Ed 0:00

Hey all, this is Ed. And this is Kara. And it's Deja. And this is your day's dumpster fire.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

It's just gonna be like the part of the theme. We're just gonna roll it one one more time.

Ed 0:46

I don't know why it like it it wants to just repeat itself. I mean, I I guess it makes sense, but it's like cooscoos.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

You do it twice.

unknown 1:01

Yes.

Ed 1:02

Yeah, no, it just goes to show you that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

Kara 1:10

That's okay, we don't either. That's why we're here. We're winging it. We're in good company. Yeah, we're just winging it. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

How's it going, everyone?

Kara 1:22

Excellent.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

Eight more days of school.

Kara 1:25

Eight more days of school.

Ed 1:28

I can't feel my legs.

Kara 1:32

My shoulders about my arm, my left arm's gonna fall off. My shoulder hurts.

Ed 1:37

I literally stole second base and got nowhere.

Kara 1:43

So our trash can fire. My base hurts. If anybody would like to know, here's our trash can fire. So every year I try to do a kickball game of the middle schoolers versus the staff versus all the teachers. And the middle schoolers get super stoked about it. They practice for like a month. Us teachers are old, so we could only do so much practice to where we get sore. We don't practice because we get sore. So we had this kickball game, and as per, the middle schoolers have been practicing for a month, and we're like, eh, we'll beat you anyway. It's fine. And you know, they were trash talking us for a long time. We took it like chance, it's fine. And the game starts, and immediately we're down like six points.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Like if I don't I don't even know how we that happened. I think I blinked or like I blacked out. Maybe I already got hit in the face, but no, no, no.

Ed 2:45

The first nine points wouldn't exist if they weren't leading the bases. That's true.

Kara 2:53

Yeah.

Ed 2:54

So they only beat us like 12 to 2.

Kara 3:01

Okay, final score. Final score for all of you listeners. I I am going to say it with pride. We lost 19 to 2. How do you do that? We just sucked.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

How do you do well?

Ed 3:18

Keep in mind there was only five of us. Yes, there were five of them.

Kara 3:24

That is true. Facts.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

In our defense.

Kara 3:27

In our defense. We were grossly outnumbered. And literally double our size.

Ed 3:33

Like five out of that seven are where they were legit athletes. Yeah. Yeah. Like there's one kid who like he he he could have run from one end of the field to the other end of the field and catch multiple balls at the same time along the way.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Not break a sweat.

Ed 3:58

And not break a sweat, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

A thousand more times. Yeah. And then maybe break a sweat.

Ed 4:05

Well, and then there's Nathaniel who can catch a ball so easily, like he does this dramatic slide every single time.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Every time. It's every time.

Ed 4:15

This this epic slide that goes on for like eight feet, and then he just catches the ball with one hand.

Kara 4:22

You know it's so funny. I used to do the same exact thing when I was his age. And I, in fact, I did it a couple times during our kickball game. And I gotta tell you, my knees did not like it.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

I got hit in the face. So there's my qualification.

Ed 4:39

I know for Mother's Day, I had to like clean all the downstairs with a uh like blown out hips and and all that stuff, and then I had to like clean the kitchen, and then I had to mop because I love my wife and I'm going to support her in Mother's Day. You don't realize how much you use your hip bones to mop.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Why do you think mama's got those wagons? Like not this mama, but other mamas.

Ed 5:19

This homeboy is rocking them dulies. That's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Like this pop over here.

Ed 5:27

Yeah, so I learned. Yeah, like the end of the day Sunday, I I told my wife, I'm like, I can't. I'm done. I'm physically done. I I'm a 40-year-old fat man, I can't do this anymore. So then I just went upstairs and went to bed and cried and fell asleep.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

And then you had to continue to prepare for this episode.

unknown 5:51

Yeah.

Ed 5:53

Actually, this episode recording while recovering. Actually, this this episode has been, by the way, great segue. Thank you. Yeah, it's like bam. Just doing a Saul Goodman right there. Yeah. This episode.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

I was thinking Shooter McGavin, but there's a difference between me and you.

Ed 6:15

Yeah. Um, yeah, no, that this episode that we've got lined up today, um, it it started off with a um like I I I wanted to make this be kind of humorous, but then when I really started digging into it and I started to like really see how complicated things were, I quickly discovered that wow, was I wrong. Normally, when we cover you know, dumpster fires is because somebody was so ostentatious or somebody was just like off the rail stupid or whatever. Uh, in this case, nobody was really stupid, nobody was really off the rails, like nobody was crazy. It was a matter of people trying to do what they could with what they had, and they honestly tried to keep it as honest as possible, and a bunch of people died for it. Good times.

