0:00:08 > 0:00:13In 1902, an expedition set out from Scotland to conquer Antarctica
0:00:13 > 0:00:15in the name of science.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22It was led by a man called William Speirs Bruce.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31In 2011, I agreed to retrace Bruce's journey to Antarctica,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36following in the footsteps of a scientific explorer and photographer
0:00:36 > 0:00:41who has become all but lost to history.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47In 1923, according to his wishes,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50the ashes of William Speirs Bruce
0:00:50 > 0:00:54were scattered right here in the southern ocean.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58There was a time when William Speirs Bruce was a household name,
0:00:58 > 0:01:04but by the time his mortal remains were settling onto the sea bed, he was all but a forgotten man.
0:01:13 > 0:01:19William Speirs Bruce was one of a small group of explorers who took to the stage
0:01:19 > 0:01:23as the great age of exploration was drawing to a close.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28Many before them sought adventure, fortune
0:01:28 > 0:01:32and staked claim to vast territories in the name of God and country,
0:01:37 > 0:01:42but the last explorers didn't plant flags. They planted ideas.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47Ideas that helped shape the modern world we know today.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00'The Nevis mountain range is where my expedition begins
0:02:00 > 0:02:04'with one of Britain's top polar guides, Jim McNeill.
0:02:04 > 0:02:11'At this time of year this is as close to a polar climate as you can find in Britain,
0:02:11 > 0:02:17'which is why William Speirs Bruce also came here to prepare himself as best he could
0:02:17 > 0:02:20'for his expedition to Antarctica,
0:02:20 > 0:02:24'an expedition whose remarkable achievements have been overshadowed
0:02:24 > 0:02:30'by the exploits of Britain's better-known polar heroes for far too long.'
0:02:31 > 0:02:35What sort of location are you looking for, Jim?
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Well, we're not here to mountaineer.
0:02:38 > 0:02:44We're here to try to get a similar situation to the Antarctic during summer.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49- So if we dig a trench... - I'm basically digging my own grave.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52- Yeah, pretty much.- Great. OK.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01'Before we set off south, he needs to make sure I have a grasp of basic survival techniques.
0:03:02 > 0:03:08'Simple things that really could make the difference between life and death.'
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Try it out for size.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21- Instant silence. - It is, isn't it, yeah?
0:03:21 > 0:03:25- That's amazing.- As soon as you get out of the wind, everything changes.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28It's much like stepping indoors.
0:03:31 > 0:03:39Bruce was 26 when he came here, one of just a handful of people in the country who'd been to Antarctica.
0:03:39 > 0:03:45Whilst still a medical student, he had sailed to Antarctica as a ship's surgeon and naturalist
0:03:45 > 0:03:47on a whaling trip.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56There Bruce had glimpsed a world of untapped scientific potential
0:03:56 > 0:04:01that so captivated him, he declared himself ravenous to return.
0:04:01 > 0:04:08He began to prepare himself mentally and physically for what would be the greatest challenge of his life.
0:04:13 > 0:04:18'He lived at the top of Ben Nevis, Britain's tallest and coldest mountain,
0:04:18 > 0:04:23'for the best part of a year, working at the now-ruined observatory.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27'There he taught himself how to sledge and ski expertly
0:04:27 > 0:04:33'and how to conduct scientific experiments in sub-zero temperatures.'
0:04:37 > 0:04:39- So, hat.- Yeah.
0:04:40 > 0:04:46- This feels so wrong.- I didn't realise you had on so many layers! No wonder you're warm.- Right.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50'I wonder if he ever thought about doing this.'
0:04:52 > 0:04:56- I think this is as far as I'm prepared to go!- That's fine.
0:04:56 > 0:05:02'Apparently, I need to learn to recognise the early warning signs of hypothermia.'
0:05:02 > 0:05:06It might take 10, 15 minutes for it.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12My cheeks and my jaw feel, you know, stiff.
0:05:12 > 0:05:13Yeah.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18It just feels as if... the flexibility is going.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22- And you have to deliberately articulate.- Uh-huh.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25- To get the words out.- Very much.
0:05:25 > 0:05:31So when you're next to someone and they start to mumble, this should ring alarm bells.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36- Start to mumble, start to fumble, then they start to stumble and fall. - Uh-huh.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50It's the fact that it's painful as well. It's not just cold.
0:05:50 > 0:05:56It's almost like being burned. Almost the same sensation of holding your hand too close to a fire.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01You can feel that if it goes on for much longer there's damage coming.
0:06:02 > 0:06:08And my face just feels like it's shrunk. It's not comfortable.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12- Oh, my hands are blue.- Yeah, yeah.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Made the point?
0:06:20 > 0:06:24- Think we've made the point, Neil? - Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, I get the...
0:06:25 > 0:06:30'It's reassuring that Jim will be along to keep me safe on land,
0:06:30 > 0:06:35'but it's not really the land bit that's on my mind.
0:06:35 > 0:06:41'Following in Bruce's footsteps means having to cross the world's most dangerous stretch of ocean.'
0:06:41 > 0:06:47I'm not an intrepid person. I don't go looking for trouble or danger. I don't like it.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51So the thing I'm most worried about is the boat journey.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54It's five or six days in the Southern Ocean
0:06:54 > 0:07:00and I worry about hitting icebergs, hitting semi-submerged containers that fell off container ships,
0:07:00 > 0:07:05being swamped by massive waves, capsizing, drowning.
