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THE "ANTARCTIC 100" MEMORIAL
Unveiled on 6th June 2003
By Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal
On the 15th June 1910, the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain
Robert Falcon Scott, CVO RN made its Final departure from United
Kingdom Shores. This memorial overlooks the old outer lock gates
at Roath Basin, the point from which Scott's expedition ship the "Terra
Nova" sailed from Cardiff to the cheers of vast crowds of well wishers.
Prior to the departure, Scott had launched a national appeal for
funds and the money donated by the City of Cardiff and South Wales
exceeded that contributed by any other city in the UK. It was in
recognition of this generosity that Scott designated the city as the
home port of the "Terra Nova". She was to return to Cardiff three
years later to a nation in mourning for one of its heroes.
The expedition ended tragically and created one of the great legends
of the twentieth century. Scott's supreme achievement was that he
touched the imagination of his country as no other man had done
and possibly had done since. With his dying message, eloquently
told in his diaries and handwritten in desperate circumstances he
challenged whatever was finest in the British temperament.
"The causes of this disaster are not due to faulty organisation but to
misfortune in all risks that had to be undertaken….
Had we lived, I should have a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance
and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart
of every Englishman.
These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale"…..
Desiged and Sculpted by Jonathan Williams
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