A signed menu from Captain’s Scott’s ‘last supper’ before his doomed expedition to the South Pole has emerged for sale 115 years on.
Robert Falcon Scott and his fellow explorers were given a farewell dinner before they left for the British Antarctic Expedition in June 1910.
The lavish event was held in their honour at the Royal Hotel in Cardiff, where the Terra Nova ship left from for Antarctica two days later.
The attendees feasted on ‘Terra Nova’ fillets of beef, ‘Captain Scott’ souffle and ‘South Pole’ ice pudding.
The expedition’s ultimate goal was to become the first crew to reach the South Pole.
Capt Scott famously made it there in January 1912 only to find he had been pipped to the post a month earlier by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.
On their return journey across Antarctica, Capt Scott’s five-man party endured dreadful conditions and suffered from a lack of food and frostbite.
Edgar Evans died on February 17, followed by Lawrence Oates, while Capt Scott, Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers died in their tent around March 29.
Robert Falcon Scott and his fellow explorers were given a farewell dinner before they left for the British Antarctic Expedition in June 1910
A signed menu from Captain’s Scott’s ‘last supper’ before his doomed expedition to the South Pole has emerged for sale 115 years on
The attendees feasted on ‘Terra Nova’ fillets of beef, ‘Captain Scott’ souffle and ‘South Pole’ ice pudding
Scott, Evans and expedition photographer Herbert Ponting, who survived, signed the menu back in Cardiff for Barbarians rugby player Colonel Joseph Partridge who had approached them at the dinner.
The menu has passed down generations of the Col Partridge’s family and is now being sold tomorrow by a descendant at auctioneers Rogers, Jones & Co, of Cardiff.
Auctioneer Ben Rogers-Jones said: ‘This is a very rare item indeed.
‘The front of the menu is signed by Capt Scott and fellow expedition crew members including Teddy Evans, Edgar Evans, Herbert Ponting and Robert Forde.
‘Two days after this dinner a large, excited crowd cheered the Terra Nova as she departed Roath Basin in Cardiff’s ‘Tiger Bay’ with the doomed British Antarctic Expedition starting its race for the South Pole.
‘Evans was the first to die on the return march from the South Pole.
‘Captain Scott’s links with Cardiff are commemorated by the lighthouse erected in 1915 in Roath Park Lake and the bronze plaque of 1916 on the staircase in City Hall. In June 2003 a commemorative sculpture was unveiled in Cardiff Bay.
‘The farewell dinner was hosted within the ‘Alexandra Room’ of the Royal Hotel in Cardiff, and a memorial dinner for Captain Scott was held at the hotel three years later.
‘The room is now named the ‘Captain Scott Room’ in his honour and an annual dinner of commemoration is held by the Captain Scott Society on the anniversary of his farewell meal.’