0:07:05 > 0:07:12I think if I'd known as much about it as I do now, I wouldn't have agreed to do it in the first place.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16I just feel as if I've crossed the Rubicon now and have to do it,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20but it's not the kind of thing I would ever do.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25'William Speirs Bruce was a different kettle of fish.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29'He was so passionate about a return to Antarctica
0:07:29 > 0:07:35'that after Ben Nevis he continued his cold weather training with expeditions to the Arctic.
0:07:36 > 0:07:43'He toured the country with lectures that brought the polar regions to the public for the very first time.
0:07:47 > 0:07:53'And he dreamt up plans for future expeditions that he submitted to august societies.
0:07:53 > 0:08:00'Gradually, the scientific establishment began to pay attention to his beloved Antarctica.'
0:08:02 > 0:08:08Scientifically, Antarctica remained an entire continent of dotted lines and question marks.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Not even the most basic knowledge existed.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Was it formed of ice or was it a group of islands?
0:08:16 > 0:08:18How cold did it get there?
0:08:18 > 0:08:21Could it support life?
0:08:23 > 0:08:28'In 1899, to tackle some of those fundamental questions,
0:08:28 > 0:08:34'the British National Antarctic Expedition was announced to great public acclaim.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39'Britain would explore Antarctica in the name of science.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41'And, of course, Empire.'
0:08:43 > 0:08:45You can easily see why
0:08:45 > 0:08:49it would have been almost literally a clean white slate
0:08:49 > 0:08:55- upon which anything might be written about the Greater British Empire. - Yes.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00In a way, that's what makes the Antarctic so inviting.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04This place literally appeared without a history or a geography.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08Now we know it had both, but it was like a blank slate.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12You could, in a sense, let your imagination run riot.
0:09:12 > 0:09:18Now the weather could be brutal, but if you came back successfully, you could tell good stories
0:09:18 > 0:09:22about national pride, about manly character.
0:09:22 > 0:09:29It becomes an extraordinary space of fantasy. And if you want to fire the imaginations of sponsors,
0:09:29 > 0:09:33let alone wider citizens, there's something quite arresting
0:09:33 > 0:09:39about holding up a piece of paper to say, "We think there's something here. We don't know.
0:09:39 > 0:09:45"Help us fill those blanks in." I think that has a kind of resonance.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49We see it today when we say we must explore Mars or Saturn.
0:09:49 > 0:09:55We just need to go back 100 plus years and it is Antarctica that really is the final frontier.
0:10:02 > 0:10:08'The man in charge of the British National Antarctic Expedition was Sir Clements Markham,
0:10:08 > 0:10:14'the President of the Royal Geographical Society and a creature of the establishment,
0:10:14 > 0:10:20'an ex-Navy officer infatuated with the idea that the expedition would reach the South Pole
0:10:20 > 0:10:23'and plant the British flag there.
0:10:25 > 0:10:31'He commissioned an icebreaker called the Discovery and began hand-picking its crew.
0:10:31 > 0:10:37'Bruce was by then recognised as Britain's most experienced polar scientist and expeditioner.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44'He wrote immediately to Markham, offering himself as leader,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48'but Markham was convinced that only a naval officer would have the right stuff
0:10:48 > 0:10:53'for such a high-profile Imperial venture.
0:10:54 > 0:11:00'The person he had in mind was a young lieutenant with no polar experience whatsoever.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03'His name was Robert Falcon Scott.
0:11:08 > 0:11:14'Bruce was eventually offered the post of naturalist on the expedition, but he turned it down,
0:11:14 > 0:11:18'convinced that science would play second fiddle to adventure.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28'By then, Bruce was already working on an audacious plan for an expedition of his own,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32'one that he would lead in the pursuit of science
0:11:32 > 0:11:37'to an even more dangerous quarter of Antarctica.'
0:11:46 > 0:11:51I had no idea that an expedition that's so forgotten
0:11:51 > 0:11:54is so well documented. The irony of it.
0:11:54 > 0:12:02So what happened was in early 1900, just as the Discovery was being fitted out over in Dundee,
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Bruce, with the support of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10is beginning to prepare his own expedition,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13paid for by "patriotic Scotsmen".
0:12:13 > 0:12:19And it's an idea that very quickly captures the national imagination.
0:12:21 > 0:12:27'A public appeal for funds was launched and Bruce quickly secured the financial help
0:12:27 > 0:12:31'of one of Scotland's richest men, Sir Andrew Coats.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35'When Markham found out, he could barely contain his anger.'
0:12:37 > 0:12:44'Dear Mr Bruce, I am very sorry to hear that an attempt is to be made at Edinburgh to divert funds
0:12:44 > 0:12:49'from the Antarctic expedition in order to get up a rival enterprise.
0:12:49 > 0:12:56'I do not understand why this mischievous rivalry should have been started, but trust that you will not
0:12:56 > 0:12:58'connect yourself with it.'
0:12:59 > 0:13:02This is 1900
0:13:02 > 0:13:10and none of the great, famous adventures by Scott or Shackleton have happened yet.
0:13:10 > 0:13:15And here's Bruce, he talks about setting up a scientific station.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20He made no secret of the fact that it was something that Scotland would be proud of
0:13:20 > 0:13:26and he intended to take the saltire and the lion rampant,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29but Bruce wasn't about
0:13:29 > 0:13:34trying to take those flags to the Pole, to the South Pole,
0:13:34 > 0:13:36and plant them there.
