What did captain Scott take on his journey to Antarctica?

Answer 1

Captain Scott took a huge amount of supplies on both his expeditions to Antarctica. On both the Discovery (1901-1904) and the Terra Nova (1910-1912) expeditions, Scott brought a prefrabricated wooden hut with him. The Discovery Hut was poorly insulated, and was never intended as permanent living quarters for the expedition, but the Terra Nova Hut at Cape Evans was the expedition's base for two years. Both huts are still in Antarctica today.

On both expeditions, Scott took animals with him. On the Discovery expedition, he took dogs, and on the Terra Nova expedition he took both dogs and ponies. He also requested mules be sent from New Zealand for the second season of the Terra Nova expedition, but he died before they arrived. Other animals were pets, such as cats and a rabbit, were also taken on board the ships.

The expedition had to take most of its food for both men and animals with them. The food eaten by the men included tea, biscuits, sheeps tongues, chocolate, cocoa, mutton, pemmican, onions, butter, and puddings, which they supplemented with fresh meat from seals and penguins that they killed in Antarctica. The animal food included compressed fodder and oil cake for the horses, and biscuits for the dogs, supplemented with fresh meat and blubber from seals and penguins.

Both were primarily scientific expeditions, so a lot of complicated scientific equipment had to be taken to Antarctica. For example, the Terra Nova's meteorologist, George Simpson, brought down all the equipment needed to measure things like temperature, light level, and windspeed.

They had to take all their sledging equipment with them, including sledges, harnesses, skis, tents, reindeer-skin sleeping bags, warm fur mits, weather-proof outer-clothing, ice axes, picks, crampons, snow shoes, pony snow shoes, sledge-meters, and finnesko (water-proof outer shoes). Each man was allowed to take 15 lbs. of personal gear with him on each sledging journeys, including things like personal clothing (like spare socks, hats, and shirts), a journal, any scientific equipment they wishes to take, a sketch pad, pencils, and perhaps a book to read. Some men even smuggled Christmas puddings or birthday presents in their personal gear if they knew they were going to spend Christmas or birthdays out sledging!

Finally, Scott's expeditions took a huge amount of gear to keep them occupied over the long, dark Antarctic Winter. This included a large library of books (Lawrence Oates brought 'The History of the Peninsular War', while Captain Scott himself favoured Thomas Hardy and the poetry of Robert Browning), a record player, and pictures of family.

It's also important to think about what Scott's men brought back. Things like the huts, the sledges, left-over food, the outer-clothing for sledging, the tents, and many of the books were left behind. All of the ponies and many of the dogs died or were killed, and some of the men also did not return. However, the expeditions did bring back a huge number of scientific samples, such as rocks from the Beardmore Glacier, which contributed to the development of the theory of continental drift!

Answer 2

To explore Antarctica and locate the South Pole.