63 Facts About RRS Discovery

RRS Discovery is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built for Antarctic research.

From 1929 to 1931 RRS Discovery served as the base for the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition under Douglas Mawson, a major scientific and territorial quest in what is the Australian Antarctic Territory.

On her return from the BANZARE, RRS Discovery was moored in London as a static training ship and visitor attraction until 1979 when she was placed in the care of the Maritime Trust as a museum ship.

RRS Discovery is one of only two surviving expedition ships from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, the other being the Norwegian ship Fram.

Ship nearly came to be built in Norway by Framnæs, the yard which would later build the Endurance but it was thought that the British government's money should be spent at a British yard and the RRS Discovery was built by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company, which primarily made smaller vessels such as trawlers, tugboats and steam yachts.

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RRS Discovery was fitted with a 450-horsepower coal-fired triple expansion steam engine, but had to rely primarily on sail because the coal bunkers did not have sufficient capacity to take the ship on long voyages.

RRS Discovery's legal owners were the Royal Geographical Society the president of which, Sir Clements Markham, was a member of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club – Discovery was thus registered as a private sailing yacht of the RHYC and carried the official name and prefix 'S.

RRS Discovery flew the RHYC's burgee, the emblem of the RGS as a house flag and the Blue Ensign throughout her first expedition.

RRS Discovery was rigged as a barque and the total maximum sail area was 12,296 square feet.

The RRS Discovery was marginally faster under sail than she was under engine power – her record for distance travelled in 24 hours is 223 nautical miles, equivalent to 9.

At the time of her launch RRS Discovery was widely held to be the strongest wooden ship ever built.

On 16 March 1900, in the context of significant donations to the approaching expedition by patrons Llewellyn W Longstaff and the British Government, construction on the Discovery began in Dundee, Scotland, by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company.

RRS Discovery was launched into the Firth of Tay on 21 March 1901 by Lady Markham, the wife of Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society.

British National Antarctic Expedition departed the UK less than five months after the RRS Discovery was launched and only a week after the ship left Dundee.

RRS Discovery rolled heavily once in the open sea and tended to 'gripe'.

The RRS Discovery's unusual rounded, overhanging stern not only provided more protection for the rudder but prevented all but the largest following seas breaking over the back of the ship and kept the decks dry, although the stern was prone to 'slamming' into waves, making the officers' accommodation and wardroom noisy.

The RRS Discovery was moored directly to the ice shelf by anchors and Scott used explosives to blow away part of the shelf so the ship could be protected on three sides.

The expedition divided itself between the ship and the shore, with RRS Discovery being used for accommodation and the prefabricated hut, intended to be the expedition's winter living quarters, was used as a laboratory.

Inspections showed that RRS Discovery had come through the ordeal almost entirely without damage, losing only some of her external sheathing of greenheart and incurring some minor damage to the rudder.

RRS Discovery then headed east following the clipper route back to the UK, taking some oceanographic soundings and searching for the 'phantom' Dougherty Island as she did so.

RRS Discovery arrived back at Spithead on 10 September 1904,1131 days after her departure.

British National Antarctic Expedition was acclaimed upon its return but was in serious financial trouble, and so in 1905, RRS Discovery was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company for £10,000 which used her as a cargo vessel between London and Hudson Bay, Canada.

RRS Discovery made an annual transatlantic trip for the HBC between 1905 and 1911 carrying food, fuel, building materials and gunpowder from London to Charlton Island in Canada.

RRS Discovery's cargo was 500 tons of French munitions being carried to support the Russian Empire, with Arkhangelsk on the White Sea being the only Russian port in European waters free of German blockade.

In 1916, RRS Discovery was loaned to the British government to rescue Shackleton's party marooned on Elephant Island.

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RRS Discovery was refitted in Plymouth and departed on 11 August 1916.

Just four weeks after leaving the UK RRS Discovery reached Montevideo, to learn that Shackleton had effected his crew's own rescue in the Yelcho while RRS Discovery was en route.

RRS Discovery sailed to Lorient where she unloaded the cargo of grain.

Between January 1917 and March 1918 RRS Discovery carried cargo along the French coast of the Bay of Biscay between Brest and Bayonne.

RRS Discovery was released from convoy duty back to the HBC in April 1918 and in June made her last transatlantic voyage, sailing from Cardiff to Charlton Island via Montreal.

RRS Discovery twice became stuck in ice in the Hudson Straight near Cape Chidley and Charles Island.

