The Voyages of Captain Scott | Page 6

from a drawing by Dr. E. A.
Wilson.]

CHAPTER I
THE DISCOVERY
Do ye, by star-eyed Science led, explore Each lonely ocean, each
untrodden shore.
In June, 1899, Robert Falcon Scott was spending his short leave in
London, and happened to meet Sir Clements Markham in the
Buckingham Palace Road. On that afternoon he heard for the first time
of a prospective Antarctic expedition, and on the following day he
called upon Sir Clements and volunteered to command it. Of this
eventful visit Sir Clements wrote: 'On June 5, 1899, there was a
remarkable coincidence. Scott was then torpedo lieutenant of the
Majestic. I was just sitting down to write to my old friend Captain
Egerton [Footnote: Now Admiral Sir George Egerton, K.C.B.] about
him, when he was announced. He came to volunteer to command the
expedition. I believed him to be the best man for so great a trust, either
in the navy or out of it. Captain Egerton's reply and Scott's testimonials
and certificates most fully confirmed a foregone conclusion.'
The tale, however, of the friendship between Sir Clements and Scott
began in 1887, when the former was the guest of his cousin, the
Commodore of the Training Squadron, and made the acquaintance of
every midshipman in the four ships that comprised it. During the years
that followed, it is enough to say that Scott more than justified the
hopes of those who had marked him down as a midshipman of
exceptional promise. Through those years Sir Clements had been both
friendly and observant, until by a happy stroke of fortune the time came
when he was as anxious for this Antarctic expedition to be led by Scott
as Scott was to lead it. So when, on June 30, 1900, Scott was promoted
to the rank of Commander, and shortly afterwards was free to
undertake the work that was waiting for him, one great anxiety was
removed from the shoulders of the man who had not only proposed the

expedition, but had also resolved that nothing should prevent it from
going.
Great difficulties and troubles had, however, to be encountered before
the Discovery could start upon her voyage. First and foremost was the
question of money, but owing to indefatigable efforts the financial
horizon grew clearer in the early months of 1899. Later on in the same
year Mr. Balfour expressed his sympathy with the objects of the
undertaking, and it was entirely due to him that the Government
eventually agreed to contribute £45,000, provided that a similar sum
could be raised by private subscriptions.
In March, 1900, the keel of the new vessel, that the special Ship
Committee had decided to build for the expedition, was laid in the yard
of the Dundee Shipbuilding Company. A definite beginning, at any rate,
had been made; but very soon after Scott had taken up his duties he
found that unless he could obtain some control over the various
committees and subcommittees of the expedition, the only day to fix
for the sailing of the ship was Doomsday. A visit to Norway, where he
received many practical suggestions from Dr. Nansen, was followed by
a journey to Berlin, and there he discovered that the German expedition,
which was to sail from Europe at the same time as his own, was already
in an advanced state of preparation. Considerably alarmed, he hurried
back to England and found, as he had expected, that all the
arrangements, which were in full swing in Germany, were almost at a
standstill in England. The construction of the ship was the only work
that was progressing, and even in this there were many interruptions
from the want of some one to give immediate decisions on points of
detail.
A remedy for this state of chaos had to be discovered, and on
November 4, 1900, the Joint Committee of the Royal Society and the
Royal Geographical Society passed a resolution, which left Scott
practically with a free hand to push on the work in every department,
under a given estimate of expenditure in each. To safeguard the
interests of the two Societies the resolution provided that this
expenditure should be supervised by a Finance Committee, and to this

Committee unqualified gratitude was due. Difficulties were still to crop
up, and as there were many scientific interests to be served, differences
of opinion on points of detail naturally arose, but as far as the Finance
Committee was concerned, it is mere justice to record that no sooner
was it formed than its members began to work ungrudgingly to
promote the success of the undertaking.
In the meantime Scott's first task was to collect, as far as possible, the
various members of the expedition. Before he had left the Majestic he
had written, 'I cannot gather what is the intention