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Spartan Surfers

1880–1912

Lawrence Oates

British army officer on Scott's polar party. Lame with frostbite, he walked out into a blizzard so as not to slow his companions.

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  1. I am just going outside and may be some time.

    Oates, crippled by frostbite, walked out of the tent into a blizzard so his companions would not be slowed by him. Scott recorded his last words. It is the quietest sentence of courage on record: no speech, just doing the hard thing for others.

    Scott's Last Expedition, Vol. I (1913), ch. 20, The Last March (Scott's journal), Original English (Scott's Last Expedition, Vol. I, 1913)