Kara 7:19

Well, let's let's get into it. Let's let's let's let's get it.

Ed 7:25

All right, so ever since the discovery of the mainland of Antarctica in 1820, I thought for sure Antarctica was discovered way before then. Like I thought it would have been discovered in the 1600s, but apparently not. Apparently, the idea of sailing south was a stranger idea than sailing west. So in 1820, European explorers treated the land as almost like a uh like a space race for the most of the 1800s. The goal was just to get to a like get a ship to hang out off the coastline for some time. Antarctica was literally like the moon. It's just a matter of developing technology to get down there and hang out and look at this fascinating coastline of ice. By the late 1800s, uh, they started developing steam engines and then later diesel engines uh that would allow ships to have enough horsepower to get to the coastline, and these were the real hybrids, right? These were the ships that could really get to the coastline, these were the ships that could actually land at the coastline, these were the ships that could actually unload stuff onto the coastline of Antarctica, which to me is baffling because you know, by today's standards, we don't think about a cargo ship going from point A to point B and having a difficult time landing. But when it comes to Antarctica, yeah, it's it's a genuine Poo show, and Antarctica quickly turned into this idea of there's a whole nother world out there, and it's covered in snow and ice and rock, and this is our next step, not knowing that not even 70 years later we would actually be landing on the actual moon. Like if you really think about the events of the Terra Nova expedition, which took place like 1910, 11, 12, and then you just fast forward one generation, we are literally landing on the moon 250,000 miles away. Which I don't know, to me, that's just mind-blowing. But a quick word about Antarctica. Antarctica is cold, like effing cold, like Dante's ninth inner circle of hell. Cold during the summer months, keep in mind when you're below the the equator, like when you're in the southern hemisphere, when you're down there, your summer months are like October, November, December, January, and February. And north of that, your cold months are October, November, December, you know, January, February. When you are in Antarctica, the best time to be down there is in those summer months of like December. So let me get my bearings straight here. The coastline can sit at around 10 degrees centigrade or 14 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter. Okay, so keep in mind this is the summer, 14 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter, it's around negative 40 degrees centigrade, or ironically enough, 40 degrees, or negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit. That's where the uh the Fahrenheit and centigrade kind of like line up mathematically. That's on the beach. When you get further inland, the summer months hover around negative 30 degrees centigrade or negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit, and when winter comes around, it's negative 80 degrees centigrade or a negative 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

I would not survive. I would not survive.

Kara 11:48

I don't think you can. I don't think anybody can.

Ed 11:55

Well, if I stayed inside, maybe like as soon as you get off the ship, you'd be like, oh, this is cold. I'm yeeting my way back inside.

SPEAKER_03 12:06

I would not be able to have that thought. I don't think I'd be able to have that thought at all.

Ed 12:14

Uh I I'm the kind of guy that likes cold weather, but to kind of like put things into perspective a little bit, the median temperature of the surface of Mars is negative 87 degrees centigrade or negative 121 degrees Fahrenheit. So we're talking a part, we're talking about a part of the planet on Earth that isn't that far different than the climate of Mars, which is wild. And Mars is mostly a vacuum, which is even colder. Now, granted, Deja, you and I are watching Lake Kara just like pile on the ponchos and blankets and I just am a proud desert rat.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Oh yeah, me too. And the thing I'm thinking of like North Dakota, you know, being out there in November last year. It was down to like negative two, I think.

Ed 13:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

And I didn't like it. I definitely didn't like it. It's gorgeous out there. Worth worth it. I don't like it.

Ed 13:25

It it's the Highland cows, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 13:28

It's the fact that no one's there. I don't know. The fact that I can't hear anything. It's the super emu moose that are just like really it's the potential of all the cows I could have.

Ed 13:44

For those of you who don't know, uh uh Deja loves cows, they're very majestic.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

They're cute, they're so cute. They give you milk. Very dumb too.

Ed 13:55

Well, they're very nose-boopable. That's true. Yeah. That's like my Pookie, my my uh my pit bull dog. She's got the most boopable nose ever. And you could go to her out of nowhere. Like you could jump out of a closet, find Pookie on like just sprawled out on the couch, and you can just go to her nose and just be like, and she's perfectly fine with it. But if a bird or a cat does it, it's war.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Oh hell no.

Ed 14:30

Yeah, it's it's it's vicious.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

So she wouldn't last out that now that far either.

Ed 14:39

No, no. I mean, she used my velvet hippo, but it it would be poopable. She yes, you you could get a couple of boops out of her before she's like, I'm cold, I'm going away. Which is what my wife does whenever I am on a star party for my astronomy organization. I will find something cool in the sky, and my wife is like, all right. She looks at the eyepiece, she sees this gray blob, and then she's like, Alright, I'm going to bed. And that's I think that's what wives do.