0:13:36 > 0:13:42As far as he was concerned, it was about science. It wasn't just some endurance test.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46He wanted to go there and map the land,
0:13:46 > 0:13:51do a topographical survey, look at plants, look at animals.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54It was real scientific endeavour.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58When these words went to the press,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01there was everything to play for.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23There we go.
0:14:23 > 0:14:29"Scotia in winter quarters, Laurie Island, 1903." That's where I'm going.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44Bruce's ship, the Scotia, sailed out of the Clyde estuary
0:14:44 > 0:14:48on November 2nd, 1902. A Sunday.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55'A rendition of Auld Lang Syne rang out. One newspaper was scandalised
0:14:55 > 0:15:01'that a ship could sail on the Sabbath with pipes playing and people singing profane songs.
0:15:06 > 0:15:12'Two months later, the Scotia stopped for supplies at the Falkland Islands, its last port of call
0:15:12 > 0:15:16'before sailing south for Antarctica.
0:15:19 > 0:15:25'108 years or so after Bruce docked here, it's my turn to depart for the south.'
0:15:27 > 0:15:29It's one of these here.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35One's small and one's smaller than that.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Right. It's the smaller one.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52Dear, oh, dear.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57- Hello, Jim.- Hello.- OK.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00- Right.- This is it.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02- This is home.- Alistair? No, Neil.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05- Neil.- Hiya.- How are you doing?
0:16:05 > 0:16:11- Is this the boat we use to get out to the big boat? - No, this is the boat.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15- The smaller the better. - Really? This is deliberate?
0:16:15 > 0:16:18- It's a counterintuitive situation. - OK.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29It just looks so small.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32I thought it was all icebreakers
0:16:32 > 0:16:37and big ships. If a big wave hits it or the seas got mountainous,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41it would just get tossed about like foam.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Shows how much I know about sailing.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52'Skip Novak, the captain, and Chris Harries, the mate,
0:16:52 > 0:16:57'take on the final supplies for the expedition ahead.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01'And as dusk comes down, we prepare to depart.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06'It's a four-day journey from the Falklands to Antarctica,
0:17:06 > 0:17:11'across the most feared ocean in the world, the Southern Ocean.
0:17:12 > 0:17:18'If anything does happen to us at sea, we're at least two or three days away from help.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46'On our first day out, the Southern Ocean isn't quite what I'd built it up to be.
0:17:46 > 0:17:52'It's idyllic. So much so that Skip allows me to take the wheel.'
0:17:52 > 0:17:57What is it about the Southern Ocean that particularly draws you?
0:17:57 > 0:18:03I wouldn't say it's actually the Southern Ocean. It's getting to the places that lie within it.
0:18:03 > 0:18:09- The Southern Ocean is a thing to be endured, as you'll probably find out.- Yeah, yeah.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14So even after all this time, you still find it has to be endured?
0:18:14 > 0:18:20- After 22 or 23 years down here myself, I've got more fear than when I started.- Don't tell me that!
0:18:20 > 0:18:26You start out pretty cavalier and the more you've seen, the more careful and cautious you become.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28There's no doubt about that.
0:18:31 > 0:18:37How much respect or admiration do you have for sailors who pioneered sailing in the Antarctic,
0:18:37 > 0:18:42- Bruce and Scott, those men? - What we do is not comparable.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47Imagine coming here in those days with no communications, navigating with a sextant.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52- It was a different breed of men. - Uh-huh.- The modern day explorers
0:18:52 > 0:18:56who we hear about on television and read in the newspapers,
0:18:56 > 0:19:01or celebrities going around doing things, I sort of laugh in my beer.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03Well, for sure.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08I...I... When I was faced with the prospect of coming down here,
0:19:08 > 0:19:14I was just...scared. I could feel the colour draining out of my face.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18You can have very high winds, very big seas,
0:19:18 > 0:19:25and coupled with the cold temperatures I think that breeds anxiety when you sail down here.
0:19:25 > 0:19:32You sort of dread getting into a catastrophic weather situation. We try to avoid that at all costs.
0:19:37 > 0:19:43'After Skip's cheering pep talk, I try to make myself useful the best way I can.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49'But even in these mild conditions, it's still a challenge for a landlubber like me.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05'The Scotia's heartbeat was its daily scientific routine.
0:21:05 > 0:21:12'Depth soundings of the ocean bed, dredges of weird and wonderful sea creatures to be examined
0:21:12 > 0:21:15'and meteorological readings to be taken and recorded.
0:21:15 > 0:21:21'This all provided the crew and its scientific staff with their rhythm as they sailed further south.'
0:21:21 > 0:21:27"We had two water bottles - one 12 fathoms from the bottom, the other 500.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30"A surface sample was also taken,
0:21:30 > 0:21:36"and temperatures accompanying all these, since to know the density of the water without its temperature
0:21:36 > 0:21:40"is of no value for obtaining data for oceanic circulations."
0:21:40 > 0:21:46It's just about impossible to make a cup of tea here! The thought of going on deck in a freshening wind
0:21:46 > 0:21:51and trying to mess about with water bottles and thermometers, honestly...
0:21:52 > 0:21:55The way these men were wired up
0:21:55 > 0:21:58begs investigating.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24'200 miles into our journey, the wind has picked up
0:22:24 > 0:22:29'and the Southern Ocean has revealed another side of its nature.
0:22:29 > 0:22:36'Although spared any symptoms of seasickness, the best place to be is above deck or in the doghouse.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42'Jim IS feeling seasick and we still have three or four days to go.'
