Scott and his brave crew died on the return, gallantly sacrificing themselves for each other, leaving poignant notes scrawled to posterity about being honored to show that Englishmen are still willing, in words taken from Tennyson “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Beset by awful weather and bad luck, they made it, half-starved to the Pole, only to discover that Amundsen, the sneaky, underhanded Norwegian scoundrel, had dashed to the Pole ahead of them, robbing England of its deserved glory. Historically, at least in the English/American narrative, Scott was the bold Englishman whose scientific expedition set out to map and discover the wonders of Antarctica, including the South Pole. Figured it was time I sat down and read it. I kept running across “ The Last Place on Earth“, Roland Huntford’s controversial “expose” of the Amundsen-Scott race for the South Pole. But honestly, I’ve not spent the time writing – I’ve been reading. Remember how last week I warned you that I wasn’t going to be posting as much because I was going to try to start writing some non-blog stuff? Well, I kept up half of that bargain by not posting.
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