[dramatic music] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Extraordinary.

Iconic.

Lethal.

These incredible ships have told our story for the past 400 years and defined what it means to be part of our island nation.

[gunshot fired] I'm Rob Bell.

And in this series, I'll be exploring Britain's greatest ships.

In this episode, I tell the amazing story of the Royal Research Ship Discovery, a ship that sets sail on a voyage to the last uncharted continent on the planet, Antarctica.

DAVID WILSON: The equivalent in our age was going to the moon.

There's no two ways around it.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): A journey that would attract the world's most famous explorers.

ALI GELLATLY: Shackleton became just desperate.

He wanted to be part of this expedition.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Discovery was the first ever purpose-built scientific vessel.

And she ignited a global passion for exploration.

♪ ♪ Designed to withstand the harshest conditions on the planet, the Royal Research Ship Discovery was the strongest ship ever built when she was launched.

She was a ship conceived for one mission, an expedition that would capture the imagination of the world, a journey to the uncharted South Pole.

♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Not only did this ship have to travel through the roughest seas imaginable and traverse the thick pack ice of the Antarctic, she also had to be a base camp for expeditions, a laboratory for scientific discovery and a home to protect her crew.

Discovery's mission reignited Britain's passion for exploration and would make two of her crew members the world's most famous explorers, two men, who, with their determination to explore Antarctica, would become bitter rivals-- Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton.

♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): At the end of the 19th century, the Antarctic was the last great uncharted continent on the planet.

But in the years running up to Scott's famous journey, the idea of a polar expedition was seen as an extravagant folly.

The last mission to the Antarctic had taken place over 50 years earlier, and had been led entirely by the Royal Navy.

Ross's 1839 expedition had been a success, but had cost the Navy hundreds of thousands of pounds for not very much in return.

British Naval power was needed elsewhere, and polar expeditions were seen as dangerous, expensive, and futile.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But one man wouldn't take no for an answer, the head of the Royal Geographic Society, Sir Clements Markham.

He was determined to see a British expedition take on Antarctica.

And when Markham managed to raise money from private backers, the Navy didn't want to be left out and decided to match his funds.

With funding secured, now a ship was needed.

It would have to weather the harsh winter surrounded by sheet ice, so it would need to be robust.

But first and foremost, it had to be a scientific research vessel.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And as the ship would be conducting incredibly detailed magnetic surveys, it created the first dilemma for the shipbuilders.

♪ ♪ If I was here on a metal-hulled ship, a compass would be thrown off by all the iron and steel around.

In fact, the scientists on board Discovery were so worried about the effects on their magnetic equipment that when they discovered the cushions in the saloon here had metal buttons, they ordered them all to be replaced.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Not having an iron hull was a huge problem.

To survive a winter in the Antarctic, the ship would have to be incredibly strong to resist the crushing pressure caused by the freezing ice.

When water freezes, its volume expands by almost 10%.

Now, this is a real problem if you're in a boat.

Because as water freezes, it wants to expand into the space your boat is occupying.

Well, here's one I froze earlier.

And you can see that the freezing of the water, as it turned into ice, has actually expanded and put pressure on the hull of the ship, and actually crushed that hull of the ship, not what you want in the middle of a frozen ocean.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): To counter the effect of the ice, Discovery wouldn't just have to be the strongest wooden ship, but the strongest ship ever built out of any material.

And over 100 years later, it's a testament to the builders expertise that this ship is still afloat here on Dundee's quayside.

But in 1899, finding a company to build the ship was proving difficult.

ALI GELLATLY: One of the main problems when you're looking to build a wooden ship in the start of the 1900s is simply that so many of the shipyards around the world had now moved on to metal, and the skills just were not there.

This was not a dead industry, but it was certainly in decline.

There was only one place in the whole of Great Britain that still built wooden ships, Dundee.

And that's because a huge part of this city's economy back in the 19th century relied on whaling.

Whales provided loads of stuff from fuel for street lamps, support for ladies' corsets, even handles for knives and forks.

