A last photograph of Terra Nova crew members taken in Port
Chalmers. Immediately to the left of the davit are Captain
Robert Falcon Scott and Lieutenant Edgar Evans. Photo from
Otago Witness.
A voyage to commemorate the centennial of Robert Falcon
Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition is scheduled to depart
from Dunedin with several of the explorer's descendants aboard.
Heritage Expeditions general manager David Bowen confirmed
the 30-day voyage would depart from Dunedin on January 12,
2011.
The city was chosen as more than 100 hundred years earlier,
Scott's Terra Nova expedition departed from Dunedin on
November 29, 1910.
At the time, the explorer wrote in his diary: "We advertised
our start at 3pm, and at three minutes to that hour the Terra
Nova pushed off from the jetty".
Beaten to the South Pole by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, Scott
and four of his expedition members died on the return
journey.
Mr Bowen said the trip aboard the former Russian polar
research vessel The Spirit of Enderby had almost sold out.
One group, Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research
Institute, had booked half of the 50 available berths, with
elderly descendants of Scott and Ernest Shackleton also
confirmed for the trip, he said.
While the majority of passengers were from the United
Kingdom, people from New Zealand, Canada, the United States
and Australia would also travel on the voyage.
On the eve of the voyage, a special centennial expedition
dinner, featuring guest speakers and invited members, would
be held.
Highlights of the trip include visits to the Ross Ice Shelf,
Scott and Shackleton's hut, and to McMurdo Station and Scott
Base.
The trip is expected to end in Bluff on February 10, 2011.
hamish.mcneilly@odt.co.nz
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