The glowing success of Amundsen’s expedition throws into sharpest relief the tragedy of the parallel English expedition.  Captain Scott, the leader of this party, also reached the Pole after a far more desperate struggle.  But he reached it on January 18, 1912, only to find that his Norwegian rival had preceded him, and he and his entire party died of starvation and exhaustion on their return journey toward their camp.

The first aim of my expedition was the attainment of the South Pole.  I have the honor to report the accomplishment of the plan.

I can only mention briefly here the expeditions which have worked in the region which we had selected for our starting-point.  As we wished to reach the South Pole our first problem was to go south as far as possible with our ship and there establish our station.  Even so, the sled journeys would be long enough.  I knew that the English expedition would again choose their old winter quarters in McMurdo Sound, South Victoria Land, as their starting-point.  From newspaper report it was known that the Japanese had selected King Edward VII.  Land.  In order to avoid these two expeditions we had to establish our station on the Great Ice Barrier as far as possible from the starting-points of the two other expeditions.

The Great Ice Barrier, also called the Ross Barrier, lies between South Victoria Land and King Edward VII.  Land and has an extent of about 515 miles.  The first to reach this mighty ice formation was Sir James Clark Ross in 1841.  He did not dare approach the great ice wall, 100 feet high, with his two sailing ships, the Erebus and the Terror, whose progress southward was impeded by this mighty obstacle.  He examined the ice wall from a distance, however, as far as possible.  His observations showed that the Barrier is not a continuous, abrupt ice wall, but is interrupted by bays and small channels.  On Ross’s map a bay of considerable magnitude may be seen.

The next expedition was that of the Southern Cross in 1900.  It is interesting to note that this party found the bay mentioned above at the same place where Ross had seen it in 1841, nearly sixty years before; that this expedition also was able to land a few miles to the east of the large bay in a small bay, named Balloon Bight, and from there to ascend the Ice Barrier, which heretofore had been considered an insurmountable obstacle to further advance toward the south.

In 1901 the Discovery steamed along the Barrier and confirmed in every respect what the Southern Cross had observed.  Land was also discovered in the direction indicated by Ross, namely, King Edward VII.  Land.  Scott, too, landed in Balloon Bight, and, like his predecessors, saw the large bay to the west.

In 1908 Shackleton arrived there on the Nimrod.  He, too, followed along the edge of the Ice Barrier.  He came to the conclusion that disturbances had taken place in the Ice Barrier.  The shore line of Balloon Bight, he thought, had changed and merged with the large bay to the west.  This large bay, which he thought to be of recent origin, he named Bay of Whales.  He gave up his original plan of landing there, as the Ice Barrier appeared to him too dangerous for the establishment of winter quarters.