Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott was a Royal Navy officer who volunteered to lead an Antarctic expedition in 1899 after a chance encounter with the president of the Royal Geographical Society. His Discovery expedition of 1901–04 set a new southern record at 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau. On his second venture, the Terra Nova expedition, Scott and four others reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912 — five weeks behind Roald Amundsen. The return became catastrophe: dog teams failed to meet them as Scott's written orders had directed, and 162 miles from base camp, twelve miles from the next depo…