0:22:46 > 0:22:52I think officially the conditions are "favourable" and really quite good.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57But for a novice sailor like me, they feel extreme, to put it mildly.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02You can't stand up, you can't walk.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06The boat is just being thrown about like a cork.
0:23:06 > 0:23:13The winds could easily be twice as fast or more and the waves, presumably, could be twice as big.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17And the ship could be being battered even more than it is. It's exciting,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21but you also have this... real sense
0:23:21 > 0:23:24of the power out there.
0:23:24 > 0:23:31And that we're fleas riding on a giant's back and at any moment it could just...do that to us.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40'From reading the Scotia's log book, I know how lucky we are compared to them.'
0:23:44 > 0:23:48"On January 28th, the barometer fell steadily in the evening.
0:23:48 > 0:23:54"The next day we encountered a heavy gale which blew with hurricane strength,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58"testing for the first time the seagoing qualities of the Scotia.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03"One heavy sea came on board, the Scotia taking it green.
0:24:03 > 0:24:09"The weather bulwarks were stove in and two of the crew washed into the lee scuppers,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13"while some of the deck cargo went overboard."
0:24:21 > 0:24:27'If I thought it was rough earlier, today the swell is about 6 metres, which is nearly 20 foot.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30'And the wind is picking up.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35'Being on the boat is like being on a fairground ride that you can't get off.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39'The physical challenge has given way to something altogether harder.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45'The mental challenge of simply passing the time.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49'I sleep or sit
0:24:49 > 0:24:53'or climb up to the doghouse and stare out at the sea.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58'The days are dragging. It's all strangely exhausting.'
0:25:00 > 0:25:05It's been four days without sight or sound of anything but us.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10There's not been another boat, there's certainly been no land
0:25:10 > 0:25:14and the only company is the occasional glimpse of a seabird.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18And they look just about as lost as we feel.
0:25:20 > 0:25:26The thought that it took him and his men four or five months to get into these latitudes...
0:25:26 > 0:25:33We've been four or five days and it's been a struggle so if I can't exactly get inside his head,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37I can honestly sympathise with what they must have gone through.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41To come down here from Britain was half a year's effort
0:25:41 > 0:25:46and I honestly don't know what that would do to the inside of my head
0:25:46 > 0:25:50if I had to spend five months on this boat.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52I think messy murder would be done.
0:25:56 > 0:26:02The big excitement here, actually, is that we are shortly - in the context of this journey -
0:26:02 > 0:26:06to cross latitude 60 degrees.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09When we cross over that imaginary line,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12we will officially be in Antarctica.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15And when...when Bruce and his men...
0:26:16 > 0:26:20..made that momentous crossing into Antarctica,
0:26:20 > 0:26:26apparently they all had a measure of grog and probably sang the National Anthem as well.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28I'd like a wee Bisodol myself.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39A bit nippy out here.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43- Even you say that, yeah? - It's dramatically colder now.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47- You've fared pretty well. You haven't been seasick.- No.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51- You're surprisingly robust. - A great blessing, really.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56The funny thing is I can't bear things like rollercoasters.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01The other thing I think of is this line from Bruce when he returned from his first trip.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05- He said he burned with the desire to go back.- Mm.
0:27:05 > 0:27:11- I'm interested to see what it was he saw...- Exactly! - ..that made him want to do it twice!
0:27:11 > 0:27:14We're still north of 60 degrees.
0:27:14 > 0:27:20- Is the ice a potential hazard for us?- Yeah, it has been for the last couple of days.
0:27:20 > 0:27:26We're in the zone where you get big icebergs and you always have associated small bits, growlers.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31This boat's 30 tonnes. If we run into a 20-tonne growler,
0:27:31 > 0:27:37- we're going to do some damage. - Terrific(!)- And that's a needle in a haystack. There's no way to see.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42I look out there and a growler and a breaking wave are all the same.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46The little stuff is luck of the draw.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51- I don't like that thought. - No, it's not good.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13'It's an unsettling enough thought during the day, but it's even worse at night.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17'It's practically impossible to spot growlers in a pitch-black sea.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23'But still we need to keep watch for them through the night.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34'After my watch, I'm exhausted and about to turn in
0:28:34 > 0:28:39'when the radar begins to register large icebergs somewhere ahead.'
0:28:56 > 0:29:01An hour ago, the ocean was empty. There was nothing.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06Since we got alongside that iceberg, it's just teeming.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11There's hundreds, thousands of birds within sight. I just saw a seal. There's penguins.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30Finally, after four days at sea,
0:29:30 > 0:29:34we reach 60 degrees south and officially enter Antarctica.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06And all our iceberg anxiety gives way to sheer awe and wonder.
0:30:06 > 0:30:11All these hundreds of feet standing straight up only makes you wonder
0:30:11 > 0:30:15what vast bulk is sitting underneath to support that.
0:30:15 > 0:30:20It's so big, it's probably sitting grounded on the sea bed.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24You see that beautiful, icing cake, pale blue colour?
0:30:26 > 0:30:28It's got quite a presence.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36It had taken Bruce almost five months to get into these dangerous waters,
0:30:36 > 0:30:42but this was where Bruce's exploration really began, pushing south to find the edge of land
0:30:42 > 0:30:44before winter set in.
