one of which, it is interesting to note, contains the announcement of the substantiation of Amundsen╒s claim to have reached the Pole:-
Christchurch, N.Z., Monday.
The Terra Nova, the vessel of the British Antarctic Expedition, has returned from the Antarctic. She brings news of a terrible calamity which has befallen the expedition, of which details will be telegraphed to you later.
A telegram from Commander Evans, of the Terra Nova, announcing the disaster, runs:-
Christchurch, N.Z., Monday.
Captain Scott reached the South Pole on January 18 of last year, and there found the Norwegian tent and records. On their return [a word here is undecipherable] the southern party perished. Scott, Wilson, and Bowers died from exposure and want during a blizzard about March 29 when eleven miles from ╥One Ton Depot,╙ or 155 miles from the base at Cape Evans. Oates died from exposure on March 17. Seaman Edgar Evans died from concussion of the brain on February 17. The health of the remaining members of the expedition is excellent.
