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Scott's Hut
Scotts Hut is located on the north shore of Cape Evans on Ross Island, Antarctica. It was built in 1911 by the British Antarctica Expedition of 1910-1913. When they were choosing a base for this expedition Robert Scott rejected the notion of living in the hut he had built by McMurdo Sound during the Discovery Expedition of 1901-1904. This first hut was located at hut point 20km south of cape Evans. He had two reasons for opposing this notion one because it was to cold to be living quarters and two because his boat got stuck in the sea ice. He hoped that putting his new base further north he would avoid having that problem. The hut was prefabricated meaning it was readymade so all the had to do was assemble it where they wanted. It is rectangular, 50 feet long and 25 foot wide. Insulation was provided by seaweed sewn into a quilt, placed between double-planked inner and outer walls. The roof was a sandwich of three layers of plank and 2 layers of rubber ply enclosing more quilted seaweed Lighting was provided by acetylene gas, and heating came from the kitchen and a stove using coal as fuel. Apsley Cherry-Garrard wrote that the hut was divided into separate areas for sleeping and working by a wall made of boxes of stores. A stable building (for nineteen Siberian ponies) approximately 50 feet by 16 feet was attached to the north wall of the main building. A utility room, 40 feet by 12 feet was also added later, built around the original small porch at the South West end of the main building. Considerable effort was made to insulate the building, and to extract the maximum amount of heat from the flues from the stove and the heater, based on lessons learnt from the Discovery Hut. Terra Nova expeditioners described the hut as being warm to the point of being uncomfortable. There is a cross on a hill behind Scott's Hut at Cape Evans, however, this is not connected
to Captain Scott, having been put there in memory of the three members of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party, who died nearby. The cross put up in memory of Captain Scott and his polar companions is on the top Observation Hill. During the winter of 1911 25 men of the Terra Nova shore party lived in the hut. From here Scott and his men set out on the ultimately fatal trek to the South Pole. Following the failure of Scott's southern party to return several men remained behind for a further winter (1912) in order to search for the bodies the next spring. In 1913, the Terra Nova expedition over, it was left well supplied with stores in the way of food and oil, and a certain amount of coal. The hut was reused from 1915-1917 by several of Shackleton's Ross Sea party after the Aurora, which was to have been the permanent winter quarters, broke adrift in May 1915, and went north with the ice, unable to return. The hut became the permanent living quarters for the ten marooned men, and thanks to the stores they were able to sustain life in comparative comfort, supplementing these stores from Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds. In January 1917, after Shackleton had rescued the survivors, he had the hut put in order and locked up. Although abandoned from 1917, the hut and its contents are remarkably well preserved today due to the consistently sub-freezing conditions. After 1917 it remained uninhabited until 1956 when US expeditioners dug it out of the snow and ice. It was found to be in a remarkable state of preservation, and included many artifacts from both the earlier expeditions. While some artifacts were taken as souvenirs at the time (and since), this hut remained how it was in 1917.
