1 November 1911

• The journey started – ten men each with a pony and sledge.

• Distance to the Pole and back was 1766 statute miles and every step of the way had to be marched on foot.

• Temperatures never rose above zero Fahrenheit.

15 November

• Fighting constant snowfalls, the team reached One Ton Camp on the fifteenth day.

24 November

• First pony was killed.

1 December

• Four camps later, the second pony was shot.

5 December

• Awoke to a blizzard.Kept them confined to their tents for the next four days.

10 December

• On the fifth day the blizzard let up enough for the men to break camp.

• Had to beat the ponies as they floundered up to their bellies

• Struggled for eleven hours after which time the party camped.

• Five ponies were shot, skinned and made into a depot.

12 December

• On the foot of the Beardmore Glacier.

• Party of twelve, divided into groups, set out to man-haul the sledges up the glacier towards the summit 10,000 feet above and the rest turned back.
• The struggle began with each man pulling over 200 pounds through the soft snow which they sank into nearly up to their knees.
• Some suffered from snow-blindness as others stumbled into crevasses and sledges.

13 December

• The day before Amundsen reached the Pole, in nine hours the party had advanced less than four miles.

• The situation gradually improved as they scaled the glacier

20 December

• Scott named the first returning party

21 December

• Established Upper Glacier depot at 7,000 feet.

• After completion, the first supporting party left for home.

• The two remaining groups went on with two sledges and twelve weeks' supply of oil and fuel, pulling 190 pounds per man.

• Went on climbing for another sixteen days to reach their highest altitude at 10,570 feet.

25 December

• On Christmas day, with a strong wind in their faces, they advanced seventeen-and-a-half miles.

• The Christmas meal consisted of pony hoosh, ground biscuit, a chocolate hoosh made from cocoa, sugar, biscuit and raisins thickened with arrowroot, two-and-a-half square inches each of plum-duff, a pannikin of cocoa, four caramels each and four pieces of crystallized ginger.

• From here they made remarkable marches of fourteen to seventeen miles a day.

3 January 1912

• Scott chose four men to continue with him to the Pole and instructed the other three to return.

• Bowers was added into the party to the pole.

6 January

• Crossed the line of latitude where Shackleton turned back and were farther south, as they believed, than any man had been before.

• For the next few days the going was difficult.

9 January

• Stayed in their bags all day as a blizzard roared outside.

10 January

• Resumed their march, made a depot of one weeks' provisions and reckoned they were only ninety-seven miles from the Pole.

• On this day came the first hint that everyone was growing tired.

13 January

• Crossed the 89th parallel.

15 January

• Started to descend and made their final depot of four days' food.

16 January

• Made a good march and figured they would reach the Pole the following day.

• In the afternoon, Bowers spotted something ahead, which looked like a cairn.
• Half and hour later they realized the black speck to be a flag tied to part of a sledge. Nearby was the remains of a camp.
• Scott wrote, "This told us the whole story. The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole." Scott felt he had let his loyal companions down and had utterly failed them. Scott wrote, "Many thoughts come and much discussion have we had...All the day dreams must go; it will be a wearisome return".

17 January 1912,
Wednesday

• A force five gale struck them along with temperatures falling to fifty-four degrees of frost.

• They had reached the South Pole.

• Oates, Evans and Bowers all suffered from severe frostbite as they made an early lunch-camp.

• Scott wrote, "Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority. Well, it is something to have got here, and the wind may be our friend tomorrow".

• Wilson wrote that it was "a tiring day" and despite Amundsen having "beaten us in so far as he has made a race of it...We have done what we came for all the same and as our programme was made out".

18 January

• In the morning they found the Norwegian's camp about two miles away.

• In the tent Amundsen left a note for Scott and a letter to be delivered to King Haakon.
• Bowers took photographs, and then they marched seven miles south-south-east to a spot which put them within half a mile of the Pole, altitude 9,500 feet.
• Here they built a cairn, planted "our poor slighted Union Jacks" and the rest of the flags, photographed themselves and headed for home.
• Scott wrote, "Well we have turned our back now on the goal of our ambition with sore feelings and must face 800 miles of solid dragging--and goodbye to the daydreams!"

19 January

• The return trip started out fairly well but the temperatures were obviously becoming colder.

23 January

• They had to camp early because of frostbite to Evans' nose. Oates' feet were always cold.

• A blizzard held them up seven miles short of the next food depot
• Despite the delays and difficult travel, the marches were good.
• They were becoming very tired as evidenced by the many injuries due to falls: Wilson strained a leg tendon and had to limp painfully beside the sledge for several days; Scott fell and bruised his shoulder and Evans hand lost two fingernails.

7 February

• Reached the head of the Beardmore Glacier

8 February

• Started their decent.

11 February

• In difficult conditions, they took a wrong turn and ended up in the worse "ice mess" they had ever been in.

• For the next two days they stumbled around in a maze of ridges, growing more weak and despondent. They knew the next depot could not be far away but they simply couldn't find it.
• Down to their last meal, the men accidentally came upon the depot which was shrouded in fog.
• Scott wrote, "The relief was inexpressible. There is no getting away from the fact that we are not pulling strong".
• At this point it was determined to reduce rations since they weren't making the distances between depots in a timely manner. This only weakened them further as Evans began losing heart and was "nearly broken down in brain, we think".

