South Pole Centennial Events

17 January 2012...a ceremony was held to commemorate the centenary of Robert
Scott's arrival. Above, area manager Bill Coughran addresses the group. The inset
depicts the 2012 Pole marker (NSF).


A view of the crowd that had assembled for the event. (M).

Another view of Bill addressing the assembled crowd. Other speakers included Tim Hewette, ALE manager of the tourist camp, and Julie Palais, the NSF science representative. The brief talks addressed the significance of Scott's expedition, as well as the spirit of exploration that lives on today. The crowd included about 75 visitors, as well as many of the 200-plus station population (EG).

The final speaker was Lt Col Henry Worsley MBE, a British army officer, a member of the Royal British Legion (a British military charity) and a relative of Frank Worsley, the captain of the Endurance on Shackleton's 1914-16 trans-Antarctic attempt. Worsley had arrived at Pole via Amundsen's route as part of the British Scott-Amundsen Centenary Race (Royal British Legion press release) (archive page) (SL).

Above...the medal awarded Petty Officer George Abbott, a member of the Terra Nova crew, by King George V when Scott's expedition returned to England in 1913. Worsley carried the medal to Antarctica as one way of honoring the Scott expedition (M).

Before the ceremony, a science open house was held at the visitors center. Here IceCuber Torsten Schmidt describes that experiment to some of the visitors (SL).

That evening, the station crew was welcome to visit the tourist camp and meet
some of the visitors informally. Since the tourist camp operated on Chilean time
(16 hours behind the station) it was early morning for the tourists, a fact which
didn't seem to prevent them from enjoying the gathering (EG).