Scott’s hut from the Terra Nova expedition is steeped in an incredible feeling of history. Here, dog skeletons bleach on the sand in the Antarctic sun, evoking thoughts of Scott’s death march from the Pole. Stand at the head of the wardroom table and recall the famous photo of Scott’s final birthday, with his men gathered around a huge meal and their banners hanging behind.
Erected in January 1911, the prefabricated hut sits on what Scott called Home Beach. It stands close to the shore of McMurdo Sound and measures 14.6m long by 7.3m wide. The largest of the three historic huts on Ross Island, it accommodated 25 men in fairly crowded conditions. A long, narrow building stands in front of the hut; it held the latrines, with segregated facilities for officers.
After Scott’s last expedition, 10 members of the Ross Sea party of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition were stranded here in May 1915 when their ship Aurora was blown from its moorings. Their arduous task was to lay depots for the party crossing the continent from the Weddell Sea side to use on the second half of their journey. Because Endurance was crushed, the depots were never used. The men here passed a very difficult 20 months before Aurora’s crew was able to bring the ship back.
To enter the hut you pass through an outer porch area. To the left are the stables on the hut’s beachfront side. Still in the porch today are a box of penguin eggs, piles of seal blubber, shovels and implements hanging on the walls, and geologist Griffith Taylor’s bicycle.
Inside the hut proper, which was insulated by seaweed sewn into jute bags, you’ll be standing in what the expedition called the mess deck. In keeping with Royal Navy practice, Scott segregated expedition members into officers and men. The mess deck housed the men: Crean, Keohane, Ford, Omelchenko, Gerov, Clissold, Lashly, Edgar Evans and Hooper. To the right lies the galley, with a large stove.
