Shelves are still stocked with tins of cabbage, veal or onions. All these objects have been preserved by cold for the last 100 years. Antarctic explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton left them here in their way to the South Pole, in the beginning of the XX century. But none of them was able to come back.
On November 1, 1911, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott departed from Cape Evans on his Terra Nova Expedition, trying to become the first man to reach the South Pole. But the captain and his companions never returned to camp—they died on the return journey after having been beaten to the pole by Amundsen.
Scott and his men left behind a prefabricated, seaweed-insulated wooden cabin and its outbuildings, as well as scientific equipment used to measure the continent's fearsome climate. The cabin would be later occupied by Sir Ernest Shackleton during his Imperial Trans Arctic Expedition (1914-1917), and supplies from both expeditions are still at the camp, historic remains from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. [1]
Scott's hut is located on the north shore of Cape Evans on Ross Island in Antarctica. Although abandoned in 1913, the hut and its contents are remarkably well preserved today due to the constant freezing conditions
One of the purposes of the Scott expedition was to collect biological samples. Next to the door, there is a crate of Emperor Penguin Eggs that they collected, but that never got shipped out.
On January 1, 1908, the Nimrod the Nimrod Expedition, led by Ernest Shackleton, arrived to Cape Royds, about twenty miles from Hut Point. Shackleton believed the site to be perfect and the men began unloading supplies at once. During the next three weeks, they erected the prefabricated hut, built a stable for the ponies and hauled tons of provisions over the floes to shore.
Time capsule of sorts, the hut appear to have been recently vacated by the men who built them, with food on the shelves and socks hanging on laundry lines. Shackleton's hut was found intact, with bread still on the tables just as they had been left.
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