You couldn't get away from it.

And the best whaling grounds were out and up towards the Arctic, where ships risked being trapped in the ice.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): This 100-year-old industry had learnt the hard way how to build a ship that could navigate the ice floes of the Arctic.

ALI GELLATLY: Wooden ships were tried and tested in the polar regions.

They were known to be strong enough and flexible enough to survive the extreme conditions they would face.

And so if you're looking for building a ship that's going to manage to survive, hopefully being trapped into the ice, you follow the tried and tested route.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But the unknown waters of the Antarctic would test even these shipbuilders.

As a precaution, the hull was over 2 feet thick in places, making her stronger than any ship that had gone before her.

One downside of this design is that you couldn't have portholes looking out, as they'd compromised the strength of the hull.

So to let light and air down into the lower decks, they came up with these mushroom vents, although the crew were quick to rename them ankle bashers.

No prizes for guessing why.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): With the shipbuilding well underway, Markham looked for a man to lead the expedition.

Markham wrote in his diary that he wanted a Naval officer in the regular line, young and a good sailor with experience of ships under sail.

He must have imagination and enthusiasm, be calm, yet quick and decisive in action.

Little did he know that he'd met the man he was looking for 12 years earlier.

♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): At the age of 18, a young Naval cadet, Robert Falcon Scott, had won a clipper race in the West Indies when Markham happened to be watching.

There's no doubt Markham kept a very sharp eye on the young officers of the Royal Navy.

And he said that Scott was on his shortlist.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And as Markham was whittling down that shortlist, he bumped into Scott in London.

♪ ♪ This was the first time Scott had heard of the expedition, and two days after the chance meeting, sent a letter volunteering to command the ship.

[birds chirping] ROB BELL: Scott was made captain of Discovery in June 1900.

And for such an arduous mission ahead, he was careful to handpick every member of crew himself, all bar one.

The third officer was chosen by the expedition's backers.

His name was Ernest Shackleton.

♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Shackleton had joined the Merchant Navy at the age of 16 and had progressed quickly through the ranks.

Shackleton was made aware of the expedition and became just desperate.

He had to be on this.

He wanted to be part of this expedition.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): In the Merchant Navy, officers had to treat their crew with more leniency as they could easily jump ship.

But Scott, with his Royal Navy background, was more of a disciplinarian.

And these two leadership styles were fundamentally at odds and destined for conflict.

♪ ♪ ROB BELL: Captain Scott now had his crew.

They were all ready to go, but the ship wasn't.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And this was a big problem, as the ship had to be in Antarctica before the winter set in.

ROB BELL: The only way to avoid this would be to minimize Discovery's sea trials, a period of intense testing to find all of her problems and iron them out before going out on a long voyage.

This decision would put the entire crew's lives at risk on her very first voyage.

Discovery was the strongest ship ever built, with her hull of solid wood ideal for dealing with the ice sheets and icebergs she'd meet on her mission to Antarctica.

But on the first leg of her journey, shortcuts to reach the South Pole before the Antarctic winter had put the ship in a precarious position.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Not long after leaving Dundee, six feet of water had seeped into the ship's hold, coming through some badly-sealed joints in the planking.

ROB BELL: With no place or time to stop, Scott and his crew were forced to carry out emergency repairs whilst at sea.

Now, this involved a process called caulking.

And to do caulking, you need some of this stuff called oakum, which is hemp, like what they used to make ropes that's been treated.

And then using a mallet and an iron like this, you'd wedge the oakum down into the gap between the planks that needed sealing.

But of course, these emergency repairs were far from ideal.

And until they reached land in New Zealand, Scott and his crew would have to hope that this lasted.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Incredibly, after an 11,000 mile journey through the roughest seas on the planet, the makeshift repairs had held strong.

The ship limped into Littleton harbor, where she was immediately sent to dry dock to properly seal the planks.

As the ship was being worked on, Scott turned his attention to buying all the supplies they would need.

