Henry Robertson Bowers
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Henry Robertson Bowers | |
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Terra Nova expedition |
Henry Robertson Bowers (29 July 1883 – c. 29 March 1912) was one of
Early life
Bowers was born on 29 July 1883 in
He went to sea first as a cadet in the merchant service, training on
Terra Nova expedition
Bowers joined
Originally appointed as a junior officer of the ship's party in charge of expedition stores, Bowers quickly distinguished himself as an extremely hard-working, highly skilled organiser. By the time the Terra Nova left New Zealand, Scott had promoted him to be a member of the shore party, in charge of landing, stores, navigation and the arrangement of sledging rations, a role in which his extraordinary powers of memory served Scott well.
Six months after arriving in Antarctica, Bowers made the winter journey to the
On 1 November 1911, the long trek to the South Pole began. Scott had not originally planned to include Bowers in his polar party. He had been a member of the sledge team led by Scott's second-in-command, Lieutenant Edward Evans and the last support party to accompany Scott and his team southward, but on 4 January 1912, just as Evans party was about to turn 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 was a logical decision – particularly when one intended 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's 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 realisation 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, although why he did not substitute Bowers for another member of the party—most likely Oates—is not clear. To back this theory up, it was Bowers who eventually took the sights to fix the exact location of the geographic South Pole for the Polar party. It was also Bowers who was in charge of the expedition's remaining camera and took most of the famous photographs at the South Pole and at Amundsen's tent.
On 16 January 1912, as Scott's party neared the Pole, it was Bowers who first spotted a black flag left at a camp made by Roald Amundsen's polar party over a month previously. They knew then that they had been beaten in the race to be first to the South Pole. On 18 January, they arrived at the South Pole to find a tent left behind by Amundsen's party at their Polheim camp; inside, a dated note informed them that Amundsen had reached the Pole on 14 December 1911, beating Scott's party by 35 days.
During the return journey, they first made good progress, but P.O. Edgar Evans died on 17 February, presumably of a brain injury after a fall. At the end of February, temperatures fell sharply, the dog relief team failed to show up at the prearranged meeting point on 1 March, and Oates's foot became frostbitten and gangrenous, slowing the party down; in a vain attempt to save his companions, he deliberately walked out of their tent to his death on 16 March. Scott, Bowers, and Wilson continued on for three more days, progressing 20 miles (32 km) more, but were stopped 11 miles (18 km) short of the next food depot by a blizzard on 20 March. The blizzard continued for days, longer than they had fuel and food for. Too weak, cold and hungry to continue, they died in their tent on or soon after 29 March—Scott's last diary entry—148 miles (238 km) from their base camp.
Their bodies were found by a search party the following spring on 12 November 1912. The search party collapsed the tent over them, thus burying them where they lay under a snow cairn topped by a cross made from a pair of skis. Among the items they found and took back with them were the Kodak film rolls with the photographs at the South Pole and geological specimens which later proved the Gondwana theory.
The Bowers Hills in Antarctica, later renamed the Bowers Mountains, were named in his honour.
Character and nickname
Bowers was short, at five-foot four inches. He had red hair and 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, a fellow expedition member, remarked that his "capacity for work was prodigious",[This quote needs a citation] and that "There was nothing subtle about him. He was transparently simple, straightforward, and unselfish".[3]: 214 In his diary, Scott wrote of Bowers that "he is the hardest traveller that ever undertook a Polar journey as well as one of the most undaunted".[This quote needs a citation] In a letter to Bowers's mother retrieved from the tent containing their bodies, Scott wrote "I write when we are very near the end of our journey, and I am finishing it in company with two gallant, noble gentlemen. One of these is your son. He had come to be one of my closest and soundest friends, and I appreciate his wonderful upright nature, his ability and energy. As the troubles have thickened his dauntless spirit ever shone brighter and he has remained cheerful, hopeful, and indomitable to the end."[This quote needs a citation]
Archives
Bowers's life is celebrated with a small display at
See also
Footnotes
- ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE TO LT HENRY 'BIRDIE' BOWERS - Scott 100 centenary: celebrating 100 years since Terra Nova". www.scott100.org. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
- ^ a b c Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1922.
Bibliography
- Huntford, R. (1979). The Last Place on Earth. Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-70701-0.
- Fiennes, R. (2003). Captain Scott. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-82697-5.
- Preston, D. (1998). A First-Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-618-00201-4.
- Scott, R. F. (1983). Scott's Last Expedition. Methuen. ISBN 0-413-52230-X.
- Strathie, A. (2012). Birdie Bowers: Captain Scott's Marvel. History Press. ISBN 9780752460031.