Kara 15:17

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can't confirm. Can't confirm.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

What about research in uh Antarctica?

Ed 15:26

Yeah. Yes. And here's the funny thing about Antarctica, because not everybody's had the grace of hanging out in like Casa Grand, Arizona, or further south or whatnot. The winds in Artica can exceed 170 knots or 115 miles per hour. Mix that with like negative 112 degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, I'm watching I'm watching Kara just like bundle up. Like like there's this idea of clutching your pearls, and then there's Kara who's like shriveling up.

Kara 16:10

Yes. I don't mind the cold. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind the cold. But I I get cold easily.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

You just need a blanket.

Kara 16:17

I just need a blanket. And then we'll make it.

Ed 16:19

You need body fat.

Kara 16:20

No. I refuse.

Ed 16:23

If you had body fat, this wouldn't be a problem.

Kara 16:25

Anyway.

Ed 16:26

Talking to a polar bear. Um, so yes, uh 115 miling, 115 mile per hour winds. Antarctica is literally another planet that humanity knew very little about. By 1900s, there was more research done on the planet, which is strange because there was actually more research done on Antarctica than like any other part of the world, but nothing compared to Mars. It's as though humanity knew more about Mars than it did about Antarctica. And another problem facing any explorer or slash ship is ice formations. If you wait too long, the ocean will freeze around your ship and lock it into place. So if you try sailing up to it and you hesitated for hours to a day, you would be locked into place. And there you sit for the rest of the season. However, it gets worse from there. If your crew can't escape, then your ship will be crushed by that ice. Like two glaciers coming at your ship as though your ship is a hard-boiled egg, it will come in and and literally just break apart the entire ship. And there's been many, many cases where there have been a lot of lives lost due to this phenomenon.

Kara 18:02

Titanic episode coming soon.

Ed 18:04

Um kinda sort of.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

That would be the sound.

Ed 18:15

So Titanic was more like a Mario Kart race. The premise behind the Mario Kart race is Titanic survived the blue turtle shell, it survived the red turtle shell, it it survived the banana pills. But that action got sniped by a green turtle shell. And that's what brought that whole thing down. Was a rogue iceberg out of the middle of nowhere that just like cleaned its clock. So what I'm talking about is like when you hang out in Antarctica, um you're getting hit with one blue turtle shell after another blue turtle shell after another blue turtle shell, three more red turtle shells, uh boombox, and then four more blue turtle shells. That's kind of what it's like to hang out in in the uh the Antarctic area. So now that we kind of got that that foundation, let's talk about some uh key players in the game. We are talking from like 1900 up to like 1917. Probably the biggest one leading up to the events that I'm talking about is a guy by the name of Ernest Shackleton. I'm sorry, enemy of the name of Shackleton is kinda epic.

Kara 19:43

He looks epic. Look at his picture.

Ed 19:45

Yeah, if you look at his picture, he just looks like a rough and tumble man.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

He looks like he like uh who's the who's the dad from uh to kill the mockingbird?

Ed 20:00

Gregory Peck or Atticus Finch?

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Atticus Finch.

Ed 20:05

I can see that.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Yeah, yeah. That's just like what I could think of.

Ed 20:09

Yeah, yeah. He he looks like a man.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Like just a man.

Ed 20:15

And a lot of people. He attributed like leadership is like if I'm gonna go on an expedition where there's leadership, I'm gonna with Shackleton. And Shackleton was born February 15th, 1874, and he kind of croaked off in January 5th of 1922. He was the principal figure in what is known as the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. He was the third officer to the Robert Falcon Scott, I don't know, expedition or exploit in 1901 to 1904. We're going to hear more about Robert Falcon Scott here in a little bit. But this was the Discovery expedition. But Shackleton was sent home due to medical reasons. However, prior to being sent home, Shackleton, along with Scott and Edward Adrian Wilson, managed to reach in a uh a southern latitude of 82 degrees south, which was a world record. If you think about it, like 82 degrees south is within like what is it, like a hundred hundred and fifty miles of the South Pole. So right now the goal is just to like get down for the lack of better words, just get as south as possible. Just like, yes, I just saw your looks. Both. If you you're like South is possible. Anyways, we'll edit that out. Um later on Kara's is like, oh God. We're getting demonetized.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

I'm just laughing because Kara's still laughing.

Ed 22:20

Yeah. In her like Eskimo outfit.

Kara 22:27

Yeah. I'm comfortable. Yes.

