Topical Budget 95-1: The Terra Nova Returns Home 1913, 19130000.

Format:

Video

Contributor:

The National Film and Television Archives, production company.

Adam Matthew Digital (Firm), digitiser.

Series:

Age of Exploration

Language:

English

Genre:

Internet videos.

Nonfiction films.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (video file 0:01:40) : Silent, Black and White

Place of Publication:

1913,

Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2018.

Summary:

The Terra Nova was an old whaler built in Dundee in 1884. She was 28 years old at this time but she had a good track record in the ice, having twice rescued polar parties - in the South in 1903, when she rescued the crew of the Discovery, including Scott himself, and in the following year in the North, rescuing Anthony Fiala and his expedition after the sinking of their ship the America had left them stranded for two Polar winters.The Terra Nova's reputation alone would be enough to make the vessel of interest to the Topical Budget cameramen, but the story was magnified by the outpouring of national grief at the fate of Captain Scott and his companions, as borne out by the large crowds that gathered in Cardiff to see the ship in.The item starts with an intertitle declaring that Lady Scott (the title seems to have been an invention of the title writers - Scott's widow was not actually entitled to call herself 'Lady') was there to see the ship dock with her son Peter. The footage of them on the quay is missing, although they are almost certainly in the third shot of the ship, in which the captain is shown addressing a party of ladies and civilian gentlemen. In this shot, taken from the quayside, we can just see a young boy - Peter? - perched on the gunwale, then jumping down on to the deck.The surviving nitrate print of the film is badly damaged, with considerable surface abrasions visible throughout. The ship Terra Nova draws up to the quay at Bute docks Cardiff in 1913 on her return to Britain from the Antarctic. Terra Nova had transported the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13 under the leadership of Captain Scott, leaving from the same Cardiff dock in 1910. The item consists of four shots introduced by a title revealing that Scott's wife was there to see the ship home with her son Peter. The first shows the ship in long shot approaching the harbour with a steam tug waiting to take her into the dock. This is followed by a closer shot of the ship drawing towards the quay, followed by a shot looking up towards the ship. In this shot we see some kind of speech or ceremony taking place with naval officers in uniform, ladies and some gentlemen in top hats. A young boy jumps down from the gunwale to the deck. The final shot is of the ship filmed from above in a lock with the tug.

Credits:

Production Company: The National Film and Television Archives.

Notes:

Description based on online resource (viewed on 04 October, 2018).

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.