British National Antarctic Expedition The
British National Antarctic Expedition departed the UK less than five months after the
Discovery was launched and only a week after the ship left Dundee. With limited time between the ship's launch and her departure for Antarctica there was limited time for
sea trials. Her speed under steam was tested and proved better than expected – her averaged maximum speed during trials was 9 knots instead of the planned 8 knots. Without a full crew available and short of time neither her builders nor Scott were able to test her performance or handling under sail. Much of her equipment was also untested, so the long voyage to
New Zealand, made via
Madeira and
Cape Town, would also be the new vessel's
shakedown cruise. Before reaching London from Dundee a leak was found from her
stern around the rudder post. There was no time to dry dock the ship for a full repair, with Skelton having to make do with applying extra
caulking. The ship was berthed in London loading supplies and equipment until July 1901, when she sailed to
Cowes on the
Isle of Wight where she anchored during August. In this time she served as the yacht of the RGS during
Cowes Week and was toured by several dignitaries, culminating in a visit by
King Edward VII and
Queen Alexandra on 5 August. The expedition left from Cowes the next day, 6 August 1901. Scott's first impression of the ship was poor, considering her slow and unresponsive while the shallow hull, built with no protuberances to work well in ice, provided minimal stability.
Discovery rolled heavily once in the open sea (she was recorded rolling through 94 degrees – 47 degrees either side of vertical – in the
Southern Ocean) and tended to 'gripe' (a strong tendency to turn up into the wind). Shackleton described the ship as a bad sailer, carrying too much sail
aft and not enough forward while Scott also worried that the design of the ship's
hull was unsuitable for work in
pack ice. But once the expedition reached the
Roaring Forties the ship proved to have excellent
seakeeping qualities, and because she was heavy and carried relatively little sail area for her size, she could make good progress in high winds and heavy seas without having to
reef. The ''Discovery's
unusual rounded, overhanging stern (one of the main changes from the original Bloodhound'' design) not only provided more protection for the rudder but also prevented all but the largest following seas breaking over the back of the ship and kept the decks dry, although the stern was prone to 'slamming' into waves, making the officers' accommodation and
wardroom noisy. , accompanied by
Morning (left) and
Terra Nova (right) in February 1904 The expedition travelled to New Zealand via
Madeira and
Cape Town for resupplying. The ship was put in
dry dock for the first time at
Lyttelton and the
carpenter, Frederick Dailey, prepared a lengthy report detailing the numerous empty bolt holes and slack hull fittings he found. depth of water had seeped into the ship's
bilges and lower
hold through badly-sealed joints in the planking. While these were repaired there was considerable dispute between the RGS and Dundee Shipbuilders as to who was responsible for the defects, but the
Discovery left for the Antarctic on 21 December 1901, after three weeks in New Zealand. The Antarctic coastline was sighted on 8 January 1902. During the first month Scott began charting the coastline. Then, in preparation for the winter, he anchored in
McMurdo Sound in a bay sheltered from the prevailing west wind by the
Hut Point Peninsula. The
Discovery was moored directly to the ice shelf by anchors and Scott used explosives to blow away part of the shelf so the ship could be protected on three sides. On 8 February
Discovery was surrounded by pack ice on all sides. The expedition divided itself between the ship and the shore, with
Discovery being used for accommodation and the prefabricated hut, intended to be the expedition's winter living quarters, was used as a laboratory. Although surrounded by ice the ship was not yet frozen in. In increasingly strong gales the ship would bump, slam and grind against the ice shelf but her strong multi-layered wooden hull withstood the forces which would have ripped open a conventional ship. By the end of March
Discovery was fully frozen into the ice-covered sound. The ship would remain there, locked in ice, for the next two years; the expedition had expected to spend the winter there and to move on in the spring. Despite this, the ship's routine and work continued through the Antarctic winter. The Expedition was able to determine that Antarctica was indeed a continent, and they were able to relocate the
South magnetic pole. Scott, Shackleton and
Edward Wilson also achieved a
Furthest South of 82 degrees 18 minutes.