Ed 22:31

Yep. Comfortable that far south. I'm comfortable. Um okay Shackleton later on. Shackleton later on led what is known as, and I don't know why it's so funny to me, but it's the Nimrod expedition.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

I like that too. I like that a lot. That's pretty good. It kind of sounds like the stupid expedition, you know, like Nimrod expedition. Those idiots.

Kara 23:03

Those those idiots.

Ed 23:05

Those Nimrods. Yeah. Uh well it yeah. Well, I mean, from 1907 to 1909, Shackleton and three other companions established a new record further south of 88.23 degrees south, only 97 miles from the geographical south of the pole. However, Shackleton utilized one of Scott's depots, and this is where we see a little bit of animosity. We've got Robert Falcon Scott who like manned the ships to get down. And Scott was like, okay, I'm gonna set up shop here and here and here and here, but then Shackleton later on used those spots to base his own exploration, and uh uh that kind of pissed off Scott. Like, I don't know, I I I I can kind of see where he's coming from, I can totally see why he would be a little upset because it was Scott who built those those structures and those base camps. It was Scott that created all of that stuff only for some dude to come in and utilize all that just to get further south. So now we are we're in a race, and the race is now to get to the South Pole. So now we are introduced to Rold Amundsen July 16th, that's when he was born, 1873. Guy croaked off June 18th, 1928, and I just want you ladies to just take a look at this guy and soak it in.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

I I really want that coat with a long face, though.

Ed 25:11

Yeah, he's uh um because he's in a big coat. Oh my god, yeah. No, he is sorry, I fixed my camera. He is um, I don't know. He is like I'm I'm pretty sure Carrie, you'll you'll have his picture loaded up on the website. You just look at a monsoon and you're just like, oh he looks like Nasferatu.

Kara 25:34

He Nasferatu.

Ed 25:36

Yes, he he looks like a guy who is serving a purpose, and he looks like the kind of guy that is out for one thing and one thing only. Once you see this picture of him, you will completely understand where we're coming from. He was a a grim Norwegian explorer that focused heavily on the North Pole side of things. This guy, uh, he was more invested into the Northwest Passage. Uh, while he was up there, he studied how people lived in the Arctic Circle, like the Nitsilik. I apologize if I butchered that. Maybe it's the Nysialic? Yes, it's people up there, and the Inuit as well as like the Eskimos and and all that. He observed how they how they ate, how they ran dog sleds, utilized furs instead of woolen coats. It was quickly discovered that like fur coats would repel water better. So, like, if you ever see a picture of Scott versus a Munson in Antarctica, you'll see like a Munson is just covered in furs. He learned that from the Eskimos, he learned that from the Inuits, he learned that like adopting what the animals wore in the area would be more beneficial than what wool and technology and all that kind of stuff would impart. So Amunson is this kind of guy that's just like, hmm, okay, this is what everybody else is doing. This is what I'm going to do. He was real quick to like uh well, well, he was really quick to adopt their fursade skills, their survival skills, their arctic skills. Like, you name it, this guy was all over it. All of this would pay off in spades down the road in in the Antarctic. So that's a munson. He's actually a really, really impressive guy. He's also a very respectful guy, and he kind of did a douchebag move where he purposely put our main protagonist in a really, really tough spot. But the way that he approached it is like, hey, look, I'm I'm just gonna steal the South Pole from you, I'm just gonna take it that way from you. But you are doing a crap ton of research into the science, and your role is gonna be more scientific. My role is going to be, hey, where do I go where like my little magnetic compass goes crazy? So here we kind of begin a professional rivalry. Enter Robert Falcon Scott. This dude has an epic name. Robert Falcon Scott. I kind of want to name, if I ever have a boy, I kind of want to name him Falcon Scott.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

It's pretty, pretty uh aggressive name there, yeah.

Kara 28:59

The funny thing is, this guy looks like an everyday dad in Britain hanging out with his kids drinking tea. Yeah.

Ed 29:09

Well, here's the thing is that Falcon Scott is, yes, he's a dad. He's an explorer, he's a high-ranking commander, he's also a really good writer. So yeah, um, Falcon Scott, June 6, 1868, to, well, unfortunately, as we're gonna find out with his compatriots, uh, March 29th, 1912, that's where the rest of them died. Uh, he was a British Navy officer. Uh, he was awarded the Cross of the Victorian Order. He led the Discovery Expedition from 1901 to 1904, and it was in this expedition that launched a lot of exploration careers. So we've got Shackleton, we've got Edward Wilson, we've got Frank Wilde, we've got Tom Crean and William Lashley. All of these guys contributed significantly to the contributions of Antarctica, and a lot of these guys also published papers that kind of helped America land on the moon because the territory was so strange and so outlandish that they even found creators out there that had been sitting there all this time. So Scott was a fairly good leader and a very competent writer. I've read some of his stuff. Most people don't cherish British poetry, but I kind of like it. And I and I'm looking at poor Kara, who's just like, oh dear, nobody, nobody likes British poetry.