♪ ♪ Captain Scott ordered up the provisions for at least three years.

And some of those included-- let's have a look here.

We've got sledges, tents, furs, alcohol, aptly described as medical comforts.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): As well as taking on stores in New Zealand, Scott had to bring on board some new crew.

Seven sailors had been dismissed for not meeting Scott's high standards.

One of their replacements was a young man named Clarence Hare.

He was a clerk and had no experience of life at sea, but he longed for adventure and signed up on the spot.

His role was to act as Scott's personal steward.

But in his spare time, he struck up a friendship with the sledge dogs on board, something that was against the direct orders of the ship's officers.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): These were not pets.

They were working animals here to help Scott conquer the Antarctic.

Dogs have been used to pull sleds for over 1,000 years, starting with natives of Alaska and Northern Canada.

And today, I'm going to give it a go.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Amazingly, dog sleds were still the preferred method of transport in the Antarctic right up until the 1970s.

What is it about this breed of dog, then, these Huskies, that makes them so good for pulling sleds?

Siberian Huskies have been doing this for the last 2,000 years.

So through evolution and selective breeding, they chose the dogs that didn't need to eat too much food.

They had big thick coats.

So they were very efficient.

They weren't losing energy.

So they could keep themselves insulated.

They're incredibly light on their feet, so they cover a lot of distance without expending a lot of energy.

These dogs are trained to pull sleds.

All they want to do is run.

And you can see and you can hear how excited they are, now they know they're actually going to go out for a run.

I think I'm good.

Am I?

MARY CARTER: That's it.

ROB BELL: Strap in?

I am definitely putting my seat belt on here.

MARY CARTER: OK, let's go.

Let's go!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And this is some speed down that bit there.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott had been advised to take Siberian Huskies by Norwegian Explorer Nansen, as they were the breed best suited to the extreme conditions of the Antarctic.

ROB BELL: Good turn.

Wow.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Wow.

MARY CARTER: Yeah.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): On board Discovery, Scott had taken 23 dogs in total, which were all encouraged to breed freely on the long journey over.

After three weeks in New Zealand, Discovery finally set sail for the Antarctic on the 21st of December, 1901.

The deck of Discovery was a hive of activity.

The ship was packed with three years' worth of supplies, including live animals.

Among all this madness, one man could be found quietly painting the Antarctic vista in front of him, Edward Wilson.

My great uncle was Dr.

Edward Wilson, who was the vertebrate zoologist and artist on the Discovery expedition and the junior doctor.

But his principal job was collecting specimens and painting them and preparing them for the museums back home various other little jobs he picked up along the way.

At one point, he was the wine caterer because he didn't drink.

So he could be trusted to make sure everyone got a fair measure.

And he wasn't drinking the wine bottles on the quiet.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Within two weeks, land was sighted and Scott carefully selected a mooring to house the ship for the long, cold winter, a place he aptly named Winter Quarters Bay.

ROB BELL: Scott knew that the freezing pack ice would put a huge pressure on Discovery's hull.

So the plan was to moor the ship directly into the ice shelf.

If he could blast out a hole in the ice using explosives, [vocalizing explosion] he could then moor the ship directly into the gap he'd created.

As this ice was already frozen, it wouldn't expand anymore.

And the ship would be protected on three sides.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott's plan worked, and the ship was safely docked in its icy port.

As the regular crew set about building a base of wooden huts, it was time for the scientists to get to work.

ROB BELL: Working from this custom-built onboard laboratory, the ship's biologist, Thomas Hodgson, discovered 500 new species, including marine animals, spiders, shrimps, and shellfish.

But if he wanted to dissect something larger, like a seal, maybe he'd commandeer this table here in the wardroom.

Officers then would often be eating their meals where a large marine mammal had just been taken apart just hours before.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The scientists all had officer rank and were treated to certain luxuries.

But one perk soon turned into a poisoned chalice.

The officers on board Discovery had their own private cabins.

