With Scott

"With Scott" by Thomas Griffith Taylor is a memoir of Antarctic exploration written in the early 20th century. It offers an insider’s view of Captain Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition, blending lively portraits of the men with lucid accounts of ship life and field science in geology, glaciology, and meteorology. Expect a mix of camaraderie, logistical grit, and clear scientific purpose as the expedition forms, sails south, and prepares for sledging work. The opening of the narrative begins with Taylor’s recruitment at Cambridge by Dr. Wilson, his first interview with Scott, and vivid scenes inside the expedition’s bustling Westminster headquarters, from experimental foods and stoves to sledging gear and clothing. Taylor sketches many key personalities and their nicknames, explains his own scientific aims (to test how ice sculpts landscapes), and lists the shore and ship parties. He then travels via Australia and New Zealand, pauses to study the Mount Cook glaciers (using them to foreshadow Antarctic landforms), and returns to describe the ship’s layout, cramped cabins, dogs and ponies, and routines. The section closes with the voyage south: a cheerful send-off, early days of shipboard camaraderie and music, and a severe gale that floods the bilges, forces bucket-line bailing, damages bulwarks, and kills two ponies—followed by calmer days of securing cargo, setting sails, and settling into wardroom life, songs, and preparations for field work.

With Scott, by Thomas Griffith Taylor. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78731.