Kara 30:51

It's okay. Again, it has its place. I can't knock it too much.

Ed 30:56

Yes, it it has its place for about 10 minutes.

Kara 31:01

It's not my cup of tea, let me put it that way. And that's fine. That's just my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

She's so nice.

Ed 31:09

She is.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

She's like it's other people like it. That's cool.

Ed 31:14

You don't understand. She's like, this is trash. This is all garbage. Um you're a horrible, horrible human being if you like this crap. Meanwhile, Kara's like, it's not my cup of tea.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

It's not. That's okay. She's like, I love that you love it though. Yeah, I love that for you.

Ed 31:40

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

If it makes you happy, then I'm I'm obsessed with that. Yeah.

Ed 31:47

Um, I don't know if that's healthy or not, but I kind of like British poetry, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

It's okay.

Ed 31:58

Um, it's a guilty pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Um it's okay.

Ed 32:04

But yeah, no, like uh Falcon Scott, he was through and through a British military commander, and he was very charismatic, and he's like the kind of boss that everybody wants to work for. And the reason being is that he never blamed anybody for anything for any reason. He's like, huh, okay, well, we we take a ship and it's gone. So um, instead of pointing fingers, what can we do better? And I actually kind of have to give a lot of respect to this guy because he wasn't very patronizing, he wasn't mansplaining, he wasn't the kind of guy that just like, hey, I know you're the one that effed up and you're the one that sank our ship. He wasn't like that at all. And I have to give a degree of respect to a guy, even on his death bed, I guess, maybe death snowbank or whatever. Death Sled. Oh, oh my gosh. Most epic rock band name ever.

SPEAKER_04 33:26

Death Sled.

Ed 33:27

Death Sled. Even on his Death Sled, he never once blamed anybody. He never once said that like I was lacking support, I was lacking this or that, or somebody screwed me over. He's like, nope, this is where I'm at. I'm gonna die here, and that's because everybody around me did everything they possibly could, and I appreciate that. Not knowing that most of the people around him didn't do what they could. So let's get into the uh Scott versus Amundsen competition in 1909 1909, that's right, words are hard. In 1909, when Shackleton returned with a record setting 80 degrees south, both Scott and Amunson took it upon themselves to actually get to 90 degrees south. This was a sort of gentlemanly contest as both Scott and Amundsen they really did actually respect each other. The mutual respect was due to the for the most part that Amunson kept to the north and Scott kept to the south. However, in 1809, I feel like this should be 1909.

Kara 34:58

No, they went back in time, they're explorers.

Ed 35:00

Nope, I just fixed it. 1909, thank you, Backspace. In 1909, Amunson lost a lot of funding for an exploration that he was playing to the North Pole. So, in other words, this guy was like, I got my dogs lined up, I've got my homeboys lined up, I've got my boat lined up, and then when they when he finds out the last second that uh Frederick Cook and Robert Perry, they just claim the North Pole, thus beating Amunson. This is a huge problem for a Munson because he's like, that was the whole purpose of my exploration. So all of this for that? Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

Sick.

Ed 35:48

Yeah, he's like, cool.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

I just went through all of that for this, and great.

Ed 35:55

We're screwed. Amunson wasn't stupid though. On June 3rd, 1910, Amunson loaded up his ship called the From Fram. From Fram Fram F-R-A-M. I'll let you figure out that pronunciation.

Kara 36:12

Yeah, like the uh the company that makes oil filters.

Ed 36:16

Really?

Kara 36:18

They make like cheap oil filters for cars. Got it. Fun fact from Kara. The more you know.

Ed 36:25

It's the From Homeland Schein stupid stuffin'. Yeah.

Kara 36:31

That's it.

Ed 36:33

It's from. Um he started sailing towards Portugal, but he never told anyone, even his crew, that they were going to be changing their heading towards Antarctica. No one knows why Amunson kept everyone in the dark, but it was viewed as like a super shady move. In other words, Amunsen kept everybody in the dark in terms of like, hey, we're gonna sail across the Atlantic vertically and then head to south and land in Antarctica, and um I'm just gonna venture out and uh claim the South Pole. So that was kind of his plan. We don't know why he didn't voice anything about it, but you know, hey, you play the game that you want to play the game. While uh Amundsen was in Portugal, he eventually told his crew of the change and sent a telegram to Scott saying, and this is a legit telegram saying beg to inform you from proceeding to Antarctic dash Amundsen. In other words, hey bro, I'm mean no disrespect, but I'm gonna take the South Pole away from you. I'm sure he was really stoked about that. Uh yeah. That's how that excited. That's how you make friends.