The only downside of this was that without the extra body heat from other men around, these spaces got incredibly cold.

Ice would frequently form on the walls.

And Scott reported that when he was working at his desk, he had to bury his feet in a box of straw to keep them warm.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Despite the extreme cold, Naval etiquette was still observed.

For the officers, dinner in the wardroom was quite a formal affair.

They ate off specially commissioned Royal Doulton china, using specially commissioned silver cutlery.

And to Scott's surprise, apart from the odd glass of wine, there was very little alcohol consumed.

And every Tuesday they'd hold a debate.

It could be a scientific subject one week, something more topical the next, all very civilized, indeed.

There was lots of different things that the men did to amuse themselves.

They put on theatrical performances in the hut where they all dressed up.

All sorts of different activities-- sports days out on the ice, where they play all sorts of games and things and win prizes.

And one of the key things was the "South Polar Times."

The "South Polar Times" was a newspaper published on board Discovery.

It was edited initially by Shackleton, and later by Scott.

And it was a means of recording events and news on board the ship, and a way of publishing articles and giving information, a bit of entertainment for the crew.

We've got some events of the months here.

Where are we?

July 27, Snowball, one of the dogs, gave birth to four pups.

You can see how something like this would have made a massive difference to what was otherwise monotony on board.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): As the Antarctic summer fast approached, Scott could relieve the men's boredom by getting them prepared for the ship's real mission-- exploration.

Suited and booted, the men set out on the Antarctic ice.

But it quickly became apparent that the crew had gravely underestimated the Antarctic conditions.

Blizzards were intense, and the all white vista meant that men could get lost just 30 yards away from the ship.

And on the 11th of March, the crew were confronted with the life and death stakes of polar exploration.

ROB BELL: A party was returning from a sledge mission when they were struck by a blizzard 10 miles from Discovery.

The men were ordered to abandon their tents, their sledges, and even their dogs to try and make a dash back to the ship.

The snowfall was so heavy, they could barely see two yards ahead of them.

And on a descent down a steep slope, two men disappeared and were given up for dead-- George Vince and Scott's own steward, Clarence Hare.

It seemed as though the Antarctic had taken its first two victims.

The Royal Research Ship Discovery was designed and constructed to withstand the most inhospitable environment on the planet, the Antarctic.

But in March 1902, two men found themselves 10 miles from the safety of Discovery, caught in a blizzard and given up for dead.

Clarence Hare was a late addition to the expedition.

He was a clerk and had no previous polar experience, no previous sailing experience.

This was a man who just was excited by the chance to go.

On the 11th of March, Clarence found himself separated from his mates.

With no equipment to build a camp or even light a fire, he knew his chances for survival were slim.

Lonely and discouraged, he sat down to die and let himself drift off to sleep in the snow.

But whilst his crew had given up on him, one of his friends refused to do so.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): In a howling blizzard with temperatures dropping to minus 60, Clarence lay dying.

But extraordinarily, his favorite dog, Kit, managed to find him and by snuggling in next to him, provided just enough heat for Clarence to survive the night.

In the morning, Kit licked his face until he regained consciousness, and then helped guide him back to the ship, where Clarence went on to make a full recovery.

His crewmate, George Vince, was never seen again.

His disappearance reminded the men of the real dangers of polar exploration.

But Scott had his orders and was keen to press on with Discovery's mission.

He wanted to explore the great ice barrier and the frozen desert beyond.

For the journey, he'd need 19 dogs pulling five sleds laden with supplies and two brave men.

Scott knew that one of the men joining him had to be the ship's assistant surgeon and his best friend on board, Dr.

Wilson.

Uncle Ted knew it was the greatest honor on the ship.

Everybody wanted it.

But he also had mixed feelings because they had just discovered emperor penguins breeding.

And he really thought he ought to be out and about, finding more out about those.

And he thought this was going to be terribly dull in comparison with the possibility of spending time with emperor penguins.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Wilson encouraged Scott to add another man to the expedition, his third lieutenant, Ernest Shackleton.

