Captain Scott team ice pick sold at auction
- Published
Captain Scott's expedition team reached the South Pole five weeks after a rival Norwegian group led by Roald Amundsen
An ice pick owned by a member of Captain Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition team has sold at auction for 55 times its pre-sale estimate.
Scott and four other men reached the South Pole in 1912 - five weeks after a rival Norwegian group - and died on their return journey.
Frank Debenham was part of Scott's wider expedition team but did not go to the pole after injuring his knee.
On Thursday the geologist's ice pick sold in Cambridge for £22,000.
It far surpassed a pre-sale estimate of £200 to £400 at Cheffins Fine Art Auctioneers.
Frank Debenham's ice pick sold in Cambridge for £22,000
Debenham, who injured himself playing football in the snow, took the tool on the Terra Nova British Antarctic Expedition of 1910 to 1913.
Scott's team reached the pole in January 1912, but once there discovered a team led by Roald Amundsen had reached it first.
Scott and his four companions all perished during the 800-mile journey back to their base camp.
Debenham later helped found the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge as a memorial to Robert Falcon Scott and his companions.
Charles Ashton, a director at Cheffins, said: "Items dating back to the early expeditions, such as the Terra Nova, are really very rare to the open market."