Terra Gallery

The Terra Nova of Scotts Antarctic Expedition

The ship Terra Nova - the vessel used by Robert Falcon Scott (1868 -1912) for his South Polar Expedition in 1911-12. Built originally for the Dundee whaling and sealing fleet (launched 1884), the Terra Nova was purchased from Bowring Brothers Limited for the British Antarctic Expedition, known also as the Terra Nova Expedition, for the sum of 12, 500. Reinforced from bow to stern with seven feet of oak to protect against the Antarctic ice pack, she sailed from Cardiff on 15 June 1910 under overall command of now Captain Scott, who described her as "a wonderfully fine ice ship.... As she bumped the floes with mighty shocks, crushing and grinding a way through some, twisting and turning to avoid others, she seemed like a living thing fighting a great fight."

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Parasitic plant, Cytinus hypocistis

Parasitic plant, Cytinus hypocistis, Citino ipocistide. Handcoloured copperplate stipple engraving from Antoine Laurent de Jussieu's Dizionario delle Scienze Naturali, Dictionary of Natural Science, Florence, Italy, 1837. Illustration engraved by Stanghi, drawn by Pierre Jean-Francois Turpin, and published by Batelli e Figli. Turpin (1775-1840) is considered one of the greatest French botanical illustrators of the 19th century

© Florilegius

The Terra Nova Expedition

On 1st June 1910, the Terra Nova Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, set sail from London for the Antarctic regions. Nearly three years later, on 10th February 1913, the tragic news reached England that Captain R. F Scott, leader of the expedition, with four companions had perished after reaching the South Pole and finding the Norwegian flag already there

© Mary Evans Picture Library