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On the other hand, I've always found the Scott Expedition very... illuminating. They had 2 proto-snowmobiles. One fell into the ocean when they were unloading i

On the other hand, I've always found the Scott Expedition very... illuminating. They had 2 proto-snowmobiles. One fell into the ocean when they were unloading it. The other one had a mechanical failure shortly after the final team departed the last camp, and Scott didn't bring the engineer with him because an officer of higher rank threw a pissy fit that the engineer was going but not him. Only one of a rather long list of poor decisions.

timonoko 5y ago
Where is that list of poor decisions? I have some: 1. Clothing was inadequate. Scottish wool and leather riding boots. Looks like Scott realized that the crew was losings fingers too fast, and they made fur mittens and boots at sometime afterwards. 2. Horses instead of dogs. Scott was a Great Humanist, so forbid to eat those horses. Horses taste Good, better than reindeers, imho. -- Dogs eat themselves, solving part of the fodder problem. 3. All kinds of craziness with thoses tractors, as mentioned.
- EdwardDiego 5y ago
  The Terra Nova expedition had dogs as well as ponies and who knows, if they'd been purchased by someone who knew horses, they might've done a lot better. Scott sent his dog handler Meares to purchase the ponies (and I can't really nail down the breed here, they're either described as Manchurian or Siberian, but they look like Yakut horses[1] in photos), and Scott insisted, for some reason, on white ponies, because he either thought that they did better in cold environments, or were stronger. And apparently the only white ones available when Meares was purchasing, were old and apparently underfed. Of course, if Captain Oates, an experienced calvary man had accompanied Meares as Scott requested, he could've chosen good ones. It also didn't help that the horses had their summer coats when they arrived in Antarctica. Also, they did eventually shoot the ponies to store as meat in caches when they had lost condition. Many other polar explorers, both Arctic and Antarctic, used ponies successfully. When fed correctly. Meet Ernest Shackleton's meat eating pony, Socks, part of an expedition in 1907. [2] Shackleton fed his horses "Maujee pemmican", which, according to him "consists of dried beef, carrots, milk, currants and sugar, and it provides a large amount of nourishment with comparatively little weight." Scott, however, while replicating Shackleton's use of ponies, didn't feed them the same rations, preferring compressed wheat. The Jackson-Harmsworth expedition to Franz Josef Land in the Arctic (the one that found Fridtjof Nansen) used ponies. Wilhem Filchner used ponies successfully in Antarctica around the same time as Scott was dying, to the extent that he was able to release them on South Georgia Island after the expedition. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakutian_horse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakutian_horse [2]: http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/16-Shackletons-meat-eating-Siberan-horse-Socks.jpg http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1...
- stickfigure 5y ago
  A lot of that is absent from or contradicted by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_Expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_Expedition There were 3 motor sledges, one was lost, and none were planned to travel on the final journey: The motors and animals would be used to haul loads only across the Barrier, enabling the men to preserve their strength for the later Glacier and Plateau stages. In practice, the motor sledges proved only briefly useful, and the ponies' performance was affected by their age and poor condition. Scott brought dogs and ponies, which were both proven on other expeditions and were both useful on this one. That wikipedia page is a gem, reads like a novel. It sounds like with a little more luck (or more optimal choices), they would have survived. Sure there were mistakes, but nothing reads as gross negligence.
  - timonoko 5y ago
    At least I was right about them clothes. They are just abysmal. Woolen caps and no wind protection. There has been only -32°C in Helsinki and remember how scary it was. Exposed fingers become numb in seconds. I had good parka with wolf tail trimmings, but could not bicycle against the wind.

timonoko 5y ago

Where is that list of poor decisions? I have some: 1. Clothing was inadequate. Scottish wool and leather riding boots. Looks like Scott realized that the crew was losings fingers too fast, and they made fur mittens and boots at sometime afterwards. 2. Horses instead of dogs. Scott was a Great Humanist, so forbid to eat those horses. Horses taste Good, better than reindeers, imho. -- Dogs eat themselves, solving part of the fodder problem. 3. All kinds of craziness with thoses tractors, as mentioned.

EdwardDiego 5y ago
The Terra Nova expedition had dogs as well as ponies and who knows, if they'd been purchased by someone who knew horses, they might've done a lot better. Scott sent his dog handler Meares to purchase the ponies (and I can't really nail down the breed here, they're either described as Manchurian or Siberian, but they look like Yakut horses[1] in photos), and Scott insisted, for some reason, on white ponies, because he either thought that they did better in cold environments, or were stronger. And apparently the only white ones available when Meares was purchasing, were old and apparently underfed. Of course, if Captain Oates, an experienced calvary man had accompanied Meares as Scott requested, he could've chosen good ones. It also didn't help that the horses had their summer coats when they arrived in Antarctica. Also, they did eventually shoot the ponies to store as meat in caches when they had lost condition. Many other polar explorers, both Arctic and Antarctic, used ponies successfully. When fed correctly. Meet Ernest Shackleton's meat eating pony, Socks, part of an expedition in 1907. [2] Shackleton fed his horses "Maujee pemmican", which, according to him "consists of dried beef, carrots, milk, currants and sugar, and it provides a large amount of nourishment with comparatively little weight." Scott, however, while replicating Shackleton's use of ponies, didn't feed them the same rations, preferring compressed wheat. The Jackson-Harmsworth expedition to Franz Josef Land in the Arctic (the one that found Fridtjof Nansen) used ponies. Wilhem Filchner used ponies successfully in Antarctica around the same time as Scott was dying, to the extent that he was able to release them on South Georgia Island after the expedition. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakutian_horse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakutian_horse [2]: http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/16-Shackletons-meat-eating-Siberan-horse-Socks.jpg http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1...
stickfigure 5y ago
A lot of that is absent from or contradicted by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_Expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_Expedition There were 3 motor sledges, one was lost, and none were planned to travel on the final journey: The motors and animals would be used to haul loads only across the Barrier, enabling the men to preserve their strength for the later Glacier and Plateau stages. In practice, the motor sledges proved only briefly useful, and the ponies' performance was affected by their age and poor condition. Scott brought dogs and ponies, which were both proven on other expeditions and were both useful on this one. That wikipedia page is a gem, reads like a novel. It sounds like with a little more luck (or more optimal choices), they would have survived. Sure there were mistakes, but nothing reads as gross negligence.
- timonoko 5y ago
  At least I was right about them clothes. They are just abysmal. Woolen caps and no wind protection. There has been only -32°C in Helsinki and remember how scary it was. Exposed fingers become numb in seconds. I had good parka with wolf tail trimmings, but could not bicycle against the wind.