North Atlantic Yarn Co.

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

This gorgeous BAMF, ladies and gentlemen, is Captain Lawrence Edward Grace “Titus” Oates, who was one of the members of the doomed expedition to the South Pole led by Robert Falcon Scott.

A former military officer who served in the Second Boer War, Titus Oates was chosen by Scott to be a part of the expedition because of his experience with horses. Once there, however, Oates was frustrated and angered at the quality of the animals Scott had purchased and with the man’s single-mindedness.

The team reached the pole after an arduous journey only to find their visions of glory crushed by the discovery that Roald Amundsen had beaten them by just over a month. Discouraged, they began the return trek, but it was no use. Oates’ old war wound was troubling him, and his legs and feet were wrecked by the conditions. He was slowing down the team’s progress, and decided that in order to give his companions a chance to survive, he would sacrifice himself. His famous last words as recorded by Scott were “I am just going out and may be some time.”

Oates’ sacrifice didn’t help anyone in the end. Scott and the two remaining men were trapped by a blizzard and died, malnourished and freezing, only eleven miles from their objective. A search party found their frozen bodies nine months later, but Captain Oates was never recovered.