The Voyages of the Discovery

Discovery was purpose-built for Captain Robert F. Scott's first Antarctic of 1901-04 and launched at Dundee, Scotland. Based on a whaleship design and massively built to withstand ice, Discovery had many roles before her final voyage back to Dundee in 1986, and this book tells the story of that checkered career. She set sail from Cowes on 6 August 1901 and entered the Ross Sea in January. A sledging of Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reached within 500 miles of the South Pole. In 1905 Discovery was purchased by the Hudson Bay Company; she traded under charter throughout the First World War; and was later sent to rescue Shackleton, marooned on Elephant Island. In 1925 she became a Royal Research Ship and carried out surveys on whaling grounds, and was used by Sir Edward Mawson to survey Australian Antarctic territory. Moored on a Thames embankment, she survived WWII and the postwar years .