0:30:44 > 0:30:51As he sailed on, he photographed and filmed the very first moving images of Antarctica.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56Images that have never been broadcast before.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04As the Scotia crossed the 71st Parallel in the Weddell Sea,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07the temperature suddenly plummeted.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15"At noon, we got into a lot of year-old flat ice
0:31:15 > 0:31:18"and this tightened up, so that we were beset.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22"It is a case for severe patience,
0:31:22 > 0:31:27"being ever ready to adapt our plans to our changing circumstances.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30"Now it is questionable what can be done."
0:31:32 > 0:31:35'After a week trapped in the ice,
0:31:35 > 0:31:37'the ship broke free.
0:31:37 > 0:31:43'Bruce retreated north away from the pursuing ice and towards a group of islands called the South Orkneys,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46'a place only vaguely mapped and charted.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53'It's where we're hoping to make landfall if the ice allows it.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01'Finally, after fighting through heavy seas and storms,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05'The Scotia limped towards the sanctuary of a small cove.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07'Bruce later named it Scotia Bay.'
0:32:10 > 0:32:14Well, we're just arriving into Scotia Bay...
0:32:16 > 0:32:22..which is one of the key places associated with Bruce and the Antarctic.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24And it's God-awful!
0:32:24 > 0:32:26It's a foul night. It's...
0:32:26 > 0:32:28NO SOUND
0:32:32 > 0:32:36'What I was trying to say is that after four-and-a-half days at sea,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40'we arrived during a foul night in freezing cold
0:32:40 > 0:32:43'at a place that looks like the end of the Earth.
0:32:43 > 0:32:50'I can only imagine what sort of sanctuary this must have represented for Bruce and the Scotia.'
0:33:06 > 0:33:11'In Bruce's time, Scotia Bay and the rest of the island was completely uninhabited.'
0:33:11 > 0:33:13SQUAWKING
0:33:13 > 0:33:16'But that's not the case any more.'
0:33:36 > 0:33:40This is just a surreal view.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47Shabby Nissen huts in the middle of nowhere.
0:33:52 > 0:33:58'The huts and outbuildings make up an Argentinian naval and scientific base
0:33:58 > 0:34:01'that completely dominates the bay
0:34:01 > 0:34:05'and sits strangely with the island's natural beauty.'
0:34:15 > 0:34:17It's overwhelming.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23On the approach, the beach is almost guarded by an army of fur seals.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28It's like the smell of a thousand dogs kept in a confined space,
0:34:28 > 0:34:33so I'm trying to imagine what it must have been like for Bruce and his team
0:34:33 > 0:34:37because for scientists like them, this was an unknown world -
0:34:37 > 0:34:43all the discoveries to be made, all the creatures to be seen and examined for the first time.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47They were just getting a toehold...
0:34:48 > 0:34:53..on a world so new, it must have felt like a new planet.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08For all the beauty and scientific promise they encountered,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12the crew of the Scotia were in a grave situation
0:35:12 > 0:35:17and it wasn't long before the pack ice they had escaped caught up with them.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22Just a few days after Bruce arrived here in the South Orkneys,
0:35:22 > 0:35:27that bay behind me froze solid, trapping the Scotia in its grip.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31The ship was beset and Bruce knew it wouldn't be released again
0:35:31 > 0:35:35until the spring thaw in six or eight months' time.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41Stranded on a small spit of land with a damaged ship
0:35:41 > 0:35:45and the unknown challenges of an Antarctic winter looming,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48the immediate priority was to construct a shelter on shore,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52a place they could survive in if the ice pressure crushed the Scotia.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01All they had to build with on the island were these -
0:36:01 > 0:36:04rocks, some no bigger than pebbles,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07but they collected 200 tons of them,
0:36:07 > 0:36:12sometimes having to dig them out of the ice and frozen ground.
0:36:12 > 0:36:17They hauled them into position using sledges, then used a construction technique
0:36:17 > 0:36:20whose effectiveness Bruce could testify to
0:36:20 > 0:36:25because it was the same that had been used to build the observatory on the summit of Ben Nevis.
0:36:29 > 0:36:35And here, except for its roof, over 100 years after it was built
0:36:35 > 0:36:39still stands Bruce's shore base, christened Omond House.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49The timbers here were taken from the Scotia herself.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54The floor is made up from what were once hatches between the ship's decks
0:36:54 > 0:37:01and the walls of the store room behind me were lined with wood taken from boxes of ship's biscuits.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Now, the doorway has long since collapsed,
0:37:04 > 0:37:10but into the lintel that was once here, Bruce carved the motto, "Through life we learn."
0:37:10 > 0:37:16It's a noble thought, but I get the impression that for Bruce, it was more than just words.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20It was an idea, a philosophy that he cared very deeply about
0:37:20 > 0:37:25and it was to become a guiding principle for those who lived and worked here
0:37:25 > 0:37:28during that harsh winter of 1903.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34With a secure shore base, Bruce could concentrate
0:37:34 > 0:37:39on the kind of scientific exploration he had come to Antarctica for.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43His crew began taking hourly measurements of temperature,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46pressure, wind strength and direction.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52They charted the sea through ice and they mapped the island's landscape,
0:37:52 > 0:37:57giving life and character to barren, hitherto nameless places.
0:37:57 > 0:38:03And Bruce documented it all, making a remarkable collection of images,
0:38:03 > 0:38:08the most detailed archive of Britain's first wave of Antarctic exploration.