Kara 38:18

Yeah. Yeah, that's the way to go.

Ed 38:23

So yeah, the From landed in Ross Island or the Ross Ice Shelf in January 14th, 1911, and set up the From Hein uh base camp off the coast of the Bay of Wales. If you have no idea what that entails, that's fine. You're not gonna find a map that's gonna accurately depict that. Thankfully, I have a picture in our show notes that shows what the Bale or the Bay of Wales looks like.

Kara 38:55

It looks nothing like a Bay of Wales, it looks like a bay, and I'm disappointed with the lack of whales. There are no whales, not on this picture at least. Where's Willie?

Ed 39:06

Yeah, no, all all the whales have gotten eaten.

Kara 39:10

I hate that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

Well, hey, in all fairness, you could have saved that information in your little pocket there.

Ed 39:18

Well, they kind of needed the whales to survive, so I don't know. I don't blame them so much. It's not like these guys were like, oh look, a whale, let's shoot it. Um it's more like, hey, we're starving to death. We need that whale. So yeah. Meanwhile, on June 15th, 1910, Scott's converted whaling ship, the uh the famous Terra Nova was getting ready to set sail. I do have another picture in here. The uh Terra Nova is like a cool-looking ship with a weird smokestack. Um, that smokestack was attached to a 13 horsepower diesel engine. Nice. Dang. Yeah, dude, worse. This thing. Dang, Gina. This thing was like, we're gonna book it. When I unlock all 13 ponies, it's on. Not realizing that, you know, your top fuel drag racer is 13,000 horsepower, but we don't need the club the issue with facts. So Scott stayed behind to finalize some funding for the expedition. A year prior, Scott sent Cecil Mary's to Siberia to look up some of the famous sled dogs in the area as well as the Manchurian ponies. Only problem is that, well, Miraz had no idea what he was doing. He he had no experience whatsoever in ponies or sled dogs and and whatnot. So a total of 33 sled dogs and 19 ponies were stuffed into the parent uh stuffed into the Terra Nova and off they went. Here's the key part though. Scott also acquired three motorized sledges, these were diesel-powered uh hit and miss engine sleds that could literally just power their way through anything for the foreseeable future. So Scott was a real big player in terms of utilizing technology, utilizing the latest and greatest of dogs and ponies and and whatnot. Because Scott had to stay behind to wrap up some business, he had to meet up with the Terra Nova in South Africa to Saude yawn, Kara. No yawn, no yawn. She's just waving and sign.

Kara 42:12

Little have you known. I've yawned at least five times. I know we're we're we're we're gonna make this happen. I'm sorry, everybody. It's past our bedtime. Yes on a school night.

Ed 42:25

I know it's a school night, and this is a hot mess. We're doing it. We're doing it.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

It's the end of the school year, we're a hot mess, and this is what you get. I don't know.

Ed 42:37

Just wait until I get to the part where everybody dies horrifically.

Kara 42:42

That's what I'm waiting for. Okay. Yep. Usually.

Ed 42:47

So so yeah, the turnover landed in Melbourne, Australia in October. It was there that Scott got a telegram from a Munson that said, Hey, pardon me, I'm heading towards the south, and I'm gonna take the South Pole away from you. So Scott was kind of pissed about that. The problem was that a Munson had a huge head start. Scott was none too thrilled about this. The expedition was charted to primarily be scientific, and reaching the South Pole was like the second aspect of it. Like, hey, we need to conduct science, but then we also want to hit the South Pole. And that's kind of like where the foundation laid. And believe it or not, it was the Terra Nova that almost sank in a storm that reached uh the Ross Island or the same location as the Discovery and the Nimrod expeditions, used as their base camp. Their ship got like jammed up. This is where it kind of Um, the Terra Nova got smooshed up in between two glaciers, and there it hung out for 20 days until it could break its way loose.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

That's a long time. Yeah, that sucks.

Ed 44:16

Yeah, yeah, it's a very good time. It's how you live your best life.

Kara 44:21

Nope. That's not it.

Ed 44:23

Shockingly, though, Scott made it to Ross Island on January 4th, 1911, and he kind of beat everybody else, which was kind of impressive. So Scott did lose one of his motorized ledges and a pony.

Kara 44:44

Not the ponies.

Ed 44:45

I'm I'm literally thinking of that scene. Hey, Carrie, you know what I'm talking about. That scene from um never-ending story where I trey you loses his horse.

Kara 44:58

Oh no! We literally just talked about this in class.

