South. The Race to the Pole

'I have not proved a great explorer but we have done the greatest march ever made and come very near to great success.' The words of Captain Robert Falcon Scott show Scott's own view of his doomed expedition to claim the Pole for Britain in 1912. It is a view which is probably not far from that commonly held about Scott, the gallant hero who came second, the plucky runner-up who, despite (and almost certainly because of) his demise on the journey home, became, in Britain at least, a more celebrated figure than the man who beat him to the Pole, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

Both explorers, along with the enduringly fascinating Sir Ernest Shackleton, are examined in a new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich - South: the Race to the Pole.

The Museum attempts to convey a clear sense of the character of the arctic explorers and, to this end, has persuaded the Fram Museum of Oslo to allow many objects to leave Norway for the first time to join the 180 or so exhibits in South. Sian Flynn, exhibition curator explains: 'We probably wouldn't have considered staging the exhibition if we had not been able to say something new about the explorers. As this is the first time that the Amundsen objects have been seen in London, you could say that Amundsen will finally be getting justice in Britain. On his return from the Pole, he received a decidedly cool reception here. The myth that Scott had discovered the Pole was passed on to schoolchildren at the time, and this certainly wounded Amundsen.'

South gives the British public the first chance to see, in one location, the objects taken to the Pole by both Scott and Amundsen, so it is likely to dispel a few myths about Scott. 'Once the actions and preparations of the British and Norwegians are compared, and their equipment and personal accounts brought together, it is clear that the British were far less prepared for, and experienced at, polar travel. Although the exhibition is not directly criticising or attacking Scott (it makes the point that it was incredible that he got as far as he did in the weather conditions) it will pinpoint some key areas where Amundsen was significantly ahead - for example in nutrition, skiing ability and dog-handling skills. He also had the natural advantages of being raised in a polar country. The fact that Scott trekked for about 1,000 miles while Amundsen was using dogs and skis is difficult to avoid.'

The exhibition includes certain famous exhibits - Scott's last journal which records the gruelling journey back from the Pole - and the final scenes in the tent - and the respective national flags taken to the Pole by Scott and Amundsen. But there are also several smaller objects which add to our understanding of why events turned out so tragically for Scott and so successfully for Amundsen. 'We display parts of a primus stove, which look very innocuous at first glance,' says Flynn, 'but among the pieces are some leather washers in a tin. These leather washers are vital to the story, as Scott's party went to their deaths because of lack of fuel as well as food. On his way to the Pole, Scott laid depots containing fuel for the team to pick up on its way back. This fuel was incredibly important as, even though the explorers were surrounded by water, it was locked up in ice which they needed to melt in order to be able to drink. The British used leather washers in the fuel cans, but the leather deteriorated in the cold and the fuel evaporated. This had happened previously on the Discovery expedition of 1901, but Scott did not act on his experience. So when he stopped to collect the fuel on his return from the Pole, the cans were half empty. Meanwhile, Amundsen knew about the problems with leather washers and used watertight bungs instead, which prevented evaporation.'

As well as the race to claim the Pole, South tackles the expeditions of Sir Ernest Shackleton. As a man who served with Scott on his earlier Discovery expedition, and whose achievements were also overshadowed by the death of Scott, Shackleton has been rediscovered in recent years. He is currently a public hero in the US, where a recent touring exhibition on the explorer received record-breaking audiences.

The relationship between Shackleton and Scott is highlighted by the Museum; as Sian Flynn explains, 'There was a certain rivalry between Scott and Shackleton which probably stemmed from the Discovery expedition when Scott sent Shackleton home after his breakdown from scurvy. Shackleton also realised that his achievements had been overshadowed by Scott's death, and it is likely that this fuelled his desire to return to Antarctica in 1914.'

It is striking to note the fates of Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen - all three men died in polar regions: Scott on his way back from the Pole in 1912, Shackleton of a heart attack on board the Quest on his third expedition to the Antarctic in 1922, and Amundsen in an aeroplane crash in the Arctic in 1928. The fact that all three died on return trips to polar regions suggests a certain addiction to danger, and a sense that the three were drawn to these hostile climes (from an early age, Amundsen had slept with his bedroom window wide open in the fiercest Norwegian winters in some youthful preparation for later explorations). But all three lived in an age which allowed them to feed their polar obsessions.

Sian Flynn has her own view of the explorers and the scale of their achievements. 'These feats belong to a great age of individualistic endeavour. When you go to Antarctica today, it is as part of a large, organised team and you no longer experience a great struggle against nature. The equivalent today is outer space, but even when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon he was more in contact with civilisation than these early explorers had been. In the time of Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, going to Antarctica was like setting foot on Jupiter.'

South: The Race To The Pole, runs until September 30th, 2001 at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London SE10 9NF. Tel. 020 8858 4422 www.nmm.ac.uk

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