Historic RRS Sailing ship Discovery - Riverside - Dundee - Scotland UK
Image details
Contributor:
Studio9 / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
ACJBEHFile size:
52.7 MB (2 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
3504 x 5256 px | 29.7 x 44.5 cm | 11.7 x 17.5 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
10 April 2007Location:
Dundee Tayside Scotland ukMore information:
On 16 March 1900, construction on the Discovery began in Dundee, Scotland, by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company. She was launched into the Firth of Tay on 21 March 1901 by Lady Markham, the wife of Clements Markham. Discovery had coal-fired auxiliary steam engines, but had to rely primarily on sail because the coal bunkers did not have sufficient capacity to take the ship on long voyages. She was rigged as a barque. According to Shackleton, the ship was a bad sailer, and carried too much sail aft and not enough forward; while Scott worried that the design of the ship's hull was unsuitable for work in pack ice. Five months after setting sail on 6 August 1901 from the Isle of Wight, she sighted the Antarctic coastline on 8 January 1902. During the first month Scott began charting the coastline. Then, in preparation for the winter, he weighed anchor in McMurdo Sound. Unfortunately, this was where the ship would remain, locked in ice, for the next two years; the Expedition had expected to spend the Winter there and move on in the Spring. Despite this, the Expedition was able to determine that Antarctica was indeed a continent, and they were able to relocate the Southern Magnetic Pole. Scott, Shackleton and Edward Wilson also achieved a Furthest South of 82 degrees 18 minutes. The ship was eventually freed on 16 February 1904, by the natural break up of the ice followed by the use of controlled explosives. RRS Discovery finally sailed for home, arriving back at Spithead on 10 September 1904.The National Antarctic Expedition was acclaimed upon its return but was also in serious financial trouble, and so in 1905, Discovery was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company, who used her as a cargo vessel between London and Hudson Bay, Canada until the First World War, when she began carrying munitions to Russia. Later, in 1917, she carried supplies to the White Russians during the Russian Civil War. At the end of the hostilities Discovery was chartered by various companies for work in the