Ed 45:05

Traumatizing. It's very traumatizing. So let's take a second and dive into the explorer strategy strategy? Strategy. There we go. Words are hard.

Kara 45:19

It's late. It's fine. You're doing great.

Ed 45:21

I'm it's only 10 25. We got this.

SPEAKER_03 45:25

Late for me. This is a very that is very late, sir. Very late. But we're fine. We're good.

Ed 45:32

This is a very complicated episode.

Kara 45:35

I know. That's why I'm trying not to interrupt too much.

Ed 45:38

Yes, same. But the yawnings are I'll turn off the camera. You're like I'm just gonna shut down this camera. Hang on, let me fix my camera.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

No, it's it's I'm here for it. I'm over it.

Ed 46:04

Alright, there we go. So this part here is gonna trigger some folks. The overall strategy between a Munson and Scott is kind of the same thing. Just executed a little differently. The plan to get this to the South Pole is broken down into two parts. One, setting up depots. These depots were strategically placed along the path where there would be an abundance of food and heating oil and dog food and you name it. Probably the most famous one is One Ton Depot, which was like a thousand or so miles out from the base camp. This made it so that the exploring team could progress further without having to worry about coming back. Both explorers tried to set up depots at around 80 degrees south, 81 degrees south, and 82 degrees south. Scott also set up numerous other camps slash depots all over the place for scientists to do their work. This is probably the biggest difference between the two. Um, Scott's plan was twofold. One, keep the scientists doing their work so that he could have a lot of time to come back. The idea was that hey, let's set up your geologists and your your zoologists and your bacteriologists, and let's set up everybody all over the place so that when I'm coming back from the South Pole, I'm in a good shape and I can get reinforced and whatnot. Well, sort of. So the Terra Nova would be around to support the science staff in whatever way possible, including making runs to New Zealand for supplies as needed. The issue is that the Terra Nova would just randomly disappear, it would just just you know, trail off into the sunset.

Kara 48:22

That's the opposite of what we want it to do.

Ed 48:24

That's kind of what it needed to do. Okay, because that was the only way that the exploration could get more fuel, get more food, and dog food and whatnot. Got it. So here is where the dogs and meals come into play. At the end of the day, the dogs and mules serve two purposes: one, haul as much provisions as far as possible, then they would die, and then be eaten for energy. So, yes, these guys were living off of dogs and meals. I'm not saying I'm cool with that, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_03 49:10

Yeah, you gotta take care of yourself, yeah.

Kara 49:15

It's it's it's the South Pole, it's like one of those things where you kinda just have to survive. Yeah, in that point. Yeah, yeah.

Ed 49:26

Well, and in when you look at somebody like Amundsen, who's like our sole diet is gonna be based off of dog meat because he packed along like 65 dogs or something crazy like that, where uh Scott didn't do that, you know. At the end of the day, it's just like, hmm, this is a crappy situation. How can we figure this out and how can we survive?

Kara 49:54

Yeah, it's kind of rough. It is no no pun intended.

Ed 49:58

Oh goodness. But yeah, no, it's it's one of those things where it's just like, oh my god, this is horrible, but it's also the fact of life. This is how you land people in the most hospitable regions known to mankind. So let's look at Scott's events. Scott's events as you scroll through the notes, it's pretty lengthy. There's a lot, it's also very complicated. It is very much a um, I don't know. It's very much one of these cases where did it have to be this complicated? But then again, though, yeah, it kind of had to be this complicated. So on September 13th, 1911, Scott revealed his plan to get to the South Pole. The plan consisted of a 16-man crew who would be set out at once, so like all 16 men were heading out at once. This group would consist of two remaining motorized sledges, ponies and dogs, for what is known as the barrier stage. The barrier is the crazy limb of Beardmoor Glacier. Once above this limb, it would be like smooth sailing in here and out. So imagine the Beardmoor Glacier is like this awful climb until you get to the point where it's like, oh, it's leveled up. It's not so bad. We're just gonna just keep going. So once the 16 men reached the Beardmoor Glacier, then the dogs would be turned to the base and the ponies would be shot for food. This is where it gets kinda brutal. Thereafter, 12 men in three groups would ascend the glacier via a good old system of manhauling the sleds. So, a major part of this expedition is reliant on humans pulling these sleds. Eventually, three men from the 12 would return back and leave a stockpile of food behind for the return home. Ultimately, four men supporting Robert Falcon Scott would be chosen to achieve the ultimate prize of reaching the south. So we've got Edward Wilson, who is an artist, a doctor, a naturalist, and explorer. We have Lawrence Oates, who is a British officer, and then we have Henry Robertson Bowers. This guy was only like five foot four, but built like a mule, and was in charge of the depot placements and was a good friend of Wilson. And then you've got Edgar Evans, Welsh Royal Navy petty officer, just an overall good leader. And at this point, the five men would hand pull their sleds to reach the South Pole, and that is where I want to stop for the night.

