Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T19:25:29.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Strict injunctions that the dogs should not be risked”: A revised hypothesis for this anecdote and others in narratives of Scott’s last expedition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2019

Karen May Open the ORCID record for Karen May [Opens in a new window]  and
George Lewis
Karen May*
Affiliation:
27 Old Gloucester St, London, WC1N 3AX, UK
George Lewis
Affiliation:
27 Old Gloucester St, London, WC1N 3AX, UK
*
Email: karenmay31@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article updates Karen May’s earlier 2012 hypothesis (Could Captain Scott have been saved? Revisiting Scott’s last expedition). In this revised hypothesis, Cecil Meares, not Surgeon E. L. Atkinson, originated the unsubstantiated statement that “Strict injunctions had been given by Scott that the dogs should not be risked in any way.” This hypothesis incorporates new information uncovered since 2012, specifically Meares’ misrepresentations during the Terra Nova expedition; Atkinson’s 1911 journal entries; Atkinson’s 1919 allegation that Meares had “disobeyed orders”; and Tryggve Gran’s “The Race for the South Pole between Scott and Amundsen”, a 1945/post-1945 document that appears to have been Roland Huntford’s source for anecdotes in Huntford’s 1979 Scott–Amundsen biography. The article gives a proposed chronology for how Meares’ early misrepresentations and Gran’s later misunderstandings influenced the decisions, and later presentations, of the Terra Nova expedition.

Keywords

British Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition (1910–13)Tryggve GranCecil MearesCaptain Robert Falcon ScottEdward Leicester Atkinson
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 55 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 373 - 384
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, E. L. (1913). The last year at Cape Evans. In Scott, R. F. (Ed.), (2011). Scott’s last expedition (pp. 665–700). Ware, UK: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. (1912). Note written by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. 16 March 1912 [HTML page]. Retrieved from https://adam.antarcticanz.govt.nz/nodes/view/36439 Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. (1922). The worst journey in the world (Vols 1–2). London: Constable & Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. (1951). Postscript. In Cherry-Garrard, A. (Ed.), The worst journey in the world (pp. 597–605). London: Chatto & Windus.Google Scholar
Evans, E. R. G. R. (1921). South with Scott. London: W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Fiennes, R. (2004). Captain Scott. London: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Gran, T. (1912). Expedition journal [holograph], February-December 1912. Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand: CMNZ 2017.149.2.Google Scholar
Gran, T. (1915). Hvor sydlyset flammer [Where the Southern Lights blaze]. Kristiania [Oslo, Norway]: Nordisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Gran, T. (1924). En helt [A hero]. Kristiania, Norway: Gyldendalske Bokhandel.Google Scholar
Gran, T. (1945). Slik var det [So it was]. Oslo, Norway: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.Google Scholar
Gran, T. (1945/post-1945). The race for the south pole between Scott and Amundsen. Oslo, Norway: Nasjonalbiblioteket [National Library]: MS Fol 4493:B3.Google Scholar
Gran, T. (1961). Kampen om Sydpolen [Battle for the South Pole]. Oslo, Norway: Ernst G. Mortensens Forlag.Google Scholar
Gran, T. (1974). Fra tjuagutt til sydpolfarer [From kid to South Pole explorer]. Oslo, Norway: Ernst G. Mortensens Forlag.Google Scholar
Gran, T. (1984). In Hattersley-Smith, G. (Ed.), The Norwegian with Scott: Tryggve Gran’s Antarctic diary 1910–13. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. (Original work published 1915)Google Scholar
Huntford, R. (1974). The man who remembers Scott’s last journey. Observer Magazine, 31 March 1974 [HTML Page]. Retrieved 16 April 2019 from http://thosewhodared.blogspot.com/2010/10/tryggve-gran-interview-with-roland.html Google Scholar
Huntford, R. (1979). Scott and Amundsen. London: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Huntford, R. (2002). Scott and Amundsen. London: Abacus.Google Scholar
Lashly, W. (1969). In Ellis, A. R.. (Ed.), Under Scott’s command: Lashly’s Antarctic diaries. London: Victor Gollancz.Google Scholar
May, K. (2012). Could Captain Scott have been saved? Revisiting Scott’s last expedition. Polar Record, 249, 72–90. doi:10.1017/S0032247411000751 Google Scholar
May, K. (2015). “Terra firma”: a myth in secondary accounts of the meeting between the Fram and Terra Nova expeditions, 4 February 1911. Polar Record, 52(264), 267–275. doi:10.1017/S0032247415000686 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, K. (2018a). Could Captain Scott have been saved? Cecil Meares and the “second journey” that failed: A response to Bill Alp. Polar Record, 54(2), 183–187. doi:10.1017/S0032247418000244 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, K. (2018b). Commentary on Chris Turney’s “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” Polar Record, 54(275), 176–177. doi:10.1017/S0032247418000128 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, K., & Airriess, S. (2014). Could Captain Scott have been saved? Cecil Meares and the “second journey” that failed. Polar Record, 258, 260–273. doi:10.1017/S003224741300096X Google Scholar
May, K., & Lewis, G. (2015). “They are not the ponies they ought to have been”: Revisiting Cecil Meares’ purchase of Siberian ponies for Captain Scott’s British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition (1910–1913). Polar Record, 261, 655–666. doi:10.1017/S0032247415000029 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meares, C. (1918). Air Force records. Kew, England: Public Records Office, PRO AIR\76\343.Google Scholar
Oates, L. E. G. (1911). Letter to C. Oates, 24 October 1911. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 1317/1/3.Google Scholar
Scott, R. F. (1913). Scott’s last expedition (Vols 1–2). London: Smith Elder & Co.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, R. F. (2006). Journals: Captain Scott’s last expedition. Edited by Jones, M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Seaver, G. (1965). Foreword. In Cherry-Garrard, A. (Ed.), (1994). The worst journey in the world (pp. xvii–xlvii). London: Picador.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. C. (1911). Journal, November 1911–April 1912. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute, MS 704/4.Google Scholar
Smith, M. (2002). I am just going outside: Captain Oates—Antarctic tragedy. Staplehurst: Spellmount Limited.Google Scholar
Strathie, A. (2015). From Ice floes to battlefields: Scott’s “Antarctics” in the First World War. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press.Google Scholar
Turney, C. S. M. (2017). Why didn’t they ask Evans? Polar Record, 53(5), 498–511. doi:10.1017/S0032247417000468 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turney, C. S. M. (2018). Why didn’t they ask Evans? A response to Karen May. Polar Record, 54(275), 178–180. doi:10.1017/S0032247418000220 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, E. A. (1911). Sketchbook. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 797/1.Google Scholar