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I am wondering where I look to find out more information on the Antartica Explorers.
I was chatting with my half sister last night about the family tree and she said she remembers my father mentioning that he was related to one of the Explorers but as she was young at the time she doesn't remember which one and Dad has been gone 19yrs so can't ask him.
I can only find 2 that might fit this
Bowers, Henry Robertson - Leiutenant and
Scott, Robert Falcon Commander, R.N.
Bowers being dad's family name and Scott his grandmothers maiden name.
Any help to point me in the right direction appreciated.
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hi ingrid found this info
Robert Falcon Scott: Antarctic Explorer
Robert Falcon Scott (June 6, 1868 - March 29, 1912) was a British naval officer and Antarctic explorer. Scott led two expeditions to the South Pole, and died on the disastrous second trip, along with his crew. His expedition was the second to reach the South Pole (1910-1912); Roald Amundsen led the first.
First Antarctic Expedition: Scott led his first British Antarctic expedition on the ship HMS Discovery (1901-1904). On this mission, they sailed along northern Ross Island to Mount Terror (past the area explored by James Ross). Scott named this new area King Edward VI Land. Scott went in a hot air balloon on February 4, 1902, making the first balloon flight on Antarctica.
The expedition overwintered on Hut Point (on Ross Island). Scott and two crew members tried to cross the Ross Ice shelf on a sled pulled by 19 dogs (November 1902 - January 1903). Scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) made them ill and they were forced to return. Soon after, most of the crew returned to England (March 1903); Scott and a few others remained to expore the area until September 1904.
Upon his return, Scott was promoted to Captain, became very popular with the public, and wrote "The Voyage of Discovery" (published in 1905).
Second Antarctic Expedition: Scott set out for Antarctica again on June 1, 1910, on the ship called the Terra Nova. He was racing Roald Amundsen to be the first man to the South Pole. They reached Ross Island on January 4, 1911, and prepared for a sled trip to the South Pole. Scott and his crew set off on dog sleds, ponies, and motorized vehicles on November 1, 1911. The motorized vehicles and ponies were abandoned in a few days.
While they were still crossing the Beardmore Glacier (less than 200 miles from the pole), Amundsen reached the South Pole (January 4, 1912). Scott's team reached the pole on January 18, 1912, but they were sorely disappointed to find Amundsen's Norwegian flag. In his journal, Scott wrote, "Great God! This is an awful place, and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority."
Scott and his crew were frozen, exhausted, diappointed, and suffering from scurvy as they began their return trip. By February 17, one crew member, Seaman Edgar Evan died. Other members of the expedition began to die, and they set up their last camp on March 11, 1912 only 11 miles from One Ton Depot, where they could have gotten supplies. A raging blizzard kept them from the depot, and the remaining crew died at this camp. They were found dead in ther sleeping bags by a rescue party on November 12, 1912.
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Lieutenant Henry Robertson (Birdie) Bowers (July 29, 1883 - March 29, 1912) was one of Robert Falcon Scott's polar party on the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition in 1910-1912 who all died during their return from the South Pole.
Early life
Bowers was born on 29 July 1883 at Greenock, of Scottish descent, and was raised alone by his mother after his father died in Rangoon when he was three years old. He went to sea first in the merchant service, training on the Worcester and sailing around the world five times on the Loch Torridon.[1] He then enlisted in the Royal Indian Marine Service in 1905, commanding a river gunboat on the Irrawaddy. He later served on the H.M.S. Fox, preventing gun-running in the Persian Gulf.[2]
Antarctica
Bowers joined Robert Falcon Scott's expedition after having read the accounts of Scott's earlier Discovery expedition, and of Ernest Shackleton's expedition in Nimrod. He had no previous polar experience.
Bowers distinguished himself as a highly skilled organizer and was given the job of managing the expedition's stores, a task for which his extraordinary powers of memory served Scott well.
