How to Say Goodbye
On this day, 100 years ago, Captain Robert Falcon Scott - "Scott of the Antarctic" - and his team reached the South Pole only to discover the devastating news that their Norwegian rival Amundsen had got there 33 days before them. Demoralized and shattered, they began their doomed journey home. Their bodies were found eight months later.
Here in Britain we do love an heroic failure. This is one of the reasons - it's said - why we invariably lose to you Americans at sport. For us, it's the Corinthian spirit that matters most: we'd rather lose well than win badly. For you, losing is for losers.
Personally I have a lot of sympathy with both points of view. In sport, I incline to the British spirit: I absolutely loathe, for example, footballers who play the "Italian game" by diving and feigning injury near the penalty area. In war, however, I take the view that there is no point - no point whatsoever - in engaging in military operations you don't intend to win: which for me definitely rules out our current adventure in Afghanistan and probably the one we've just exited in Iraq.
But I digress. If you want a good, honest weep this week don't go and see Steven Spielberg's hideously ersatz and manipulative War Horse. Read this fantastically moving, dignified letter by Capt Scott to his widow. Here's a taste. I defy not to blub.
Since writing the above we have got to within 11 miles of our depot with one hot meal and two days cold food and we should have got through but have been held for four days by a frightful storm — I think the best chance has gone we have decided not to kill ourselves but to fight it to the last for that depot but in the fighting there is a painless end so don't worry. I have written letters on odd pages of this book — will you manage to get them sent? You see I am anxious for you and the boy's future — make the boy interested in natural history if you can, it is better than games — they encourage it at some schools — I know you will keep him out in the open air — try and make him believe in a God, it is comforting. Oh my dear my dear what dreams I have had of his future and yet oh my girl I know you will face it stoically — your portrait and the boy's will be found in my breast and the one in the little red Morocco case given by Lady Baxter — There is a piece of the Union flag I put up at the South Pole in my private kit bag together with Amundsen's black flag and other trifles — give a small piece of the Union flag to the King and a small piece to Queen Alexandra and keep the rest a poor trophy for you! — What lots and lots I could tell you of this journey. How much better it has been than lounging in comfort at home — what tales you would have for the boy but oh what a price to pay — to forfeit the sight of your dear dear face — Dear you will be good to the old mother. I write her a little line in this book. Also keep in with Ettie and the others— oh but you'll put on a strong face for the world — only don't be too proud to accept help for the boys sake — he ought to have a fine career and do something in the world.
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Feb '11
Re: How to Say Goodbye
What came of the boy?
Dec '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Sir Peter Scott.
Mar '11
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Oh, but I am a cold-hearted fellow. Not even a twinge of sadness. The man chose his path, and it was one of the riskiest things possible. I daresay that even when dying he did not regret. 'Twas a noble, if futile end.
Re: How to Say Goodbye
@iWc. I'm not sure it's Scott you're meant to weep for. It's his wife, reading the letter at home, and the thought of the child growing up without a father. That's the problem with these manly futile gestures: the real casualties aren't the immediate victim.
Mar '11
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Yes indeed. Reading the letter is like a mystical connection between the bitter cold and the warm fires of home. He feels the warmth as he writes, and the we feel the cold as we read. Misty eyes here, that's for sure.
Aug '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
This reminds me of the Sullivan Ballou letter, a beautiful and heartbreaking piece of writing: http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/ballou_letter.html
Apr '11
Re: How to Say Goodbye
The high road of Corinthian spirit doesn't necessarily mean transcendence. As an American I would rather lose well or win either way. Thank you!
Re: How to Say Goodbye
No offense intended, Nealfred! I hope I conveyed sufficient skepticism of this slightly simplified version of the American/British divide.
Apr '11
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Yes, truly a beautiful piece of writing. This one made me cry. I didn't find Scott's letter very touching, maybe because he never used '"the boy's" name. I imagine he was freezing and starving so he needed to be brief, but the letter was lacking in intimacy.
May '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
One shouldn't hold what the WWF has become since his death against Peter Scott. He seems to have been a man incapable of tackling a task without excelling (with the exception of winning election to Parliament): he took up sailing and won Olympic bronze, becoming President of the International Sailing Federation; he took up gliding, and became British Champion; he was the founder President of the Society of Wildlife Artists and President of the Nature in Art Trust; his work in wildlife conservation was groundbreaking, and made real progress against real problems. His father's hope was fulfilled - the boy did do more than something in the world.
