Question 1

True or false: Scott reached the South Pole only to find Roald Amundsen had beaten him by just over a month.

Accepted Answer

True. Amundsen arrived on December 14, 1911; Scott reached the Pole on January 17, 1912, discovering the Norwegian flag.

Question 2

True or false: One of Scott's men, Lawrence Oates, famously left the tent to die rather than slow the team down.

Accepted Answer

True. Oates, suffering severe frostbite, walked out into a blizzard with the words 'I am just going outside and may be some time.'

Question 3

True or false: Scott brought ponies and dogs to Antarctica, but the dogs were the primary transport to the Pole.

Accepted Answer

False. Scott relied mainly on ponies and man-hauling; his dog teams were used for support but not the final polar journey.

Question 4

True or false: Robert Falcon Scott and his polar party died before reaching their final supply depot, the One Ton Depot, by a margin of about 11 miles.

Accepted Answer

True. Scott's party died around March 29, 1912, in a blizzard, only 11 miles short of the One Ton Depot that held essential supplies. Their deaths resulted from exposure, starvation, and scurvy.

Question 5

True or false: Scott was a career naval officer who had never led a major polar expedition before the Terra Nova.

Accepted Answer

False. Scott had previously led the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904), which set a southern record and was a major polar venture.

Question 6

True or false: Scott's team carried motorized sledges to Antarctica, which actually worked well in the cold.

Accepted Answer

False. The motor sledges failed quickly due to mechanical issues in the extreme cold, forcing the team to man-haul supplies instead.

Question 7

True or false: Scott's final diary entry was written in pencil because his ink had frozen solid.

Accepted Answer

True. In his last days, Scott wrote in pencil due to frozen ink, ending with 'For God's sake look after our people.'

Question 8

True or false: Scott's wife Kathleen was a noted sculptor who later married a wealthy American politician.

Accepted Answer

False. Kathleen Scott was a sculptor, and after Robert's death, she married Lord Kennet, a British politician, not an American.

Robert Falcon Scott Trivia Questions