Polar Exploration

Memorial: M5074

Memorial at Cardiff Bay commemorating Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions d. 1912

Location

Harbour Drive, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales

Transcript

'THE "ANTARCTIC 100" MEMORIAL / Unveiled on 6th June 2003 / By Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal / On the 15th June 1910, the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO RN made its Final departure from United / Kingdom Shores. This memorial overlooks the old outer lock gates / at Roath Basin, the point from which Scott's expedition ship the "Terra / Nova" sailed from Cardiff to the cheers of vast crowds of well wishers. / Prior to the departure, Scott had launched a national appeal for funds / and the money donated by the City of Cardiff and South Wales / exceeded that contributed by any other city in the UK. It was in / recognition of this generosity that Scott designated the city as the / home port of the "Terra Nova". She was to return to Cardiff three / years later to a nation in mourning for one of its heroes. / The expedition ended tragically and created one of the great legends / of the twentieth century. Scott's supreme achievement was that he / touched the imagination of his country as no other man had done / and possibly has done since. With his dying message, eloquently / told in his diaries and hand written in desperate circumstances he / challenged whatever was finest in the British temperament. / "the causes of this disaster ware not due to faulty organisation but to / misfortune in all risks that had to be undertaken... / Had we lived, I should have a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance / and courage of my compatriots which would have stirred the heart / of every Englishman. / These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale."

Details

Description: Iceberg-shaped, incorporating the bows of the 'Terra Nova' with the striving faces of the five members of Scott's 1910 expedition who died on the return journey from the South Pole.
Type: Memorial
Materials: Resin, Mosaic
Date Erected: 2003
Artists: Jonathan Williams

People

Bowers, Henry Robertson
Age:
Date of Death: 3/1912
Cause of Death: Unknown/None
Rank / Occupation: Lieutenant RIM
Organisation: Royal Indian Marine
Evans, Edward
Age:
Date of Death: 17/2/1912
Cause of Death: Unknown/None
Rank / Occupation: Petty Officer RN
Organisation: Royal Navy
Oates, Lawrence Edward Grace
Age:
Date of Death: 17/3/1912
Cause of Death: Unknown/None
Rank / Occupation: Captain
Organisation: British Army
Scott, Robert Falcon
Age:
Date of Death: 3/1912
Cause of Death: Unknown/None
Rank / Occupation: Captain RN
Organisation: Royal Navy
Wilson, Edward Adrian
Age:
Date of Death: 3/1912
Cause of Death: Unknown/None
Rank / Occupation:
Organisation:

Extra

Notes: Two bronze plates on the base. The first inscribed as above. The second lists all the members of the expedition.
Recorder: B. Tomlinson
Photographer: B. Tomlinson
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