![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
OHYAT: The Motor Party Departs
Oct. 24th, 2011 07:33 pmONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY, the British assault on the South Pole officially began!
The main party would be leaving in about a week's time, but the vanguard was the Motor Party – four men and two internal combustion tractors with caterpillar treads were tasked with bringing a load of supplies and provisions as far south as they could. The 'motors,' as they were known, were an experimental endeavour, as no one had used anything like them in the Antarctic before.
Scott was convinced they could be the future of polar travel, writing "A small measure of success will be enough to show their possibilities ... it is impossible not to be convinced of their value. But ... [a] season of experiment with a small workshop at hand may be all that stands between success and failure." His diary entry for October 24th is amusing; there is of course the endearing frankness with how excited he is about the motors, egging them on and recording their progress by the hour, but it's also interesting to note how slowly they went. The next evening a couple of men set out from Cape Evans to go meet the motors who hadn't gotten to Hut Point yet, a trip which usually took about a day manhauling, and caught them up by the following morning.
2. A motor sledge pulling its load past Inaccessible Island – the wheel on the end is the 'sledgeometer' which measured the distance they travelled.
This foray into powered transport in polar regions was plagued with misfortune from the start,* but nevertheless the descendants of the 'motor sledges' are still in use as a primary form of ground transportation in Antarctica today. I wonder how many snowcats have rumbled overtop the icy tomb of the motor sledges without even knowing it ...
*... by dropping one through soft ice while unloading it from the ship ... Other misfortunes included a broken axle casing a week before setting off, and a problem with the carburetor due to a reconfigured exhaust system the day before.
The main party would be leaving in about a week's time, but the vanguard was the Motor Party – four men and two internal combustion tractors with caterpillar treads were tasked with bringing a load of supplies and provisions as far south as they could. The 'motors,' as they were known, were an experimental endeavour, as no one had used anything like them in the Antarctic before.
Scott was convinced they could be the future of polar travel, writing "A small measure of success will be enough to show their possibilities ... it is impossible not to be convinced of their value. But ... [a] season of experiment with a small workshop at hand may be all that stands between success and failure." His diary entry for October 24th is amusing; there is of course the endearing frankness with how excited he is about the motors, egging them on and recording their progress by the hour, but it's also interesting to note how slowly they went. The next evening a couple of men set out from Cape Evans to go meet the motors who hadn't gotten to Hut Point yet, a trip which usually took about a day manhauling, and caught them up by the following morning.
2. A motor sledge pulling its load past Inaccessible Island – the wheel on the end is the 'sledgeometer' which measured the distance they travelled.
This foray into powered transport in polar regions was plagued with misfortune from the start,* but nevertheless the descendants of the 'motor sledges' are still in use as a primary form of ground transportation in Antarctica today. I wonder how many snowcats have rumbled overtop the icy tomb of the motor sledges without even knowing it ...
*... by dropping one through soft ice while unloading it from the ship ... Other misfortunes included a broken axle casing a week before setting off, and a problem with the carburetor due to a reconfigured exhaust system the day before.