0:38:15 > 0:38:21Among Bruce's images are the very first moving pictures of Antarctic wildlife.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24These were probably taken near to Scotia Bay
0:38:24 > 0:38:27at the Point Martin penguin colony.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31PENGUINS SQUAWK
0:38:43 > 0:38:49Here, Bruce took some of his most remarkable wildlife photos,
0:38:49 > 0:38:52but this penguin colony quickly became something more
0:38:52 > 0:38:56than just a subject of scientific and photographic study.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Faced with surviving an Antarctic winter,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02it became the crew's larder.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09"We chose a good, prosperous-looking bird
0:39:09 > 0:39:13"and brought down a club with a murderous smash on its head.
0:39:14 > 0:39:21"The most depraved sportsman could find no sport in that it was sheer, cold-blooded, unskilled murder
0:39:21 > 0:39:28"whose only excuse was that we were hungry and needed fresh food to keep us alive and healthy."
0:39:32 > 0:39:38Bruce and his men were soon actively looking forward to meals of penguin eggs and penguin meat.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43Apparently, they particularly liked penguin meat with fried onions
0:39:43 > 0:39:45or cooked in a curry sauce.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48And all of this says a lot about Bruce the man.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52Bruce knew that such a diet would prevent scurvy
0:39:52 > 0:39:56and would therefore maintain the health and well-being of his men.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00And the lives of his team were lives that Bruce held very dear
0:40:00 > 0:40:03and he understood very keenly
0:40:03 > 0:40:08that this environment was capable of snuffing out their lives
0:40:08 > 0:40:13if incompetence or any kind of mishap were allowed to intervene.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32Bruce lost one man that winter -
0:40:32 > 0:40:37Allan Ramsay, the Scotia's chief engineer.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39And he died not from misadventure or mishap,
0:40:39 > 0:40:45but from the heart disease he had carried with him from Scotland in his arteries.
0:40:46 > 0:40:51Bruce chose this spot for him, facing north, the side closest to home.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06As spring arrived and the pack ice melted,
0:41:06 > 0:41:10Bruce sailed again, leaving behind a small scientific shore party.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14First, he went back to the Falklands for supplies,
0:41:14 > 0:41:16but the coal was too expensive,
0:41:16 > 0:41:21so he went on to Buenos Aires where the crew received a heroes' welcome.
0:41:22 > 0:41:28In Buenos Aires, Bruce petitioned the British Ambassador to allow him to claim the islands for Britain
0:41:28 > 0:41:33and he requested more funding for his scientific research.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38But on both counts, he was refused, perhaps not surprisingly.
0:41:39 > 0:41:46After all, Bruce was not part of Sir Clements Markham's official British National Expedition.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49His was a maverick Scottish enterprise.
0:41:50 > 0:41:57So when Argentina offered to fund another year of scientific work at the base, Bruce agreed.
0:41:57 > 0:42:03And he returned to the South Orkneys with three Argentinian scientists on board the Scotia.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08# Nelly, Nelly, te quiero... #
0:42:08 > 0:42:13This was the first house they built. Today, it's a seldom visited museum.
0:42:14 > 0:42:20Bruce got wind of the fact that one of the Argentinian scientists had been kitted out with a stamp
0:42:20 > 0:42:23that said "District 24".
0:42:23 > 0:42:27That would be District 24 of the Argentinian Republic
0:42:27 > 0:42:32and Bruce well knew that one of the first steps towards making a territorial claim
0:42:32 > 0:42:35was the setting up of a post office.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40# Mi pasion, mi sentir, mi querer
0:42:40 > 0:42:43# Con tus besos quisiera juntar... #
0:42:45 > 0:42:49So Argentinian scientists came to run the weather station and stayed.
0:42:50 > 0:42:56The permanence of the occupation brought one great scientific benefit.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01The weather records begun in Bruce's humble science observatory in 1904
0:43:01 > 0:43:04have been taken diligently ever since.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08They have become the longest running set of records about Antarctica
0:43:08 > 0:43:15and provide the scientific treasury of over 100 years of first-hand Antarctic climate history.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21# Para encenderla, mi cielo
0:43:22 > 0:43:24# Una frase de amor... #
0:43:24 > 0:43:27Today the base has grown to around 40 permanent staff
0:43:27 > 0:43:30and is no longer just a scientific base.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32It's under military command
0:43:32 > 0:43:37and is part of a territorial claim to Antarctica held by Argentina
0:43:37 > 0:43:40since they set up their post office here in 1904.
0:43:41 > 0:43:47Bruce the scientist, the advocate of international scientific co-operation,
0:43:47 > 0:43:52inadvertently opened the door to a different kind of Antarctic exploration,
0:43:52 > 0:43:58one that was no longer just about exploring and discovering, but about staying and owning.
0:44:18 > 0:44:24I think I'm beginning to understand why Bruce was so ravenous for Antarctica.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28I might not be a scientist
0:44:28 > 0:44:30or an explorer,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33but for me, it's not just the raw beauty
0:44:33 > 0:44:35or the incredible light.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37It's the sense of privilege
0:44:37 > 0:44:41at still being able to witness something wild.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48I can't help thinking that only the wildlife really belongs here.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Human claims of ownership seem impertinent and unnecessary
0:44:52 > 0:44:57until you realise that underneath the penguin rookeries and seal colonies
0:44:57 > 0:45:01are natural resources of enormous potential value.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Bruce departed Scotia Bay
0:45:08 > 0:45:14in February 1904, leaving the expedition's meteorologists behind with the Argentinians.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18A few years after Bruce's departure,
0:45:18 > 0:45:23Britain decided that it was interested in the South Orkneys after all
0:45:23 > 0:45:28and also claimed them as part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34Other countries have since made territorial claims to the continent,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37some of them overlapping.
