Tuesday 10th November 11.00am Casa Cultura, Javea Old Town
All Javea U3A members are welcome and entry is completely free of charge!
Few figures in British history provoke as much intense, contrasting debate as Captain Robert Falcon Scott.
Group Leader Keith Smith will ask was he a heroic, tragic visionary undone by exceptionally freak weather, or a rigid Victorian naval officer out of his depth in the brutal realities of of Antarctica?
In This one-hour presentation Keith will strip away the romanticism of the “Heroic Age” to look objectively at the facts.
We will look at his early career under the shadow of a dominant British Empire to the pioneering science of his first trip to Antarctica, the Discovery Expedition.
We will examine the critical decisions that sealed the fate of his final journey, popularly known as the Terra Nova Expedition.
The session will feature a direct operational comparison with his rival, Roald Amundsen, providing an unbiased look at the transport choices, supply strategies, and leadership styles that separated survival from disaster. Was it predestined that Scott would lose out, or was it just bad luck?
Finally, Keith will trace how Scott’s reputation has radically shifted over the last century—evolving from an untarnished imperial hero to a symbol of bureaucratic failure, and now back again.
Has history been cruel or kind to Scott?
Come along and join us at Casa Cultura, Tuesday November 10th . Talk starts at 11am. All welcome!