History
Robert Falcon Scott chose Winter Quarters Bay to winter over during his National Antarctic Discovery Expedition (1901–1904). The expedition vessel, RRS Discovery, was ice-locked in the harbour for two years before being freed by explosives on February 14, 1904.
The expedition included explorers Scott, Edward Wilson, and Ernest Shackleton's first major attempt to reach the South Pole. The explorers travelled overland to 82°S before turning back. The expedition erected a prefabricated hut at Hut Point overlooking the bay. The hut remains today and is protected as an historic site by the Antarctic Heritage Trust (New Zealand).
Vince's Cross, a wooden cross erected in 1902 to honour Seaman George T. Vince who drowned nearby is located immediately above the hut on a small knoll overlooking the bay at Hut Point. Our Lady of the Snows Shrine, a Madonna statue honouring Richard T. Williams, a Seabee tractor driver who drowned in 1956, is also nearby. McMurdo Station's Williams Field is named after the sailor. Moreover, officials erected another monument on the knoll to commemorate Raymond T. Smith, a Navy petty officer killed at Winter Quarters Bay during cargo operations aboard the USNS Southern Cross in February 1982.
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