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Explorers

On 1 June, 1910, Captain Scott left London to begin his Antarctic expedition. On his way, he received a teledram from the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen: "I'm going South."

During the polar summer of 1910-11, both teams organised food depots in preparation for their expeditions.

Amundsen was the first to leave, on 16 October, 1911. He had teams of dogs pulling the sledges and all his men were on skis. Because of this, he made rapid progress. Scott left on 1 November and soon had problems. His two motor sledges broke down. Amundsen reached the Pole on 14 December and put a Norwegian flag there. Scott finally arrived at the Pole with his men on 17 January. They were devastated when they saw Norwegian flag.

The return journey was one of the worst in the history of exploration. The men were exhausted and were running out of food. Captain Oates and Edgar Evans died in spite of terrible frostbite. After their death Scott and two men carried on and got within eleven miles of one of their food depots. But then a terrible storm started and they could not leave their tent. Scott spent some of his last hours writing letter to his wife.

The news of Scott`s death shocked the world. The remarkable courage shown by Captain Scott and his men made them into heroes.