The Search

Towards the end of February 1912, Dr. Atkinson was at Hut Point preparing to lead the dog teams out to meet Captain Scott’s returning group after what was assumed to be a successful arrival at the Pole. This would speed up their return and possibly enable Scott to be in time to sail on the Terra Nova when it returned to Britain after re-supplying the expedition. Instead the dogs were used to collect Lieutenant Evans (Deputy Leader of the Expedition) and William Lashly from the tent where they were stranded.

When Dr. Atkinson realised how ill Evans was, he knew he would need to stay at the base and take care of him, and Apsley Cherry-Garrard, with the Russian dog-handler Dimitri Gerov, took two dog teams to One Ton Depot to collect Scott.

The Terra Nova left on 22 February for Britain with the men who needed to return, including the ill Lieutenant Evans, leaving the rest of the team to await Scott's return from the Pole before completing their scientific work.

Captain Scott had ordered that the dogs should not be put in any risk as they may be needed the following year if the initial attempt on the Pole failed. But the journey to the One Ton Depot was relatively straight forward and, despite his self-confessed limitations at navigation, Apsley reached there on March 3rd. On March 10th, with Dimitri feeling the effects of the rapidly falling temperature (now -35⁰ F), the dogs struggling, and the weather making it difficult for Apsley to see through his glasses they decided to return to base.

On March 27th Dr Atkinson, with one seaman, ventured out again without the dogs. But, in the absence of any sign of Scott’s party, they returned.

It was now getting well into the Antarctic winter and among the men there was some concern about the safety of the southern party, although Captain Evans, back recovering in England, was telling the press that he imagined that Scott had reached the Pole soon after Amundsen and would have reached Hut Point in the second week of March.