RRS Discovery - Captain Scott's Ship

Just across the River Tay from where I stay in North East Fife is the RRS Discovery ...

A wee history lesson ....

In 1900, construction began in Dundee of the last wooden three-masted ship to be built in the British Isles ? RRS Discovery. Launched into the Firth of Tay a year later, Discovery was designed for Antarctic research, and her first mission was to carry Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, on their journey to the Antarctic.

Five months after setting sail, Discovery sighted the Antarctic coastline, which Scott charted for the next month. The crew weighed anchor in McMurdo Sound where the ship remained, locked in ice, for the next two years. Despite this setback the expedition successfully determined that Antarctica was indeed a continent and relocated the Southern Magnetic Pole.

Discovery arrived back in Britain in 1904, and spent the next 82 years touring the world in various roles, including charting the migration patterns of whale stocks and carrying munitions to Russia.

In 1986 Discovery returned to the City of Dundee and is berthed in her own custom-built dock.

Lesson ended ;-)