The most famous trio in polar exploration had just been assembled for a trek that would almost cost them their lives.

On the second of November, 1902, the three men set off on the most ambitious polar expedition that had ever been attempted.

Their aim was to get as far south in a straight line as they could on the barrier ice, and reach the South Pole, if possible.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The expedition started well.

And Scott, with the help of his dogs, was making good ground.

The dogs were usually full of energy and desperate to run.

But after a few days, the men noticed that they were weakening and struggling to pull the heavy sleds.

When they examined the dogs, they found that they were bleeding from painful sores.

The biggest problem for the dogs was the food that they were being fed.

When Scott was planning the expedition, he took the advice of Nansen.

And Nansen had recommended not only the dogs, but also the type of food they should take, a particular type of fish.

Scott was taking the food from Norway and going south, which meant going through the tropics.

This is thought to have spoiled the food in the hold, which meant they were actually poisoning them.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): As the dogs got sicker and started to die, Scott had to face some tough choices.

The decision was then made that what they would do was feed the dogs who had died to the other dogs, the fitter dogs.

DAVID WILSON: Scott loved animals, Great British trait.

And he didn't like the idea of killing dogs to feed to other dogs and so on.

So my great uncle, being the biologist, ended up doing most of that dirty work.

And they carried on until they shot the last of the dogs.

And then they had to start manhauling.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott, Shackleton, and Wilson now had to do the work of 19 dogs, pushing the men to near exhaustion.

After nearly two months of marching, it was the height of the Antarctic summer-- Christmas Day.

For the men out on the ice, it was just another long, cold day of relentless marching.

But back in the warmth and safety of Discovery, it was time to relax and feast.

As you may well be able to imagine in the Antarctic, turkey was in rather short supply.

But there was one bird that the expedition found in abundance.

On Christmas Day, the men of Discovery sat down to enjoy a dinner of roast penguin.

They ate lots and lots of penguins and huge amounts of seals.

In two years, they killed and ate over 500 seals.

Now for us, that's horrible to think of.

But for them, this is just the livestock they're able to get when they're down there.

The seal meat is apparently very tasty and was a real delicacy for the men.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): It had one very important feature that would protect them from a disease called scurvy.

It's caused by a lack of vitamin C in the diet.

And strangely enough, the Antarctic offered a remedy.

Pound for pound, seal liver has almost as much vitamin C in it as an orange.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The men on board Discovery were kept healthy on a diet of fresh seal meat.

But for Scott, Shackleton, and Wilson, it was a very different story.

ROB BELL: Away from the ship, the men would have to live on this stuff.

It's called pemmican.

It's made up of ground up meat and mixed with fat.

Now, that might not sound or look too appetizing, but it had one incredibly useful quality.

At room temperature, this stuff would last for up to five years.

In freezing conditions, it was good for at least 20, perfect for a polar expedition.

Now, if the men needed a really quick energy boost, they might slice a piece off and just chomp that back.

But if it was meal time and they felt really fancy, they'd make it into a stew, a stew they called hooch.

It was quite a simple recipe.

It had three ingredients-- pemmican, sled biscuits, and melted down snow or ice.

So let's give it a shot.

Start to melt down my ice here.

Whilst we're waiting for that ice to melt, though, I'm going to break up my pemmican here.

Let's get a chunk of that off.

It's quite hard, actually.

[grunting] There we go.

You can see all the bits of ground up meat within the fat here.

Let's chuck that in.

Hope you're watching, Delia.

Now, a final ingredient, we get some of these biscuits, which is very simply flour, butter, more fat, and a bit of salt.

Hopefully, a bit of flavor, kind of.

Let's crumble those in there as well.

All right.

Well, that needs a bit of time on the stove there.

It's actually not looking too bad.

It's definitely more stew-like now.

I should probably try a little bit here.

It's not the worst thing I've ever had.

It's not the best either.