Kara 53:32

We're gonna stop at pulling sleds, but wait, where are they going? They're going to the South Pole. Do they make it? What's the rest of the plan?

Ed 53:41

They do make it.

Kara 53:42

It's a good cliffhanger. It's a good cliffhanger. I like it.

Ed 53:45

I don't plan on making this a two-parter, but I'm really tired.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

Same. I got that. Should I make it a two-parter? Well, I I think it would be really nice. I think it would be smart to do uh because this is kind of a big portion and it's complicated and a little bit complex. Yeah. So maybe going into it when you're not feeling exhausted also would be smart.

Kara 54:18

Also, I'm tired. You're tired. And on top of that, too, though, if you put it into two parts, it's probably more digestible for listeners.

Ed 54:27

Yeah, because we haven't even.

SPEAKER_03 54:29

That's why I'm thinking like the complexity of it might be nice to we haven't even got to the complex part of it.

Kara 54:35

Yeah. So if you Well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. If you put it into two parts, it'll be more digestible for reader for readers, for uh listeners. Because you there's all that backstory and stuff. And then if you choose to, you can binge it, or if you need to take like five minutes, take five minutes and then come back. Yeah. If that makes sense. Like a little pause in the middle before it gets complicated.

Ed 55:03

Well, yeah. And that that's kind of one of the reasons why I want to stop here. And it's because I kind of respect these guys.

Kara 55:13

Yeah, we want to tell the story, right?

SPEAKER_03 55:14

We want to do it justice, yeah. Yeah, I totally. Yeah, that's what I'm that's yeah, that's kind of what I'm saying. You want to go into it with a clear mind, a clear spirit, yeah. Soul.

Ed 55:26

Spirit, yes, because you know, I'm full of spirit.

SPEAKER_03 55:30

That is.

Ed 55:33

But yeah, no, I I I feel like this is a good spot to kind of hang up on. I wasn't intentioning this to be a multi-parter, but I think to do it right, it needs to be a multi-parter. As I'm scrolling through and I'm looking, oh my god, these guys are in like bad shape. Yeah, I I I think it's one of those things where I think these guys have kind of earned a uh a place in society where it's a two-parter.

Kara 56:07

Where they get two pots, they deserved the two pots.

Ed 56:12

Two pots? Two pots? Topots! That's just two pots.

SPEAKER_03 56:18

Two pots.

Kara 56:21

So yeah, what's that? What is happening?

Ed 56:25

So yeah, it's like the middle of the night, and I really want to do this right. And um, so yeah, let's um let's stop it here and then let's pick it up after the school year tries to kill us and um go from there. Um that I I can totally see the resolution in your guys' faces as you're like, thank god.

Kara 56:56

It's because you said end of the school year.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

I was just like, oh my god, it's uh it's so close. We got this. We are so close.

SPEAKER_04 57:10

We're so close. We're so close.

SPEAKER_03 57:13

We got this. I keep giving my my students like the pep dog. I'm like, we got we got this, guys.

Kara 57:19

That's it. I was like, you gotta focus, we gotta get through it.

Ed 57:23

You guys are doing fine. You're doing fine. Just keep it up. Failure is always an option.

SPEAKER_03 57:31

Yeah, you're gonna you're you're gonna it's fun. We're gonna we're gonna survive.

Ed 57:36

Failure is always better for re enrollment, so you're fine. We love it. So yeah, that's where we're gonna leave it off. And um, yeah, catch you in the next time.

SPEAKER_03 57:54

Yeah, thanks, Ed. So yeah. Thanks for the cliffhanger hanger.

Ed 57:59

Yeah, yeah, you guys were just like super thrilled.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

Well, I mean, I was I was back into it after the conversation we had. I was like, all right, we got the page.

Kara 58:08

I was waiting for it, and then and then he's like, eh, that's our gonna stop.

Ed 58:13

It's a good it's a good stopping point once I remember where I stopped.

Kara 58:18

Um maybe mark it on your notes somewhere.

Ed 58:22

Uh yes. Put a pin in it.

Kara 58:24

Yeah, put a pin in it.

Ed 58:25

I'm just gonna highlight all of that. There you go. Yeah, there we go. That's good. Yeah. So yeah. Perfect. In the meantime, we hope you keep it a hot mess, and we'll catch you the next time.

Kara 58:38

Thanks for listening. Thanks, guys. Bye. Bye.