Scott had not originally planned to include "Birdie" Bowers in his polar party. He had been a member of the sledge team led by Scott's second-in-command, Lieutenant E.R.G.R. Evans, which was the last support party to accompany Scott and his team southward. But on January 4, 1912, when Evans turned back, Bowers was assigned to the polar party. Some have argued that this seems to have been an impulsive decision by Scott. However, others, such as Antarctic explorer Ranulph Fiennes, have indicated that this is a logical decision - particularly when one intends to increase the speed of a polar land-crossing (in an effort to reduce the consumption of resources).
Only a few days earlier, he had ordered Evans' men to depot their skis, so that Bowers had to travel on foot to the pole while the others were still on skis. In addition, adding a fifth man to the party meant squeezing another person into a tent made for four, and having to split up rations that were packed in units for four men. The most likely motivation for Scott to add Bowers to the polar party was a realization that he needed another experienced navigator to confirm their position at the South Pole to avoid controversy such as that surrounding the claims of Frederick Cook and Robert Peary at the North Pole.
On January 16, 1912, as Scott's party neared the Pole, it was Bowers who first spotted a black flag left by Roald Amundsen a month previously. Their return journey became a desperate affair, with first P.O. Edgar Evans dying, suspected to be of a brain injury after a fall, and then Lawrence "Titus" Oates succumbing to a terribly frostbitten foot. Scott, Bowers, and Dr. Edward Adrian "Bill" Wilson continued on, but died in their tent 148 miles from their base camp. Their bodies were found by a search party the following spring, and were buried where they lay, under a snow cairn.
] Character and nickname
Bowers was short, at five foot four inches, and had a distinctive beak-like nose that quickly earned him the nickname of "Birdie" among his fellow explorers. He was known for his toughness, dependability, and cheerfulness. Apsley Cherry-Garrard remarked that his "capacity for work was prodigious", and that "There was nothing subtle about him. He was transparently simple, straightforward, and unselfish".[3] Scott, in his diary, said of Bowers: "As the troubles have thickened about us his dauntless spirit ever shone brighter and he has remained cheerful, hopeful, and indomitable to the end".
Archives
Bowers' life is celebrated with a small display at Rothesay Museum on the Isle of Bute; he spent much of his early life at Ardbeg on the edge of the town.
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Thanks Lorraine, it gives me an insight to them.Don't suppose you know where I would start to look for their family trees if they are available?
Cheers
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ingrid
you will find info on them on the census try ancestry also birth details will be on there and any marriages
lorraine
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If it was me,I would trace your fathers parents back in time until there was a connection.
birth
Robert Falcon Scott 1868 Jul-Aug-Sep Stoke Damerel Devon
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1901
Robert F Scott Hannah abt 1869 Stoke Damerel, Devon, England Son Chelsea London
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Thanks Lorraine will try that.
Jim
Thanks for those dates.
I have traced back to my Great Grandparents James Bowers b.1838 ? and Agnes Scott b.1849 Scotland ?. They married in Tasmania in 1869 and my Grandfather was born in 1872 ,one of four boys,in Tasmania.That is as far as I have been able to get so far.I have been unable to find where James came from, its frustrating.
Cheers
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Ingrid, my husband was in Antarctica and collects books of the explorers. A biography I have here of Scott seems to suggest that the family come from Scotland originally but fled to France in an uprising. In 1780 Robert Scott returned as school teacher in Holbeton near Plymouth, married a woman 20 yrs younger than himself. Had 4 sons all mariners.
Robert the eldest was in the Navy, another brother was Edward ,another Edwin. A sister was Anne, married a Courtney other sisters married Preston and Hartford.
Robert had 8 children. The youngest John was born in 1830. John married Hannah Cuming when he was 31.
John and Hannah had 4 girls and 2 boys. Robert Falcon Scott was the eldest of the sons.
All of the family seemed to have been from the Devon area.
I cant find anything on Bowers just now my other half may have a biography somewhere but I found this link
bowers.com/node/61
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Thanks Trinni
You have given me a thought, I will go to the local library and see what they have in biographys. Thanks also for the link.
Cheers
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