When the Discovery glided into the water at Dundee Dockyard on March 21, 1901, the air was crowded with the accompanying roar of cheers. The first ship built in Britain especially for exploration work was about to sail, and steam, into history. She was the principal vessel in the 1901-04 National Antarctic Expedition, at the end of which the ice sought to entomb her. The following years saw Discovery serving as a merchantman for the Hudson's Bay Company, and during the First World War as a supply ship. In 1916, she was sent south to rescue Sir Ernest Shackleton's men stranded on Elephant Island, but while at Montevideo, Uruguay, it was discovered that the Chilean naval vessel Yelcho had saved the marooned explorers.

Ominous events eventually beckoned Discovery's return south. Towards the end of the War, it was realized that unless something was done, the leviathans of the deep faced extinction due to the whaling industry's unrestrained activities. In 1923 the British government set up a committee — the Discovery Committee — whose principal aim was to make a concerted effort at putting the whaling industry on a scientific basis. To this end, the Committee realized that far too little was known about whales and their environment to recommend any conservation policy. Consequently, the Discovery was bought by the Crown Agents for the Colonies, to be used for 'scientific research in the South Seas', and she went through an extensive refit.



During her 1925-27 voyages in sub-Antarctic waters, Discovery had another brush with death. It happened when a field of pack-ice was keeping the ship immobile, with an iceberg nearby. Suddenly, part of the berg's underside broke away and shot to the surface---towering more than 60 feet high before shocked onlookers. The top-heavy berg then began tumbling end over end.

In simultaneous motion, several men ran to grab their cameras, so as to capture the spectacle. They were so enthralled they did not immediately realize that the somersaulting berg threatened their wooden home. Biologist E.R. Gunther later wrote that the invading giant was "blotting out more and more of the landscape." In the meantime, Capt. Stenhouse attempted to force the ship through the ice, but Discovery was unable to move away from the growing threat.



Finally, the Boatswain boomed out: "All hands on the fore topmast staysail — up here!" With the setting of this sail, Discovery picked up enough speed to put danger in her wake... "And so we ripped on, clearing everything ahead of us. We saw a large number of seals lying about on the ice capes, but they took little notice of us," wrote Gunther. One wonders if the maritime mammals would have taken equally little notice had Discovery met a watery grave.

Discovery arrived home in September 1927, having sailed 37,000 miles and worked 299 scientific stations from her decks. A new steel ship was purpose-built to carry on her work: RRS Discovery II. But the wooden predecessor voyaged to Antarctica again, during the 1929-31 British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE). In 1986, Discovery returned to Dundee for extensive restoration and became a permanent museum in 1995.

Photography Credits: Discovery Investigations and Alfred Saunders, FIBP, FRPS

copyright 2007 Glenn M. Stein, FRGS