The remaining crew of the Terra Nova (ship) returned to New Zealand, from where a coded message was cabled to the expedition's organiser in Britain. The fate of the expedition's team became public knowledge on 11 February 1913.[9][10] A memorial oak was planted in the street leading to the harbourmaster's house in Oamaru, from where the message was relayed. The next memorial was erected in Queenstown, where two stone tablets were attached to a boulder in the Queenstown Gardens. A few months later, a memorial was erected in Port Chalmers, as this was the last harbour where the Terra Nova had visited before proceeding to Antarctica.[6]
Description
The statue of Robert Falcon Scott is located on the corner of Worcester Street and Oxford Terrace in Christchurch Central City, New Zealand. The centrepiece of the statue is a 2.6 metres (8 feet 6 inches) hand-carved marble sculpture depicting Scott in a Polar dress. He holds a patinated bronze alpenstock in his right hand facing north. On top of a concrete foundation, the monument is placed on a stone plinth made of several granite pieces that had been mortared together. From the Scott Memorial Reserve, a grassy and bricked area, steps ascend to the granite plinth.[1][11] The statue's white marble is supposed to symbolise the Antarctic's ice.[12] The statue weighs about 2.5 tonnes (2.5 long tons; 2.8 short tons).[13] A grassed space, a pond, a fountain, and garden beds surround the statue. The statue is also commonly known as the Robert Falcon Scott Memorial or the Captain Scott Memorial.[1]
In 1917, The Press, a Christchurch-based newspaper publication, described the statue as "Fortunate in many things – in the beauty of its surroundings, in its fine open spaces, in the wise provision of its founders manifested in other ways – Christchurch is not least fortunately endowed in its statues of public men".[14][15]
History
An image of Kathleen Scott (c. 1900). Captain Scott's widow and sculptor of the statue.
The Mayor of Christchurch, Henry Holland, called for a public meeting to organise a memorial fund within one week of the news of Scott's death in February 1913. Though Scott and his associates had died almost a year earlier.[16] A committee was formed and over £1,000 was raised for the memorial. While the form of the memorial or its location had not been decided upon, the committee wrote to Scott's widow and enquired about her thoughts. This resulted in her being engaged to sculpt a statue of her late husband.[17][18]
The commission was for Kathleen Scott to create a replica of the bronze statue erected in Waterloo Place in London, England in 1915.[11] The rising costs of metal and bronze caused by World War I made marble a more cost effective option. She travelled to carve the statue in a marble quarry in Carrara, Italy, in March 1916, as the importation of marble into Britain had been banned.[17][12][18]
The statue was finished in April 1916, but was not shipped until October of that year due to the war.[18][6] A large crowd gathered in Central Christchurch on 9 February 1917 at the intersection of Worcester Street and Oxford Terrace to see the unveiling of the memorial by the governor-general of New Zealand, The Earl of Liverpool who stated "Captain Scott represented everything best in the traditions of the British Navy, and were he alive to-day [sic]". Mayor Henry Holland stated that "the memorial to Captain Scott would remain a permanent reminder to the generations of the future that the Englishmen of these days were worthy upholders of the noblest traditions of their race", as several speakers reflected on the explorers' scientific contributions.[19][11]
Inscriptions
An inscription on the plinth, which includes the names of his party of five which died and one of Scott's last diary entries, reads:[19][11]
ROBERT FALCON SCOTT CAPTAIN ROYAL NAVY Who died returning from the South Pole, 1912, with A. E. Wilson, H. R. Bowers, L. E. G. Oates, E. Evans.
I do not regret this journey, which shows that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great fortitude as ever in the past.
A further inscription below the one commemorating Robert Falcon Scott, is an inscription recognising the statue's sculptor, Kathleen Scott, that reads:
This statue was sculpted by KATHLEEN SCOTT FRBS (1878–1947) widow of CAPTAIN SCOTT and was unveiled in 1917.
The statue was toppled off its plinth by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.[12] Unattached to the plinth, the statue was fell to the base, with its head buried in the ground and broken below its knees. Some damage was caused by people attempting to "dig out" around the head. The statue was lifted on 4 April 2011, from their location inside the Central City Red Zone, which suffered significant damage during the earthquake. The statue was later craned onto two wooden plinths and transported to a storage facility.[20] It was on display during the November 2012 Icefest, and from January 2016, in Christchurch's Earthquake Museum, which is part of the Canterbury Museum, in City Mall.[21][22]
Restoration
During the restoration of the statue, four carbon fibre rods were inserted from foot to waist in each leg, strengthening the rebuilt statue. Inside each leg, carbon fibre strands were used to weave the rods together. The estimated cost of restoration work was $560,000, but $900,000 was insured.[12] Restoration of the statue was completed 2017; the statue was unveiled a second time in a ceremony in its original location on 6 October.[12] It was unveiled by the descendants of Scott and Lianne Dalziel, former Mayor of Christchurch.[12][22] Shortly after the restoration, the statue was vandalised by someone snapping off his alpenstock (or walking pole) in his right hand. A staff member from the Christchurch City Council later found the broken alpenstock in a nearby garden.[13]
Significance
The story of Antarctic exploration was surrounded by ideas of inspiration and patriotism, which the memorial illustrates. For many people in the community, the memorial is still a symbolic portrayal of bravery, heroism, and endurance. For both national and international visitors with an interest in Antarctica, the memorial is an important site for commemoration. Every year, the New Zealand Antarctic Society hosts a ceremony to lay wreaths on the memorial.[19]
On 26 November 1981, the statue was registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category II historic place, with the registration number being 1840. It is one of seven memorials that Kathleen Scott sculpted after her husband's death. It also demonstrates Christchurch's connection with Antarctic exploration, being the base for Shackleton and Scott in the past, and being the "Gateway to the Antarctic" by providing the Italian, New Zealand and American bases at the present time at Christchurch International Airport.[17]
^"Captain Scott". The Press. No. 15822. Christchurch, New Zealand. 10 February 1917. Retrieved 22 November 2024 – via Papers Past.
^"A Christchurch Memorial". Colonist. Vol. LV, no. 13650. 15 February 1913. p. 6. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2011 – via Papers Past.
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