16 February

• Evans collapsed and camp had to be made.

17 February

• He felt better and said he could go on.

• He would march for a while and then stop to adjust his boots while the others went on.
• When he failed to catch up, the others would go back only to find him kneeling in the snow with a wild look in his eyes.
• His companions sledged him to the next camp and soon after midnight he died.
• After a few hours rest, they were on their way again.
• At the foot of the glacier they reached the pony meat and enjoyed their first full meal since leaving the plateau. "New life seems to come with greater food almost immediately".
• From here the travelling became difficult as the snow became very soft. "Pray God we get better travelling as we are not so fit as we were and the season advances apace".

19 February

• Left the foot of the glacier.

27 February

• Wilson's diary stopped.

• Bowers had given up on his on January 25.

3 March

• Arrived at the Southern Barrier depot.

• Here they discovered a shortage of oil, presumably due to evaporation from the poorly sealed one-gallon tins.
• Another seventy miles brought them to the Middle Barrier depot where they once again discovered a short supply of oil.
• By this time Oates could no longer conceal his pain: his toes were black and gangrene was setting in.
• Temperatures were down to -40°F and the surface was so bad that even a strong wind in the sail would not move the sledge.
• Scott wrote, "God help us, we can't keep up this pulling, that is certain. Among ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man feels in his heart I can only guess".

7 March

• Scott mentions the dogs for the first time: "We hope against hope that the dogs have been to Mt. Hooper (the next depot), then we might pull through. If there is a shortage of oil again we can have little hope...I should like to keep the track to the end".

• On the same day, the dogs, driven by Cherry-Garrard and Dimitri, were waiting at One Ton Depot, some seventy-two miles from Mt. Hooper.

9 March

• Reached Mt. Hooper. "Cold comfort. Shortage on our allowance all round...The dogs which would have been our salvation have evidently failed".

• An unusual north-west wind kept them in camp the next day as it was simply too cold to face.
• With half-cooked food, all of them getting frostbitten, all knowing they were doomed, they discussed the situation.
• Months before, at Cape Evans, they had discussed what to do if one of them became so injured as to not be able to continue on.
• Wilson carried lethal doses of morphine and opium in his medicine chest so one could eliminate himself if the situation called for it.
• At this point Scott ordered Wilson to hand over the drugs so Wilson handed each man thirty opium tablets.
• They were never used as suicide was against the code.

16 or 17 March
(they lost track of the days)

• Things got worse as the north wind continued to blow in their faces.

• Wilson was now becoming weak so Scott and Bowers had to make camp by themselves.
• Temperature fell to -43°F.
• Oates said he couldn't go on and wanted to be left in his bag. The others refused and he struggled on.
• There was a blizzard blowing in the morning when Oates said "I am just going outside and may be some time" and he stumbled out of the tent.
• Scott wrote, "We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman". Oates was never to be seen again.

20 March

• Awoke to a raging blizzard.

• Scott's right foot became a problem and he knew "these are the steps of my downfall". Amputation was a certainty "but will the trouble spread? That is the serious question".
• They were only eleven miles from One Ton Depot but the blizzard stopped them from continuing on. They were out of oil and had only two days' rations.
• "Have decided it shall be natural--we shall march for the depot and die in our tracks", wrote Scott.
• They did not march again and on March 29 Scott made his last entry: "It seems a pity, but I do not think that I can write more. R. Scott. For God's sake look after our people".
• On another page he scribbled, "Send this diary to my widow".

29 March 1912

• The blizzard raged on for another ten days before Scott's last entry of this fateful day

12 November 1912

• It was not until this day that Surgeon Atkinson, leader of the search party, found their tent all but buried in snow.

• When "Silas" Wright pulled the flap aside, they saw the three men in their sleeping bags.
• On the left was Wilson, his hands crossed on his chest; on the right, Bowers, wrapped in his bag. It appeared that both had died peacefully in their sleep.
• But Scott was lying half out of his bag with one arm stretched towards Wilson. Tryggve Gran said, "It was a horrid sight. It was clear he had had a very hard last minutes. His skin was yellow, frostbites all over".
• Gran envied them. "They died having done something great--how hard must not death be having done nothing".
• Petty Officer Williamson said, "His face was very pinched and his hands, I should say, had been terribly frostbitten...Never again in my life do I want to behold the sight we have just seen".
• At the age of forty-three, Scott had been the last to die.

• Atkinson took charge of the diaries and letters and read aloud the account of Oates' death and the Message to the Public. He then read the Burial Service and a chapter from Corinthians after which all the men gathered and sang Scott's favorite hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers".

• The tent was then collapsed over the bodies and a snow cairn was built over all. Placed on top was a pair of crossed skis. Here they would lie until one day, drifting with the Barrier, they would find their final resting place in the sea.

• Atkinson led the search party back along the path believed taken by Scott in hopes of finding Oates. They found his sleeping bag but nothing more. Near the spot where they assumed he had fallen, the men erected a cross with the following inscription: "Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L. E. G. Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons. In March 1912, returning from the Pole, he walked willingly to his death in a blizzard to try to save his comrades, beset by hardship".