RRS Discovery's condition was such that she was not permitted to carry the valuable furs on the eastbound voyage, taking them only as far as Newfoundland in special wrappings to protect them from water leaks.

In July 1919, RRS Discovery was taken up again by the British government for another voyage to Russia, this time in support of the White Russians in the Russian Civil War.

Three-week wait for cargo followed before RRS Discovery was loaded with a cargo of nearly 4000 barrels of cement.

RRS Discovery departed for London in mid-February 1920 and refuelled at Gibraltar on 28 February.

RRS Discovery was still at her berth in South West India Dock in early 1922 when the HBC agreed to loan the ship as a temporary headquarters for the 16th Stepney Sea Scouts.

RRS Discovery was fitted with electric lighting powered by both a steam generator and a paraffin engine for use when under sail and now boasted a refrigerated store for fresh provisions.

RRS Discovery resupplied and took on cargo and mail to be delivered to Tristan da Cunha on her way to South Georgia.

RRS Discovery herself made hydrographic and oceanographic surveys of the seas around South Georgia and surveys of the poorly-charted island itself and its wildlife were made.

On 17 April 1926, RRS Discovery left Grytviken and sailed for the Falkland Islands before returning to Cape Town on 29 June, having taken five weeks to make the eastbound voyage in heavy seas while carrying out her research work.

Difficulties encountered led to RRS Discovery being placed in dry dock at the Simon's Town naval base for three months to be fitted with bilge keels to improve her stability.

RRS Discovery carried out a plankton survey of the surrounding seas until February 1927, when she headed to the South Shetland Islands, where she carried out a programme to 'tag' whales in order to track their movements.

RRS Discovery Sound was explored and surveyed for the first time and was named after the ship.

RRS Discovery was the first ship to take oceanographic readings in the stormy and dangerous Drake Passage, including one survey station just a few miles off Cape Horn.

RRS Discovery left London on 1 August 1929, carrying a complement of 25 officers and men, some scientific equipment and a partially-dismantled de Havilland DH.

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RRS Discovery struggled with the inexperience of the crew, with none of the officers and few of the crew having experience in ocean-going sailing ships.

Two days later RRS Discovery encountered her fellow expedition ship, the Norvegia, still engaged in similar exploratory and territorial work on behalf of Norway.

Severe weather meant that Mawson had to abandon his plans for a cruise to Queen Mary Land and instead RRS Discovery carried out a month of biological and oceanographic work in the waters around the islands until she headed for Australia, reaching Adelaide on 1 April 1930.

RRS Discovery carried 73 tons of supplies, which included 20 live sheep with a ton of fodder.

Snow flurries, fog and gales hampered navigation but on fine days RRS Discovery could make nearly 150 miles a day but over the Christmas period the ship was blocked in by pack ice.

For eight hours RRS Discovery was repeatedly slammed into and onto thick ice and battered by bergs but MacKenzie was able to slowly work the ship offshore by use of the engine and, despite the fierce wind, sails.

The next day RRS Discovery sheltered in the lee of a large iceberg while the topgallant yards were rigged to ready the ship for the ocean crossing.

The weather eased after three days and RRS Discovery arrived back at Hobart on 19 March 1931, having covered 10,557 miles since she left.

RRS Discovery arrived back at her usual berth in London's East India Dock on 1 August 1931, exactly two years after her departure.

The RRS Discovery II had been launched in 1929, partially to tide over the Discovery Committee while the original Discovery was undertaking the BANZARE but in recognition of the original ship's age.

RRS Discovery had now had thirty years of hard work in some of the most punishing seas in the world.

Two members of the RRS Discovery Committee worked to find a means to ensure the ship's survival and recognition of her national importance.

RRS Discovery was kept at a mooring in the centre of London on the Victoria Embankment near Westminster Bridge.

RRS Discovery reverted to the Royal Research Ship designation and was open to the public as a museum.

On 28 March 1986, RRS Discovery left London aboard the semi-submersible docklift ship Happy Mariner to make her journey home to the Scottish city that had built her.

RRS Discovery is displayed in a configuration as near as possible to her 1923 state, when she was refitted in the Vosper yard at Portsmouth.

RRS Discovery Point is a fully accredited museum and has won numerous national awards, as well as being a 5-star rated tourist attraction with Visit Scotland.

Spaceship Discovery One in Arthur C Clarke's 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey was named by Clarke after RRS Discovery; Clarke used to eat his lunch aboard her, as she was moored near the office where he worked in London.