0:45:37 > 0:45:42There is still no binding agreement about who owns what bit of the continent,
0:45:42 > 0:45:46but nations do agree that there is vital work to be done here.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55GROWLS
0:45:55 > 0:45:57This is Signy Island,
0:45:57 > 0:46:01a British base 40 miles away from Scotia Bay.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09- Derren, how are you doing? - Nice to meet you.- Good to meet you.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14- How far are we going?- Two or three kilometres.- That sounds manageable.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17Just about.
0:46:18 > 0:46:24'It was originally established in 1947 to help shore up Britain's territorial claim,
0:46:24 > 0:46:30'but it has been gathering data on the plants and animals here ever since, for five decades,
0:46:30 > 0:46:35'and today, some of it is proving vital in understanding climate change.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40'Because the islands are in the warmest part of Antarctica,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45'they serve as a kind of early warning system for the rest of the continent.'
0:46:51 > 0:46:53So where are we headed?
0:46:53 > 0:46:58We'll head out to the peninsula straight ahead of us, just to the right of this large hill
0:46:58 > 0:47:04- How many do you think are down there?- In that colony, there's about 1,500, mostly Chinstraps.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08- There's a few Adelies in there as well.- Right. Shall we head off?
0:47:10 > 0:47:15'Derren Fox is a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19'His current project is counting penguins on the islands.'
0:47:22 > 0:47:24He'll do. Come here.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28'Derren and his colleagues have discovered
0:47:28 > 0:47:31'that the penguin population here is in dramatic decline.'
0:47:31 > 0:47:35Pop this little fella in. Try and find you a clean one.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40The population has been dropping quite dramatically over the last 20 or 30 years.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44They've gone down from nearly about 30,000 Adelies.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48I think there are about 19,000 now. It's been dropping quite steadily.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52- It's the same with the Chinstraps. - What's causing that?
0:47:52 > 0:47:54It's probably food-related.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57Give him a little spray on his belly
0:47:57 > 0:48:00All right, you're free to go. Thank you for your help.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05Spray-painting penguins - the things you find yourself doing!
0:48:05 > 0:48:08- They're little bundles of muscle. - Yeah, absolutely.
0:48:09 > 0:48:15'The penguins eat mainly krill, a kind of shrimp that lives under the sea ice,
0:48:15 > 0:48:20'but due to global warming, the habitat where that vital food thrives is disappearing
0:48:20 > 0:48:23'and the krill is diminishing.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28'Without sufficient food, the penguin population is falling too.'
0:48:28 > 0:48:34It's amazing the way...the research that you're doing, the way that their numbers are falling,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38tells you that the volume of krill is being affected in some way
0:48:38 > 0:48:43- and it all fits into a much bigger picture of life at the bottom of the world.- Yeah.
0:48:43 > 0:48:48Studying these top predators is a great way to work out the health of the ecosystem.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53If things lower down are in trouble, it affects these guys dramatically.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57- The sheer volume of krill these guys are taking in is incredible.- Yeah.
0:48:59 > 0:49:05'It's a sobering realisation that the ecosystem here is already under threat,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09'but I suppose it's in discoveries like this that Bruce's legacy lies.'
0:49:19 > 0:49:24Antarctica was made famous by Boy's Own adventurers
0:49:24 > 0:49:28like Scott and Shackleton and Amundsen.
0:49:29 > 0:49:34But William Speirs Bruce the scientist was here first.
0:49:36 > 0:49:43And it's scientists who have continued to make this place their own.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47There is still the occasional endurance stunt
0:49:47 > 0:49:51that brings short-lived public attention to Antarctica,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54but all the while in the background,
0:49:54 > 0:49:59it's science and the scientists who are down here sharing this place with the wildlife
0:49:59 > 0:50:02and doing the long, slow, diligent work
0:50:02 > 0:50:05that informs our present
0:50:05 > 0:50:08and that is making predictions about our future.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12And I'm sure Bruce would be quietly satisfied
0:50:12 > 0:50:17to learn that while the Boy's Own characters have come and gone,
0:50:17 > 0:50:20it's the scientists who have remained
0:50:20 > 0:50:23and it's science that has marked the time.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35It's time for us to depart Antarctica
0:50:35 > 0:50:39and I'm glad I've not had to call on Jim's polar survival skills.
0:50:39 > 0:50:46But we still have the small matter of another four, five or even six days back across the Southern Ocean
0:50:46 > 0:50:49before we reach the safety of the Falklands.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52But it's nothing compared to Bruce.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55When the Scotia left here,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58her heading was south...
0:50:58 > 0:51:00into the Weddell Sea.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03She pushed down to 74 degrees of latitude
0:51:03 > 0:51:07where she came upon a huge set of cliffs of ice sitting on land.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11It was an undiscovered part of the Antarctic coastline.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16The ship followed and mapped these cliffs for 150 miles.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22And William Speirs Bruce was finally able to make his mark,
0:51:22 > 0:51:26join the dotted lines on this part of Antarctica,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30which today is still known as Coats Land after his sponsors.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40It's been an eternity on the boat.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43This is Year 11 on the boat...
0:51:44 > 0:51:46No, it's Week 3
0:51:46 > 0:51:51and it's been a physical struggle, every moment of every day.
