Scott's Hut is a building located on the north shore of

Cape Evans Cape Evans is a rocky cape on the west side of Ross Island, Antarctica, forming the north side of the entrance to Erebus Bay. History The cape was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Robert Falcon Scott, wh ...

Ross Island Ross Island is an island formed by four volcanoes in the Ross Sea near the continent of Antarctica, off the coast of Victoria Land in McMurdo Sound. Ross Island lies within the boundaries of Ross Dependency, an area of Antarctica claimed by New ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. It was erected in 1911 by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913 (also known as the Terra Nova Expedition) led by

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...

. In selecting a base of operations for the 1910–1913 Expedition, Scott rejected the notion of reoccupying the

hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hid ...

he had built by

McMurdo Sound McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica. It is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world, and is about from the South Pole. Captain James Clark Ross discovered the sound in February 1841, and named it after Lt. Archibald McMurdo o ...

during the

Discovery Expedition The ''Discovery'' Expedition of 1901–1904, known officially as the British National Antarctic Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since the voyage of James Clark Ross sixty years earlier (1839–184 ...

of 1901–1904. This first hut was located at

Hut Point A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hid ...

, 20 km south of

. Two factors influenced this decision. One was that the hut was extremely cold for living quarters and the other was that Scott's ship, the ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

'', had been trapped by sea ice at Hut Point, a problem he hoped to avoid by establishing his new base farther north. Some confusion arises because

Discovery Hut Discovery Hut was built by Robert Falcon Scott during the ''Discovery'' Expedition of 1901–1904 in 1902 and is located at Hut Point on Ross Island by McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Visitors to Antarctica, arriving at either the US Base at McMurdo ...

can technically be referred to as ''Scott's'' hut, in that his expedition built it, and it was his base ashore during the 1901–1904 expedition, but the title ''Scott's Hut'' popularly belongs to the building erected in 1911 at Cape Evans.

Description

Scott's Hut was

prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is u ...

in England before being brought south by ship. It is rectangular, long and wide. Insulation was provided by

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

sewn into a quilt, placed between double-planked inner and outer walls. The roof was a sandwich of three layers of plank and two layers of rubber ply enclosing more quilted seaweed. Lighting was provided by

acetylene gas Acetylene (systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

, and heating came from the kitchen and a supplementary stove using

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

as fuel.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard (2 January 1886 – 18 May 1959) was an English explorer of Antarctica. He was a member of the ''Terra Nova'' expedition and is acclaimed for his 1922 account of this expedition, '' The Worst Journey in t ...

wrote that the hut was divided into separate areas for sleeping and working by a bulkhead made of boxes of stores. A stables building (for nineteen Siberian ponies), approximately , was subsequently attached to the north wall of the main building. A utility room, approximately , was also added later, built around the original small porch at the southwest 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 learned from the

. Terra Nova expeditioners described the hut as being warm to the point of being uncomfortable. A cross is erected on a hill behind Scott's Hut at Cape Evans, but this is not connected to Captain Scott, having been erected in memory of the three members of Shackleton's

Ross Sea Party The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier, along the polar ...

, who died nearby. The cross erected in memory of Captain Scott and his polar companions is to be found atop Observation Hill.

Use of Scott's Hut

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 The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

. 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 to 1917 by several of Shackleton's

Ross Sea party The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier, along the polar ...

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 Cape Royds is a dark rock cape forming the western extremity of Ross Island, facing on McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. It was discovered by the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904) and named for Lieutenant Charles Royds, Royal Navy, who acted as meteor ...

. 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.

Preservation and decay at Scott's Hut

After 1917, the hut remained untouched 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 has remained largely as it was in 1917. New Zealand and the UK have undertaken responsibility at various times since the 1970s to restore (largely by removing snow and ice) both Scott's hut and Discovery Hut. While the preservation of food in the freezing temperatures and dry climate has been noted, bacterial decay still occurs. Visitors describe the

seal meat Seal meat is the flesh, including the blubber and organs, of Pinniped, seals used as food for humans or other animals. It is prepared in numerous ways, often being hung and dried before consumption. Historically, it has been eaten in many parts of ...

preserved at the Discovery Hut as smelling 'quite rancid', and some have expressed concerns that the fabric of these huts are being affected by fungal decay.Blanchette, Robert (2004). Research at the Historic Expedition Huts of Antarctica. Retrieved from . In 2016 there was a preservation project, by photographic and laser measurements for the entire house and the surrounding area. Then this data became a 3D model, and open for public virtual tour.

Historic site

Both Scott's Hut and Shackleton's Hut have been included on the

World Monuments Watch World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and traini ...

. Shackleton's was included in 2004 and 2006, and Scott's in 2008. The hut has been designated an Antarctic Historic Site or Monument (HSM 16), following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.

References

External links