Robert Falcon Scott: the Last Entries
Robert Falcon Scott’s party reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912 and found that Roald Amundsen had been there five weeks earlier. On the way back the five men died one after another — of cold, hunger and exhaustion. Scott went on writing in his journal until the end of March, in a tent a short distance from a supply depot they could not reach.
The tent was found in November 1912. The journals were published in 1913 as Scott’s Last Expedition, and the manuscript is now in the British Library. The last pages are letters as much as diary entries: to the families of his companions, to his wife, to the public.
What it teaches. A diary written only for yourself can become the one account of what happened. Scott kept writing because a record was the last thing he could still make.
An essay by the TAEONIA editors. Quotations are limited to texts in the public domain.
Keeping a diary of your own? Guides to keeping a private diary