I'm seven years older than James, and Peter Scott's voice narrates an important part of my childhood - it is inseparable from an appreciation and love of nature in a way only approached by that of David Attenborough.
Edited on Jan 17 at 6:40amApr '11
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Well, I'm from Texas, the least British place in the English speaking world, and we love a noble failure (The Alamo, after all) and the Aussies, who I find hard to believe are even still part of the British Union, even make their Memorial Day on the ANZAC day, a wonderfully glorious defeat.
Dec '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Yes , Robert. I think there's a generation of us whose love of 'natural history' was nurtured by Peter Scott. Followed up, in my case by the incomparable storyteller, Gerald Durrell.
Mar '11
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Robert Dammers: he took up gliding, and became British Champion
I'm seven years older than James, and Peter Scott's voice narrates an important part of my childhood - it is inseparable from an appreciation and love of nature in a way only approached by that of David Attenborough.
Yes, as a fellow glider pilot, I remember when Peter Scott was the British Champion. Gliding remains one of the few sports (like sailing) where the British regularly win international competitions.
As for David Attenborough, I lost respect for him when he succumbed to global warming hysteria.
Btw, condescending piece by Michael Gerson on why conservatives are climate change "deniers" - "liberals" haven't given up, yet, James -- they never do.
Jun '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
James Delingpole: In sport, I incline to the British spirit: I absolutely loathe, for example, footballers who play the "Italian game" by diving and feigning injury near the penalty area.
We Americans loathe this behavior as well. You'd never see an NFL player writhing in feigned agony just to draw a personal foul.
Jun '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
I must confess that -- like many episodes in British history -- the only reason I even recognize the name "Scott of the Antarctic" is because of the Monty Python sketch.
Dec '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
The American Alexander Hamilton did it better (hat tip: Ben Domenech).
Dec '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
In America, we define "heroic failure" differently. Which is why we admire Shackleton and ignore Scott.
The problem Americans have with Scott's saga is that he was attempting something patently achievable -- as proven decisively by Amundsen's arrival at the Pole 33 days before him. Scott therefore represents a failure attributable to poor planning and a stubborn refusal to recognize the hopelessness of a venture before it's too late to back out with one's skin intact.
Shackleton, by contrast, recognized that when his planned mission went belly up, his secondary mission was to get his men out alive. He accomplished that in such a way that the failure of his primary mission in no way harmed his reputation.
(Bligh pulled a Shackleton by navigating 1,000 miles of Pacific Ocean in a longboat, but his primary failure was too catastrophic to ignore.)
Edited on Jan 17 at 3:53pmMay '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Stuart Creque
The problem Americans have with Scott's saga is that he was attempting something patently achievable -- as proven decisively by Amundsen's arrival at the Pole 33 days before him. Scott therefore represents a failure attributable to poor planning and a stubborn refusal to recognize the hopelessness of a venture before it's too late to back out with one's skin intact.
Shackleton, by contrast, recognized that when his planned mission went belly up, his secondary mission was to get his men out alive. He accomplished that in such a way that the failure of his primary mission in no way harmed his reputation.
One of Scott's tragic mistakes was to confuse his primary mission (scientific research) with Amundsen's (getting to the Pole first). That is why they persisted in carrying rock samples, while abandoning food supplies. The greatest mistake was failure to make Shackleton's realisation - the pole would still be there if they all got out alive.
May '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Stuart Creque
(Bligh pulled a Shackleton by navigating 1,000 miles of Pacific Ocean in a longboat, but his primary failure was too catastrophic to ignore.) · Jan 17 at 3:46pm
Bligh's primary failure is often overstated (interesting discussion here). His secondary astonishing achievement, safely navigating himself and 18 crewmembers in a 23foot long open boat 3618 miles to safety is rarely recognised.
Dec '10
Re: How to Say Goodbye
Robert Dammers
Stuart Creque
(Bligh pulled a Shackleton by navigating 1,000 miles of Pacific Ocean in a longboat, but his primary failure was too catastrophic to ignore.) · Jan 17 at 3:46pm
Bligh's primary failure is often overstated (interesting discussion here). His secondary astonishing achievement, safely navigating himself and 18 crewmembers in a 23foot long open boat 3618 miles to safety is rarely recognised. · Jan 17 at 4:28pm
They say the winners write the history books, but perhaps it's more accurate to say that those who write the history books crown the winners.