Free A First Rate Tragedy by Diana Preston Page B

‘Lo and behold, there before us lay a second ship . . .’ This was the whaler Terra Nova . Scott and Wilson were looking at the ship that would take them back to Antarctica for their race to the Pole.
    For the moment Scott’s chief concern was to understand what was going on. ‘Sun scorched, unwashed, unshaven and in rags’, 3 Wilson and Scott hurried on board the Morning to learn that, because of the wranglings of the two societies, the government had felt obliged to undertake the relief of the Discovery itself. The Admiralty had accordingly despatched the Morning and the Terra Nova , considered a more powerful ship. Shackleton, by then fit and well again, had been asked to go as chief officer of the Terra Nova but had, perhaps wisely, refused. The orders brought for Scott were unequivocal. If the Discovery could not be freed in time to leave with the relief ships she must be abandoned.
    Scott was deeply upset at being put in ‘a very cruel position’ and his men shared his sentiments, greeting the Admiralty’s orders with a ‘stony silence’. However, he had to obey. There seemed a real prospect that the ice would not break up in time and so he began to arrange the transfer of equipment from the Discovery across the ice to the relief ships. He had not abandoned all hope and ordered the ice to be blasted at various strategic points but thishad only limited success. If the ice broke up it would be of its own volition and at last this began to happen. By 12 February there was only two and a half miles of solid ice between the Discovery and freedom. Would it break up in time?
    14 February brought what might have seemed to a religious man to be a miracle but to the agnostic, fatalistic Scott may have seemed the smile of fortune. A combination of sea swell and firing charges finally broke open the way. Captain Colbeck of the Morning left an astute description of Scott’s joy: ‘Scott was terribly excited. He came on board as soon as I got alongside the ice face and could scarcely speak. It meant all the difference of complete and comparative success to him and there was not a happier man living than Scott on that night.’ 4 The news had been broken on the Discovery by a shout of ‘The ships are coming, Sir!’ during dinner. In a moment the men were racing for Hut Point from where they could see the ice breaking up. Scott described how no sooner was one great floe borne away when a dark streak cut its way into the solid sheet which remained and carved out another: ‘Our small community in their nondescript, tattered garments stood breathlessly watching this wonderful scene. For long intervals we remained almost spellbound, and then a burst of frenzied cheering broke out . . .’ The Terra Nova and the Morning raced for the distinction of being the first to reach the Discovery and at about half past ten the Terra Nova broke through amid scenes of huge excitement. The men on Hut Point ran up their silken Union Jack in celebration.
    The last of the ice around the Discovery was dislodged two days later by explosive charges. The final blast shook the vessel from end to end but it did the trick. Scott wrote thankfully that ‘our good ship was spared to take us homeward’. On 16 February 1904 a sombre ceremony took place. The company of the Discovery gathered bare-headed around the cross erected to George Vince while Scott read prayers. Nine years later another cross would be erected nearby to mark another tragedy.
    The next day brought near disaster. As if a malicious southern spirit was reluctant to give her up, a gale forced the Discovery headlong onto a shoal. For a few hours ‘truly the most dreadful I have ever spent’, Scott wrote, it looked as if she might not survive. The engines would not function and she was trapped in the gale, being pounded against the shoal. However, during the evening the current turned, running south rather than north, and the Discovery began to work astern. The crew managed to get the