It's quite bland.

It does taste quite fatty.

Well, that was the point.

It's about getting calories in.

But for the men out on the polar expeditions, sometimes, this would be all they'd eat for up to six months.

I'm not sure I could stomach that.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Due to this limited diet on their expedition south, Shackleton was suffering from the symptoms of scurvy.

He was exhausted and coughing up blood.

And on the 30th of December 1902, the expedition reluctantly decided to turn back.

They'd traveled further south than any human in history.

On the journey back, the expedition went from bad to disastrous.

Wilson was now suffering from snow blindness and was forced to pull his sled blindfolded to ease his pain.

There is strong sunlight reaching the snow and ice, reflecting extremely strong intensity of radiation.

It feels as though you've got sandpaper on the inside of your eyelids.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott was faring only slightly better, thanks to a simple piece of equipment.

And I've been given the privilege of getting my hands on it.

And just here, I have the actual pair of goggles worn by Scott on this expedition.

Be very, very careful with these.

That were once worn by Scott.

Oh, actually, look at this here.

It's got his initials RFS carved in there.

You can see they're made from a single piece of wood that have been carved out with these slits cut in to be able to see out of.

And not only would this have severely limited his vision, but would have offered next to no UV protection at all.

I mean, looking at this now, it seems incredibly basic and rudimentary.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Despite the suffering of Wilson and Shackleton, Scott couldn't afford to let the two men rest and press them as hard as he could.

Scott ordered for everything that wasn't absolutely needed to be discarded.

♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Amazingly, against all the odds, Scott, Shackleton and Wilson managed to march the 400 miles back to Discovery.

But almost as soon as they returned, Scott saw he had a bigger problem.

The Antarctic summer should have melted the pack ice, and Discovery should have been floating on the open sea.

ROB BELL: But when he returned to the ship, he found that she was completely frozen in still, surrounded by 20 miles of ice.

It looked as though Discovery would never be freed up.

To free her, Scott sent teams of men to saw through the ice.

Now, I've got a thick block of ice here and a saw.

So let's give that a go.

And Scott's men would have been doing this all day long in freezing cold conditions.

And after 12 days, they'd managed to make two parallel cuts of 450 yards.

But the open sea was still 20 miles away.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott knew that it was hopeless trying to free the ship, and had to break the hard news to the crew that they'd be staying in the Antarctic for another long winter.

But some men would return home on the relief ships.

The most famous person to have been sent home, unfortunately, was Shackleton.

Shackleton did want to stay.

He wanted to continue.

But it was seen as a potential detriment to his health.

It was a risk that they were not willing to put up with.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott's real motivation for sending Shackleton home has been debated by scholars for over a century.

It's rumored that Scott was furious with Shackleton when he found out that he'd hidden his scurvy symptoms before they set out on the expedition.

There have been allegations that there was a real fallout between Scott and Shackleton and that that was the reason why Shackleton was returned back.

There are various stories about what did or didn't happen on the ice.

And there's no verification because there were only three men who actually do know what happened on the ice, and they're all long since dead.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): In the spring of 1903, Scott was keen to make the most of being stuck in the ice and planned another expedition.

So the second year, expeditions get sent out to fill in the gaps on the map, to see whether the bits of land that have been discovered are islands, separate islands, or whether they're all joined together in one huge probable continental mass.

Scott, again, set off, and this time, came across something completely unexpected.

They came across a completely ice-free area, what's now known as the Dry Valley.

You might as well have been on Mars, except for the thicker atmosphere.

♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): On this expedition, Scott's traveled hundreds of miles, climbed thousands of feet, and collected hugely important fossils.

It was the most comprehensive mapping of Antarctica that had ever taken place, and provided scientific data that still used today.

And they do a journey which was the equivalent of the crossing of Greenland.

It's one of the greatest polar journeys ever made, and nobody's ever heard of it.

It's extraordinary, really.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott finally returned to Discovery on Christmas Eve, 1903, and found that once again, his ship was stuck in the ice.

