Random pic 18 May 2024
The Antarctic 100 Memorial, Cardiff Bay https://flic.kr/p/2pCnRkuTHE ANTARCTIC 100 MEMORIAL
Commissioned by the Captain Scott Society and gifted to the City of Cardiff by the Society
Unveiled by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal 6th June 2003
This memorial commemorates the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration and in particular Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Scientific Expedition of 1910-13.
The memorial overlooks the point from which Scott's expedition ship, the SS Terra Nova, left Cardiff on the 15th June 1910.Designed and created by the sculptor Jonathan Williams, the memorial depicts Scott and the faces of his four companions, Wilson, Oates, Bowers and Evans, who died with him on the return journey from the South Pole.The Memorial was unveiled on the 6th J une 2003 by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.
On the 15h June 1910, the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO RN made its final departure from United Kingdom shores. This memorial overlooks the old outer lock gates at Roath Basin, the point from which Scott's expedition ship the "Terra Nova" sailed from Cardiff to the cheers of vast crowds of well wishers. Prior to the departure, Scott had launched a national appeal for funds and the money donated by the City of Cardiff. and South Wales exceeded that contributed by any other city in the UK. It was in recognition of this generosity that Scott designated the city as the home port of the, "Terra Nova". She was to return to Cardiff three years later to a nation in mourning for one of its heroes. The expedition ended tragically and created one of the great legends of the twentieth century. Scott's supreme achievement was that he touched the imagination of his country as no other man had done and possibly has done since. With his dying message, eloquently told in his diaries and handwritten in desperate circumstances he challenged whatever was finest in the British temperament. "The causes of this disaster are not due to faulty organisation but misfortune in all risks that had to be undertaken.... Had we lived, I should have a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodles must tell the tale".
Designed and sculpted by Jonathan Williams Those who perished: https://flic.kr/p/2pCAmry[Text from plaques by the Memorial.]
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