Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912)

Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912)
Autograph letter signed to Vice-Admiral Sir Albert Markham, H.M.S. Majestic, Channel Squadron, 9 April [1900], 3 pages, 8vo.

Scott's reaction to his appointment to lead the Discovery expedition, to the cousin of its instigator. 'I think I appreciate the seriousness of the undertaking and I can only hope some to justify my selection ... there is a great deal to be done'; Scott looks forward deferentially to hearing Admiral Markham's advice, and considers his prospects of promotion (to Commodore) in June - 'it will really be rather an injustice if I do not get it then'.

At this date in fact Scott's appointment to the command of the National Antarctic Expedition was considerably more in doubt than he appears to believe: although his release (and that of Charles Royds) at Clements Markham's request had been approved by the Admiralty, his fitness to command the expedition was strongly called into question at a meeting of the joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society on 18 April, and after prolonged wrangling the post was not formally offered to Scott until 9 June. Admiral Markham played an important if unwitting part in Scott's eventual appointment, for it was on a visit to his cousin's Royal Navy Training Squadron in March 1887 at St Kitt's that Clements Markham saw the then Midshipman Scott winning a cutter race, and marked him down as a polar prospect.