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Chapter 3 - The Ponies

0 n October 27th, the Terra Nova arrived in Wellington, New Zealand. When Scott came off the ship, a newspaper man walked up to him.

‘Captain Scott! Captain Scott! Can I talk to you, please’ he said.

Scott stopped and smiled. ‘Yes, of course,’ he said. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘Are you going to win’ the man asked.

‘Win’ Scott asked. ‘Win what?’

‘Win the race to the South Pole, of course,’ the newspaper man said. ‘It’s a race between you and Amundsen, now. Look at this!’ He gave a newspaper to Scott. Scott looked at it. It said:

Scott’s face went white. ‘Give me that’ he said. He took the newspaper and read it carefully. The newspaper man watched him, and waited. ‘Well, Captain Scott,’ he said at last. ‘Who’s going to win this race? Tell me that!’

Scott looked at him angrily. ‘This is stupid’ he said. ‘It’s not a race! I came here to learn about the Antarctic - I’m not interested in Amundsen, or in races!’ Then he walked back onto his ship, with the newspaper in his hand.

Later that day, he talked to his men. He gave them the newspaper, and laughed.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘We’re in front of Amundsen, and we have more men, and more money. He has only eight men, and a lot of dogs. I know about dogs - they don’t work in the Antarctic. We have sixteen men and the new motor sledges they are much better. And tomorrow the ponies are coming.

We need ponies, motor sledges, and good strong British men that’s all. Forget about Amundsen! He’s not important!’

Scott asked Oates to look after the ponies, but he did not let Oates buy them. When Oates first saw the ponies, in New Zealand, he was very unhappy. Most of the ponies were old, and some of them were ill.

‘They’re beautiful ponies, Titus,’ Scott said. ‘They come from China - they’re wonderful ponies!’

Oates looked at them angrily, and said nothing. Then he asked: ‘Where is their food, Captain?’

‘Here’ Scott opened a door.

Oates looked inside. He thought for a minute. ‘We need more food than this, Captain Scott! These ponies are going to work in the coldest place on earth - they need a lot of food more than this!’

Scott smiled quietly. ‘We can’t take more food on this ship, Titus. Where can we put it? But it doesn’t matter, old boy.

They’re very strong ponies, you know. The best ponies on earth.’

Later that night, Oates wrote a letter to his mother. There are nineteen ponies on the Terra Nova now, he wrote. All the ponies are in a small room at the front of the ship. We eat our food in the room under the ponies, so our table is often wet and dirty. Scott makes a lot of mistakes, I think, and Antarctica is a very dangerous place.