In the early hours of 10 February 1913 an old converted whaler crept ‘like a phantom’ into the little harbour of Oamaru on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. The ship had been in the freezing wasteland of the Antarctic for twenty-six months and the grass and trees of New Zealand would have been a welcome sight for the crew of the Terra Nova– but only two officers were landed before the ship slipped out to sea again. The harbour nightwatchman took the officers to the harbour master's home and early in the morning they made their way to the Oamaru post office. The cable operator on duty sent a telegram to the London news agency Central News and was then effectively confined to house arrest until the journalists at the agency could make the most of the exclusive story they had just been sent (Crane 2005: 1).

The news that would echo around the world was the death of Captain Robert Scott– Scott of the Antarctic. It was already known that Scott had been beaten to the South Pole by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen but nobody knew that he and his companions had died just eleven miles short of a supply depot. For Central News it was a great scoop– and the reason for the cloak and dagger security measures in New Zealand was that the officers of the Terra Nova were posthumously fulfilling a contract signed before Scott had set sail on his ill-fated expedition.

In the London offices of the Press Association news agency, Central News's great rival, there must have been some rueful faces when the story broke. For Scott had offered exclusive coverage jointly to the Press Association and Reuters and his proposal had been rejected. Scott's representative had requested ￡7,000 for the explorer's account, which would be up to 30,000 words long. The Press Association consulted Baron de Reuter, who formed the opinion that the proposal ‘could not be entertained’.