Amundsen would never have jeopardized his attempt on the Pole by allowing three of his men to make a side trip in the middle of winter, as Scott did by allowing Wilson, Bowers and Cherry-Garard to make their journey to the Cape Crozier penguin rookery. This was extreme folly on the part of Scott, or rather the folly was in making these three individuals, who were severely depleted and worn-down by the experience, part of the polar party barely a few months after their ordeal. In a similar vein, Scott's seemingly spur of the moment decision to take the fifth man to the Pole was disastrous, compounded by taking the wrong men to the Pole. The entire planning and preparation for the journey was predicated on four-man teams. It is not true, as claimed in the comparison essay, that they only began to run short of food on the return journey when beset by blizzards. Already on the outward journey they were delayed by storms and blizzards and had begun eating into the sledge rations reserved for the later part of the journey before they even reached the foot of the Beardmore. Scott expresses concern over this in his diary before they reached "Shambles Camp". Also, it was not just the food issue, but also the four-man tent was too small for five, which often left one of them, usually Edgar Evans, partially outside the tent at night. Fuel was also divided according to four-man units, although this was overshadowed by the evaporation of much of the fuel left in the depots. The choice of the men comprising the ultimate polar party was also based on sentiment and faulty logic. Scott's desire to have the various military branches and the "lower-decks" represented at their crowning achievement was laudable, but also highly foolish given the circumstances. Lawrence "Titus" Oates was already suffering from exhaustion and increasing frostbite at the time, and the choice of Edgar Evans as the lower-deck representative was based on Scott's affection for Evans and his erroneous belief that Evans was the strongest of the three contenders for the spot. In hindsight it is clear that Tom Crean was the freshest and strongest of the three seamen and should have been the obvious choice. Of course, had Crean been chosen, leaving Evans to return with the second returning party, then it is almost certain that Teddy Evans, and possibly all three of them, would have perished on the return journey. It was only Crean's almost superhuman strength and endurance that saved Evans' life, and even that was a very close-run thing.