Antarctic conservation blog archive

Mindy, Monday 14 June 2010

Temperature: -26.5°C
Wind Speed: 10 knots
Temp with wind chill: approximately -42°C
Moonrise: below horizon
Moonset: below horizon

“Tuesday, June 6 [1911] - … It is my birthday, a fact I might easily have forgotten, but my kind people did not. At lunch an immense birthday cake made its appearance and we were photographed assembled about it…” (Captain Robert Falcon Scott)

Revelry continued that night with a fine dinner of “…seal soup, roast mutton and red currant jelly, fruit salad, asparagus and chocolate…” (Scott). By all accounts it was a festive occasion. Sadly, this was the last birthday Scott would celebrate, as he and 4 other British Antarctic Expedition members perished returning from the South Pole in early 1912.

Captain Scott’s last birthday dinner, 6 June 1911 © Herbert Ponting / Scott Polar Research Institute

Fast-forward nearly 100 years to present day Scott Base, where we also spent the 6th of June celebrating Scott’s birthday. We all take turns preparing dinner on Sundays, and coincidentally I had volunteered to cook supper that night. Hardly anything as fancy as Clissold, cook for the British Antarctic Expedition, had prepared – just a humble spaghetti and meatball dinner. And, despite having the night off, our chef Bobbie agreed to make the dessert. Scott’s 2010 birthday cake was decorated as a “Union Jack” – ceremoniously cut by Tom, Scott Base Winter Base Manager.

Tom, Scott Base Winter Manager, makes the first cut in Scott’s birthday cake © AHT / M Bell

Glasses raised, our modest celebration closed with a toast to Captain Scott. The sentiment was plain and simply stated – “…to Scott”.

Posted in Antarctica, Polar exploration, Scott, Social life

2 Responses to “Even Antarctic explorers have birthdays!”

1. June 16th, 2010 at 7:08 am
   Rae says:
   

   Love that cake! And spaghetti and meatballs sound like a fine old birthday dinner to me.
   They did indeed dine well while in the Antarctic. We have several menus at home from the 1902 expedition and they sound delicious! I’ll dig them out so I can send you some mouth watering examples. They always seems to have a lovely dessert.
   It reminds me of my great-grandfather Hare, he used to have a gavel at the dinner table, would hit it twice and then everyone at the table would say AMEN. Is that an old naval tradition from the British Antarctic Expeditions perhaps? We always thought it was

2. June 21st, 2010 at 10:30 pm
   Jenny Bradshaw says:
   

   Thanks Rae - we look forward to seeing the 1902 expedition menus.

   Jenny
   Antarctic Heritage Trust