Two relief ships arrived in January 1904, bringing Scott an ultimatum in a sealed telegram from the expedition's backers in London, "Free the ship by the 25th of February or leave her behind."

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott now threw every available resource into freeing the ship, sending men with saws, pickaxes, and even explosives to break up the ice.

The problem there is you don't want to damage the hull.

You can overdo the explosives.

And sea ice is rather bad stuff from this point of view.

It's not like fresh water ice.

It'll smash and brittle like glass.

It's almost bouncy.

So a good bang might look spectacular, but not do much work.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): By the 10th of February, Discovery was still locked in the ice with the relief ships two miles away.

With a heavy heart, Scott accepted that he'd have to leave his ship behind.

But everything that Discovery's crew had recorded over the last two years was far too valuable just to be left in Antarctica.

So Scott gave the order to start offloading all of the scientific equipment and samples.

But then at the last minute, Discovery was given a lifeline.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): After a month of trying to hack their way through the ice, on the morning of the 14th of February, the crew woke to find that the ice had miraculously started to crack overnight.

♪ ♪ The relief ships, Terra Nova and Morning, were now able to push their way alongside Discovery.

ROB BELL: Astonishingly, after two winters, her hull had escaped the whole ordeal almost entirely without damage.

It had lost some of the external sheathing of greenheart wood.

But otherwise, the hull of the world's strongest ship was as good as the day she was launched.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Once clear of the ice, it was plain sailing home.

So when Discovery returned back to Britain in 1904, Scott and the crew were greeted as heroes.

There was civic receptions laid on for them, hundreds of people there to greet them.

They were invited up to Balmoral, and they had the chance for an audience with the King.

This is where Scott was finally promoted to captain.

Because although he was known as Captain Scott and the men called him the captain, Scott had only just been promoted to commander for the expedition.

Publicly, Scott was the toast of the town.

But behind closed doors, the government and scientific community were critical of his handling of the expedition and his failure to reach the South Pole.

With the weight of expectation on his shoulders, Scott began to plan for a second expedition.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But an old colleague was about to beat him to it.

Without talking to Scott about it, Shackleton decides to launch his own expedition.

That's when it all started going very wrong.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Scott did manage to beat Shackleton to the South Pole, only to find that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had got there first just weeks earlier.

Scott died on the return journey, just 11 miles from a food and fuel depot.

♪ ♪ ALI GELLATLY: It's often said that Antarctica gets into your blood, and it's certainly borne out by the way Scott and Shackleton were driven to go back.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): With the race to the pole over, Shackleton set his sights on being the first to cross the entire continent of Antarctica, sea to sea.

But disaster struck when his ship was crushed in the ice.

Shackleton decided to abandon the mission to save his crew.

Undeterred, he would return to Antarctica twice more, dying 10 years later en route to his fourth expedition, one which doctors had warned against.

ROB BELL: The names Scott and Shackleton have become synonymous with polar expeditions.

Their achievements defined the golden age of British exploration and inspired a generation of explorers still to come.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And for the rest of Discovery's crew, their legacy lies in the scientific findings of the expedition.

ALI GELLATLY: They were able to confirm that Antarctica was a continent.

They also proved that at one point, Antarctica had been forested and not an ice barren wasteland that we know it now.

They changed our perception of what Antarctica actually is.

The RRS Discovery is a fantastically important British ship.

It is a great British ship, inspiring on so many levels and changed the course of the scientific history of this country.

ROB BELL: Discovery was the strongest ship ever built at the time, and the first to survive two harsh polar winters.

She was the base from which groundbreaking expeditions were launched and home to two of Britain's most famous heroes.

But her true legacy is science.

She was the first purpose-built scientific ship.

And her true mission was to understand, not conquer.

Today, thanks to an international treaty, Antarctica can only be used for peaceful scientific purposes.

And I like to think this is in no small part, thanks to the way Discovery and her crew first landed there.

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