The dangerous and daring race for the South Pole - Elizabeth Leane
-
0:06 - 0:11Roald Amundsen had spent nearly two
years preparing his Arctic expedition. -
0:11 - 0:16He had secured funding from the Norwegian
Crown and hand-picked a trusted crew. -
0:16 - 0:20He’d even received the blessing of
the famed explorer Fridtjof Nansen, -
0:20 - 0:26along with the use of his ship, Fram,
specially constructed to withstand the ice. -
0:26 - 0:31Now, with the voyage departing, he had
one final announcement to his shipmates: -
0:31 - 0:35They were going to head in the
opposite direction. -
0:35 - 0:37By the early 20th century,
-
0:37 - 0:40nearly every region of the globe had
been visited and mapped, -
0:40 - 0:43with only two key locations
remaining: -
0:43 - 0:47the North Pole, deep in the
frozen waters of the Arctic region, -
0:47 - 0:51and the South Pole, nestled within a
recently discovered icy continent -
0:51 - 0:54in the vast Antarctic Ocean.
-
0:54 - 0:56A veteran of several expeditions,
-
0:56 - 1:00Amundsen had long dreamed of
reaching the North Pole. -
1:00 - 1:03But in 1909, amidst his preparations,
-
1:03 - 1:07news came that the American explorers
Frederick Cook and Robert Peary -
1:07 - 1:11had staked rival claims
to the achievement. -
1:11 - 1:13Instead of abandoning the planned voyage,
-
1:13 - 1:20Amundsen decided to alter its course to
what he called “the last great problem.” -
1:20 - 1:23But Amundsen’s crew weren’t
the only ones kept in the dark. -
1:23 - 1:28British naval officer Robert F. Scott had
already visited the Antarctic, and was -
1:28 - 1:34leading his own South Pole expedition.
Now, as Scott’s ship Terra Nova reached -
1:34 - 1:39Melbourne in 1910, he was greeted
with the news that Amundsen -
1:39 - 1:41was also heading south.
-
1:41 - 1:43Reluctantly, Scott found himself pitted
-
1:43 - 1:49against the Norwegian in what the
newspapers called a ‘race to the Pole.’ -
1:49 - 1:52Yet if it was a race,
it was a strange one. -
1:52 - 1:57The expeditions left at different times
from different locations, and they had -
1:57 - 2:00very different plans for the journey.
-
2:00 - 2:03Amundsen was focused solely
on reaching the Pole. -
2:03 - 2:08Informed by his Arctic exploration, he drew
on both Inuit and Norwegian experience, -
2:08 - 2:12arriving with a small team of
men and more than a hundred dogs. -
2:12 - 2:16His explorers were clothed
in sealskin and furs, -
2:16 - 2:19as well as specially
designed skis and boots. -
2:19 - 2:24But Scott's venture was more complicated.
Launching an extensive scientific -
2:24 - 2:28research expedition, he traveled with
over three times more men than Amundsen, -
2:28 - 2:33alongside over 30 dogs, 19 Siberian
ponies, -
2:33 - 2:36and three state-of-the-art
motorized sledges. -
2:36 - 2:38But these additional tools and bodies
-
2:38 - 2:42weighed down the ship as it battled
the storms of the southern ocean. -
2:42 - 2:46And as they finally began to lay supplies,
they found both their ponies and -
2:46 - 2:51motor-sledges ineffective
in the harsh ice and snow. -
2:51 - 2:55In the spring of 1911, after waiting out
the long polar night, -
2:55 - 2:58both parties began the journey south.
-
2:58 - 3:01Scott’s team traveled
over the Beardmore Glacier, -
3:01 - 3:05following the path of Ernest Shackleton's
earlier attempt to reach the pole. -
3:05 - 3:10But although this course had been
documented, it proved slow and laborious. -
3:10 - 3:12Meanwhile, despite an initial false start,
-
3:12 - 3:17Amundsen’s five-man team made good time
using a previously uncharted route -
3:17 - 3:20through the same Transantarctic Mountains.
-
3:20 - 3:22They stayed ahead of Scott’s team,
-
3:22 - 3:27and on December 14, arrived first
at their desolate destination. -
3:27 - 3:31To avoid the ambiguity that surrounded
Cook and Peary’s North Pole claims, -
3:31 - 3:35Amundsen’s team traversed the area in
a grid to make sure they -
3:35 - 3:39covered the Pole’s location.
Along with flags and a tent marker, -
3:39 - 3:44they left a letter for Scott, which would
not be found until over a month later. -
3:44 - 3:46But when Scott’s party finally reached
the pole, -
3:46 - 3:49losing the ‘race’ was
the least of their problems. -
3:49 - 3:54On the way back towards the camp,
two of the five men succumbed to frostbite -
3:54 - 3:56starvation, and exhaustion.
-
3:56 - 4:00The remaining explorers hoped for a
prearranged rendezvous with a team sent -
4:00 - 4:04from their base, but due to a series of
mishaps, misjudgements and -
4:04 - 4:08miscommunications, their rescue
never arrived. -
4:08 - 4:13Their remains, along with Scott’s diary,
would not be found until spring. -
4:13 - 4:16Today, scientists from various countries
-
4:16 - 4:19live and work at Antarctic
research stations. -
4:19 - 4:22But the journeys of these early
explorers are not forgotten. -
4:22 - 4:26Despite their divergent fates,
they are forever joined in history, -
4:26 - 4:30and in the name of the research
base that marks the South Pole.
- Title:
- The dangerous and daring race for the South Pole - Elizabeth Leane
- Speaker:
- Elizabeth Leane
- Description:
-
View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-dangerous-and-daring-race-for-the-south-pole-elizabeth-leane
By the early 1900’s, nearly every region of the globe had been visited and mapped, with only two key locations left: the North and South Poles. After two Americans staked claim to reaching the North Pole, a Norwegian explorer and a British naval officer each set out for the last unmapped region in what newspapers called a “Race to the Pole.” Elizabeth Leane sets the scene for their journeys south.
Lesson by Elizabeth Leane, directed by WOW-HOW Studio.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 04:30
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Kayla Wolf edited English subtitles for The dangerous and daring race for the South Pole - Elizabeth Leane | ||
Kayla Wolf edited English subtitles for The dangerous and daring race for the South Pole - Elizabeth Leane | ||
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