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Robert Scott Letter Goes on Display [audio 6min @9:12]

Ninety-five years ago, Robert Scott completed one of the greatest feats of his time: he arrived, on foot, at the South Pole, hoping to raise the Union Jack, and claim a first for Britain. But once he reached the pole, Scott and his four companions found a small tent and a letter left by Roald Amundsen. The Norwegian explorer had beaten them by just a month. And so the already-exhausted party turned around and set off on the months-long return trek to their base on the Antarctic Peninsula. The journey back did not go well. The weather was unseasonably bad. Two of Scott's companions were injured in separate falls on the treacherous terrain. One died of his wounds; the other eventually sacrificed himself to lighten the burden on his companions. But that sacrifice was not enough. The following September, Scott and the two others were found dead of malnutrition and exposure. They were just 11 miles from a supply depot that might have saved their lives. Amongst the remains were the explorers' journals and letters home. This week in Cambridge, England, Scott's final letter to his wife Kathleen went on public display for the first time. Julian Dowdeswell is the Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. The CBC reached him onboard the research ship, the James Clarke Ross, somewhere in the Drake Passage between the Falkland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Read entire article at CBC Radio One "As It Happens" Part 2