During our trip to the Ross Sea we were able to visit huts used by four different British Antarctic expeditions during a period known as the “heroic age” of exploration (1897-1917). In 1898, Carsten Borchgrevink led the Southern Cross Expedition (named after the ship he sailed) which was the first expedition to use dogs and sledges and the first to overwinter on the Antarctic continent. We saw the hut from our Zodiac rafts off Cape Adare near the entrance to the Ross Sea, but were unable to go ashore due to high waves crashing against a steep ice-covered shore.

At three other sites it was a rare privilege to see the expedition gear and personal effects of the men who mapped the coast line, conducted scientific research, reconnoitered routes and established depots of supplies for expeditions to the South Pole.

In 1901, the Discovery Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott set up a base at the southern end of the Ross Sea (near the present American Antarctic base, McMurdo Station). The Discovery Hut is currently undergoing repair work to move it back onto a secure foundation where it had been dislodged due to heavy ice accumulation. Most of the artifacts have been removed temporarily until repairs are completed.

Just behind the Discovery Hut at the top of a hill stands a cross in memory of George Vince, a member of the Discovery Expedition who perished when he slipped into a crevasse.

Overlooking McMurdo Station is Observation Hill where members of Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition of 1910-12 searched daily in vain for Scott’s party upon their return from the South Pole.

Ernest Shackleton in 1907 led the British Nimrod Expedition where he pioneered a route up onto the South Polar Plateau, reaching the Farthest South record of 97 miles from the Pole. We visited the Nimrod Expedition hut at Cape Royds.

In 1910, Robert Falcon Scott set out on a second expedition to Antarctica, the Terra Nova Expedition, in an attempt to reach the South Pole via the route established by Ernest Shackleton. Scott built a second hut for the Terra Nova expedition at Cape Evans, not as far south as his original Discovery Hut (Ice conditions prevented him from reaching his original base).

Spending time inside the Terra Nova hut was a remarkable experience. The restoration work by the Antarctic Heritage Trust has been amazing  Shelves are stocked with tinned food, medicine and cookware. There are slabs of seal blubber (still not decomposed after a hundred years) ready to be boiled down for oil or carved up and made into stew. Reindeer hide sleeping bags lie on bunk beds. Assorted medicines and glassware for doing chemical analyses are arranged on work tables.

The Terra Nova hut was a prefabricated structure which was assembled and completed in January 1911, ready to be occupied during the Antarctic winter of April-September. Expedition team members began establishing supply depots on the ice in preparation for an attempt to reach the Pole the following spring.

An exploration party inadvertently came across a camp established by Roald Amundsen of Norway, who had originally set out leading an expedition to the North Pole, but then made an unannounced change of plans and headed to the South Pole instead. The competition between Amundsen and Scott to be the first to reach the Pole is a fascinating story recounted in several books.

Amundsen reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911 and returned without any casualties. Scott reached Pole 33 days later, but he and his team died on the return journey due to scurvy, starvation and severe cold.

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