Discovery (Ship)

RRS Discovery is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built in Dundee, Scotland, for Antarctic research. Launched in 1901, she was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom. Her first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, and highly successful, journey to the Antarctic, known as the Discovery Expedition. After service as a merchant ship before and during the First World War, Discovery was taken into the service of the British government in 1923 to carry out scientific research in the Southern Ocean, becoming the first Royal Research Ship. The ship undertook a two-year expedition – the Discovery Investigations – recording valuable information on the oceans, marine life and being the first scientific investigation into whale populations. From 1929 to 1931 Discovery served as the base for the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) under Douglas Mawson. This was a major scientific and territorial quest in what is now the Australian Antarctic Territory. On her return from the BANZARE, Discovery was moored in London as a static training ship and visitor attraction until 1979. That year she was placed in the care of the Maritime Trust as a museum ship. In 1986 she was moved to Dundee, the city where she was built. After an extensive restoration, Discovery is now the centrepiece of a visitor attraction in the city. She is one of only two surviving expedition ships from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, the other being the Norwegian ship Fram. The ARA Uruguay, which survives and sailed in the Antarctic in 1903, is excluded from this group, as it was not built specifically for Antarctic Exploration.