Cape Evans

Photograph by: Michael Hoffman, National Science Foundation

Original description: "Cape Evans, Ross Island. This site was chosen by Sir Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition as the location where they would build their base in 1911. The roof of Scott's hut can be viewed in the center-right of the photo. This hut and other historic sites are maintained under the auspices of New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust. Scott named the location in honor of his second in command, Lieutenant Edward Evans, Royal Navy. The Barne Glacier can be viewed in the background. "

Scott hut, Cape Evans

Scott's Hut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Box of stores from Scott's 1910–12 expedition inside Scott's Hut.
Scott's Hut is a building located on the north shore of Cape Evans on Ross Island in Antarctica. It was erected in 1911 by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913 (also known as the Terra Nova Expedition) led by Robert Falcon Scott.
In selecting a base of operations for the 1910–1913 Expedition, Scott rejected the notion of re-occupying the hut he had built by McMurdo Sound during the Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904. This first hut was located at Hut Point, 20km south of Cape Evans. Two factors influenced this decision. One was that the hut was extremely cold for living quarters and the other was that Scott's ship, the Discovery, had been trapped by sea ice at Hut Point, a problem he hoped to avoid by establishing his new base further north.

For period photos of Scott, visit: http://donegal.uchicago.edu/antarctica/capeevans/old/index.html

Cape Royds Hut - built 1908

Shackleton's 1907-1909 Nimrod Expedition

Cape Royds is situated at the extreme west point of Ross Island overlooking McMurdo Sound.

The Hut at Cape Royds was built in 1908 for Shackleton's 1907-1909 "Nimrod" expedition. It was built away from the already existing and nearby Discovery Hut erected by Captain Scott in 1902 due to an agreement that Scott and Shackleton had.

Shackleton also agreed not to enter McMurdo Sound where Scott had built his hut or use the route to the Pole that Scott had pioneered on the earlier expedition (even though Shackleton was one of two other men who had accompanied Scott on his earlier South Pole attempt).

The plan had been to make a base at the Bay of Whales, but this was not possible due to impenetrable pack ice from a long stretch of ice shelf that had calved into the sea, Shackleton had to head into McMurdo Sound despite his promise to Scott. The Cape Royds hut is about 32km (20 miles) from Scott's Discovery Hut.

Construction of the specially designed prefabricated hut took about 10 days, with the insulation another three weeks. Propped up against the packing cases towards the left of this picture can be seen a spare wheel from the very first motor car to be taken to Antarctica - an Arrol-Johnston.

There was an overwintering party of 14 men, in December 1908 to January 1909 a 4-man party consisting of Shackleton, Adams, Wild and Marshall made an attempt on the South Pole, they came to within 97 miles (156 km) before accepting that while they could probably make it to the pole, there was virtually no chance of them managing to get back alive.