0:51:51 > 0:51:57I've got some sense of...some tiny sense of what it must have been like
0:51:57 > 0:52:02for those polar explorers of the golden age of polar exploration
0:52:02 > 0:52:05because their journeys lasted years.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10And they had to put up with much greater physical hardship.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13My journey has only lasted weeks
0:52:13 > 0:52:16and I've been cosseted all the way
0:52:16 > 0:52:21by all the most modern navigational and life-saving technology.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24And it has still been endless.
0:52:25 > 0:52:30So...I'll be very, very pleased to get back to the Falklands
0:52:30 > 0:52:35because from there it's just a hop, skip and a jump back home to my family.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40And I am struck as never before by what it really meant to leave Britain
0:52:40 > 0:52:44and come looking for Destination South.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46It's an awful long way from home.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00The Scotia arrived back in Scotland on July 21st, 1904,
0:53:00 > 0:53:05the ship heaving under the weight of scientific specimens.
0:53:06 > 0:53:12Bruce and his crew were hailed as heroes and were greeted by a telegram from the King.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15But Bruce wasn't cut out to be a popular hero.
0:53:17 > 0:53:22"On his return home, the polar explorer is asked to lecture.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26"It is not the account of work done that people want to hear,
0:53:26 > 0:53:31"but a narrative bursting with hair-breadth escapes and thrilling adventures."
0:53:34 > 0:53:39Just two months later, Markham's troubled expedition also returned.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42The Discovery had become stuck in the ice
0:53:42 > 0:53:46and had to be rescued at huge cost.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50But Scott and Shackleton had gone further south than anyone before
0:53:50 > 0:53:56and they and their crew were rewarded with Britain's very highest honour.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01This is the Polar Medal.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05It's the highest accolade awarded by the Royal Geographical Society.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09Now, even the stoker aboard the Discovery received one,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13but not one member of the Scotia expedition,
0:54:13 > 0:54:16not even Bruce himself, was deemed worthy.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18And that slight,
0:54:18 > 0:54:22and that's exactly how Bruce saw it, would burn within him
0:54:22 > 0:54:25for the rest of his life.
0:54:32 > 0:54:39I'll be chatting to one of our penguin keepers about the penguins here at the zoo, so stick around...
0:54:39 > 0:54:45In the years after the expeditions, the Scotia's scientific reports were celebrated internationally,
0:54:45 > 0:54:50but some of Scott's scientific work, particularly the meteorology,
0:54:50 > 0:54:56was found to be so inaccurate that there were some calls for him to face a scientific court-martial.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00Yet still there was no recognition for Bruce or his men.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02Bruce thought he knew why.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07Markham, the man in charge of polar expeditions, held grudges.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13"Scott was Clements Markham's proteg and Markham thought it necessary,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16"in order to uphold Scott, that I should be obliterated.
0:55:16 > 0:55:22"He did the same to others whom he considered mischievous rivals. Alway a policy of stealthy obliteration."
0:55:22 > 0:55:27An entry in Markham's diary confirms Bruce's suspicion.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31"In January, 1902, in the first season, he did nothing...
0:55:31 > 0:55:34"..and only reached 74 degrees...
0:55:34 > 0:55:38"The longitude he recorded is very doubtful.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40"Insolent charlatan."
0:55:40 > 0:55:45Without Markham's support and without a Polar Medal,
0:55:45 > 0:55:49Bruce was unable to raise money to return to Antarctica.
0:55:49 > 0:55:54Instead, he put his energies into new scientific ventures like Edinburgh Zoo.
0:55:54 > 0:56:00It seems to me that in some ways he was a bit of a fish out of water back here.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04Maybe the world of committees and politics wasn't his natural habitat.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08And it's strange to think that the zoo was set up by a penguin eater.
0:56:08 > 0:56:14He's almost certainly the only founder of the zoo who not only knew how penguins behaved in the wild,
0:56:14 > 0:56:17but what they tasted like in a curry sauce.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23Bruce discovered 212 new species,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26charted and mapped the South Orkneys
0:56:26 > 0:56:31and a 150-mile chunk of previously unknown Antarctic coastline.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36He took the first moving footage of Antarctica and its wildlife
0:56:36 > 0:56:40and set up its first permanent weather station.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Yet he is practically without memorial.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48In 1920, he suffered a mental collapse
0:56:48 > 0:56:53and entered Liberton Hospital for Incurables in Edinburgh.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57He died there a year later at the age of 54.
0:56:58 > 0:57:04The stigma of mental illness ensured that William Speirs Bruce slipped from view.
0:57:11 > 0:57:13So how should we remember Bruce?
0:57:13 > 0:57:18For too long, he has existed unrecognised
0:57:18 > 0:57:22in the shadow of people like Scott.
0:57:23 > 0:57:28Scott's kind of heroism propelled him to his death, racing to reach the South Pole.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34Bruce wouldn't or couldn't fit that mould.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39He wasn't the right kind of hero for his time,
0:57:39 > 0:57:42but he might be one for ours.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47Whenever we hear about ice caps melting
0:57:47 > 0:57:53or ice sheets breaking apart, we should remember that Bruce was there first.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57And Bruce understood that Antarctica could mean something.
0:57:57 > 0:58:02Not just to our country and our people, but to every country and all people.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15Almost 60 years after Bruce's expedition to Antarctica,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18an international treaty was signed
0:58:18 > 0:58:23which dedicated the continent to science and peace.
0:58:41 > 0:58:45Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2011
0:58:45 > 0:58:48Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk