The Scott Antarctic Memorial

Located at Cardiff Bay, the Roath Basin is the largest accessible berth at the former industrial dockyard, best known for being the launching point for Captain Robert Falcon Scott's second voyage to the Antarctic, the doomed Terra Nova expedition.

On June 15th, 1910, the Terra Nova sailed from Roath Basin without Captain Scott aboard. Tied up with expedition business, he departed later on a faster liner to rendezvous with the ship in South Africa. The ship then sailed onwards to Australia, New Zealand, then Antarctica, as the crew attempted to become the first to reach the South Pole.

Ultimately, Scott and his four companions reached the Pole on January 17, 1912, only to discover that the rival expedition, led by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, had beaten them to the Pole by 34 days. Tragically, the five members of the Terra Nova expedition perished on the return journey.

The British Antarctic Heritage Trust's efforts to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ‘Age of Antarctic Discovery’ led to the Captain Scott Society teaming with the South Wales Echo newspaper to launch a design contest for a sculpture to commemorate the Terra Nova expedition.

Cardiff-based sculptor Jonathan Williams's winning entry was formally unveiled by Princess Anne on June 6, 2003. Depicting Captain Scott man-hauling defiantly towards the South Pole and positioned on a compass rose, the monument is covered in an irregular mosaic of white and near-white tiles, evoking the desolate vastness and bleakness of the Antarctic.

Awkwardly, the memorial is located in the immediate vicinity of the former Norwegian Church at Cardiff Bay. As the church's Norwegian flag waves gloriously in the South Wales wind, high above the Scott Antarctic Monument, it serves as an ignominious reminder that even in death, Scott remains second to Amundsen.