By GREGG WYCHERLEY and LOUISE JURY
The daring polar adventures of Captain Robert Scott earned him a reputation as the quintessential stiff upper-lipped Englishman and stoic explorer.
But never-before-published photographs paint him as a dishonest glory hunter obsessed with maintaining his heroic image, to the point of rewriting the history books in his own favour.
The photos, almost a century old, document the rescue of Scott's ship, Discovery, from the crushing grip of Antarctic ice in 1904.
Scott later lied about the rescue, making a hero of himself while consigning to oblivion the actions of his rescuers.
But the British National Maritime Museum now has photographic evidence which restores the true heroes to their rightful place in history.
It was only thanks to the skill, seamanship and bravery of Merchant Navy seaman William Colbeck and his crew that Scott lived to tell the tale at all.
Scott's first journey to Antarctica, in 1902, had been backed by the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society, which dispatched Colbeck to the rescue when they became alarmed by a lack of news.
But when Colbeck arrived in 1903 Scott stubbornly refused his help and allowed only eight sick crew members to be taken off.
Scott and his crew spent a miserable winter locked in by the ice and continued their scientific studies over summer.
But when Discovery again succumbed to the encroaching ice in 1904, Colbeck, captain of the ship Morning, and Captain Harry McKay, in the Terra Nova, were sent on another rescue mission.
In an incredible feat, McKay and Colbeck blasted through 18 miles (28.9km) of ice to free Scott.
It was a hugely daring rescue mission, made, ironically, by Merchant Navy men, whom Scott considered inferior to Royal Navy.
Scott never mentioned their role, but wrote in his diary of a freakish swell that broke up the ice which had trapped Discovery.
"Without an effort on our part, it was all melting now, and we knew that in an hour or two not a vestige of it would be left, and that the open sea would be lapping on the black rocks of Hut Point."
The curator of the British National Maritime Museum, Sian Flynn, said: "Colbeck was completely ignored. Scott claimed it was a miraculous swell that freed the ship because he didn't want to be rescued by someone inferior to him socially.
"There was this whole establishment trying to whitewash what had happened and Colbeck was written out of the official history."
Jonathan Shackleton, the explorer's cousin, said Scott was known to be happiest with his own class.
"Certainly Scott had his pals among the officers but he was not good at relating to the seamen. He hadn't got the warmth of heart that Shackleton had."
The photographs show scenes of the ice being blasted and how Colbeck's skilful navigation led the rescue team.
They have never been published before but were probably used in Scott's lecture programme when he returned from the Discovery expedition.
The collection was given to the museum by Colbeck's family 20 years ago, but has been withheld because of a copyright wrangle over the photographs.
Some may have been by Colbeck himself; others were probably taken by other officers.
Scott, undeterred by his earlier Arctic misfortune, returned to Antarctica in 1911, determined to beat experienced Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen to be the first man to reach the pole.
Inexperienced in overland icecap exploration, Scott's mission was a disaster.
He lost both the race to the pole and his life, his party dying of cold and starvation on the return journey in March 1912.
Old photos expose hero
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