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| A Very Gallant Gentleman, by John Charles Dollman |
One hundred years ago today – on 16 March 1912 – a brave
British Antarctic explorer struggled to the door of his wind-battered tent,
untied its lashings with frozen hands, and stepped outside into a raging
blizzard. His name was Lawrence Oates. He told his colleagues he "may be some
time".
Oates had just walked to the South Pole with Captain Scott. Finding that Norwegians on skis had beaten them to their goal, Scott’s men then turned around and walked back. By mid-March they had been trudging across the earth’s coldest, driest and windiest continent for four months. One of the party, Edgar Evans, was already dead. Oates, his feet severely frostbitten, knew he would be next.
So the 32-year-old army captain sacrificed himself. He knew he had become a burden on his friends. He knew their chances of survival would improve without him. So off he walked, alone, into oblivion. Scott and the other two men in the tent watched him go. No one stepped in; no one tried to stop him. They understood what was happening. They accepted it. Without fuss or fanfare, Captain Oates was quietly laying down his life for his friends.
You wouldn’t get that past health and safety today. We live in different times. Poor old Oates would have had to fill out a risk assessment form before setting off. So this blog is a little celebration of our braver past. The hope is to fill it with the extraordinary adventure stories of men and women who once regularly went barrelling off into uncharted jungles, deserts and frozen wastelands armed only with a stiff upper lip and a pound of shag tobacco.
We may learn something from them; we may not. But either way, stories of old-fashioned pluck and courage never fail to inspire. So if you know any good ones, please chip in. And you can follow @historynuts on Twitter, too.
Oates had just walked to the South Pole with Captain Scott. Finding that Norwegians on skis had beaten them to their goal, Scott’s men then turned around and walked back. By mid-March they had been trudging across the earth’s coldest, driest and windiest continent for four months. One of the party, Edgar Evans, was already dead. Oates, his feet severely frostbitten, knew he would be next.
So the 32-year-old army captain sacrificed himself. He knew he had become a burden on his friends. He knew their chances of survival would improve without him. So off he walked, alone, into oblivion. Scott and the other two men in the tent watched him go. No one stepped in; no one tried to stop him. They understood what was happening. They accepted it. Without fuss or fanfare, Captain Oates was quietly laying down his life for his friends.
You wouldn’t get that past health and safety today. We live in different times. Poor old Oates would have had to fill out a risk assessment form before setting off. So this blog is a little celebration of our braver past. The hope is to fill it with the extraordinary adventure stories of men and women who once regularly went barrelling off into uncharted jungles, deserts and frozen wastelands armed only with a stiff upper lip and a pound of shag tobacco.
We may learn something from them; we may not. But either way, stories of old-fashioned pluck and courage never fail to inspire. So if you know any good ones, please chip in. And you can follow @historynuts on Twitter, too.
Now, I am just going
outside and may be some time. I need to buy my three-year-old son a
scooter-helmet.
I was looking for the picture, and I was already aware of the story about the expedition...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it has been a pleasure to read your text. This frightening but incredible brave story always moves me.
thanks for that :)
cheers!
BTW, here comes an small present (if it reaches the destiniation :P )... there is a 80's spanish pop band that created an outstanding song about this expedition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niPd_SEiFRA
The song name is: "heroes de la antartida" (this is: heroes from the antarctic)
farewell.
We have named and dedicated our Ambulance Support Unit after Captain Oates here in Warwick, to amplify the same courage as the Ambulance crews fighting CORVID
ReplyDelete