Discovery proved to be a superb accommodation vessel. The only recurring complaint was that the officers' cabins were extremely cold. They were placed amidships either side of the wardroom and above the boilers and coal bunkers. Once the boilers were extinguished the unheated and deep-frozen mass of coal in the bunkers made it hard to keep heat in the rooms. Ice frequently formed on the cabin walls and Scott reported that, sat at his desk, he had to have his feet in a box of straw to keep warm. In January 1903 the
Morning, commanded by William Colbeck, arrived in McMurdo Sound with extra supplies for the expedition. It was hoped (by both the expedition in Antarctic and the organisers in London) that
Discovery would be freed as the ice broke up in the Antarctic summer, allowing her to continue her voyage. But she remained icebound, and the ship and her crew had to overwinter for a second year as the
Morning left in March. Another land expedition was organised over the spring of 1903, with Scott again confident that a second summer would allow
Discovery to leave the Sound. In January 1904 a second relief expedition, commanded again by Colbeck, arrived consisting of the
Morning and the
Terra Nova, with orders to extract the entire expedition and abandon
Discovery if the ship was not free of the ice by 25 February. The two relief ships slowly broke a path through the ice while Scott organised work parties at the
Discovery to use saws and pickaxes to cut the ice away from the hull. However, by 10 February the research ship was still locked in the ice and the relief ships were from the beleaguered ship. Scott began evacuating his equipment and samples from
Discovery in preparation to abandon her but on 16 February 1904 the ice suddenly began to break up. After carrying out a number of controlled explosions with
dynamite Discovery was freed from the pack and soon afterwards the relief ships were able to draw alongside. Fifty tons of coal was transferred from the
Terra Nova, which had carried extra fuel for the purpose, and the captain of the
Morning gave an extra 25 tons. Steam began to be raised on the
Discovery on 17 February but before the ship was fully prepared for sea a gale blew up. The ship dragged at her anchor and only just had enough pressure in her boilers to prevent her being blown back onto the ice shelf which had provided her shelter for two years. Scott attempted to round Hut Point in the teeth of the gale at 11 am on a slight ebb tide but the ship grounded on an uncharted
shoal. Attempts were made to force the ship ahead over the obstruction and back her off but the engine lacked the power and the water intakes for her
condenser became blocked by ice and churned-up dirt. The ship spent nearly ten hours aground, being bodily slammed and pounded into the ground by the action of the waves and wind. The captains of the relief ships stood by in preparation for a rescue and the crew feared that their ship would be at best dismasted and at worst split apart. Scott described that evening as "truly the most dreadful" he had spent during the expedition. At 3 am on 18 February the wind moderated, the tide turned and the ship began to slide astern off the shoal under her own weight. Once the stern was afloat the water intakes were cleared and the engine was able to pull the bow off. Inspections showed that
Discovery had come through the ordeal almost entirely without damage, losing only some of her external sheathing of greenheart and incurring some minor damage to the rudder. By dawn the ship was clear of the land. The extra coal taken on from the relief ships meant that Scott did not have to take a direct route back to
New Zealand, instead proceeding north via
Cape North and the
Balleny Islands, a route which also proved the non-existence of land charted by the
United States Exploring Expedition in 1840. Off
Cape Adare the damaged rudder broke free and the spare had to be fitted. The three ships regrouped at the
Auckland Islands and docked at Lyttelton on 1 April.
Discovery then headed east following the
clipper route back to the UK, taking some oceanographic soundings and searching for the 'phantom'
Dougherty Island as she did so. After passing through the
Strait of Magellan she stopped at the
Falkland Islands to make magnetic surveys.
Discovery arrived back at
Spithead on 10 September 1904, 1131 days after her departure.
Cargo vessel The British 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 for £10,000 (a fifth of her original build cost) which used her as a cargo vessel between
London and
Hudson Bay, Canada. The HBC heavily remodelled the ship for her new purpose, stripping all the accommodation and other rooms below her weather deck in order to maximise cargo space. Features such as her lifting propeller, dredging winches and her original
galley stove were removed and sold. The ship's officers were now accommodated in the deckhouses which had housed the ship's laboratories and scientific storerooms while the crew berthed in the
focsle. Between January 1917 and March 1918
Discovery carried cargo along the French coast of the
Bay of Biscay between Brest and
Bayonne. She was released from convoy duty back to the HBC in April 1918 and in June made her last transatlantic voyage, sailing from
Cardiff to Charlton Island via
Montreal. She twice became stuck in ice in the Hudson Straight near
Cape Chidley and
Charles Island. Her condition was such that she was not permitted to carry the valuable furs on the eastbound voyage, taking them only as far as
Newfoundland in special wrappings to protect them from water leaks. With a cargo of general goods loaded at
St John's,
Discovery arrived back at
Liverpool in January 1919. Between then and July that year she made further coastal voyages along the French Atlantic coast, through the
English Channel to
Antwerp. In July 1919,
Discovery was taken up again by the British government for another voyage to Russia, this time in support of the
White Russians in the
Russian Civil War. With the
Red Army in control of Russia's major northeastern cities and ports, the only supply route was via ports on the
Black Sea.
Discovery departed from
Kingston upon Hull and travelled to
Gibraltar and across the
Mediterranean Sea, reached
Istanbul in late August and passed through the
Dardanelles and docked at
Novorossiysk in September. Here she transferred cargo from another HBC supply ship on the same run (
Pelican) and proceeded to
Rostov-on-Don, which she reached on 6 October. A three-week wait for cargo followed before
Discovery was loaded with a cargo of nearly 4000 barrels of
cement. This was taken to
Piraeus (reached on 1 December) and then the ship returned to Istanbul where she loaded a general cargo including bags of nuts,
linseed, rugs and carpets,
caviar,
mohair and
copper sheet. She departed for London in mid-February 1920 and refuelled at
Gibraltar on 28 February. She unloaded at the
East India Docks in London in mid-March. The progress of the conflict in Russia meant that no further voyages were possible. A slump in the shipping business and the purchase of new, more modern ships by the HBC meant that
Discovery was surplus to requirements. She spent a month moored to a
buoy in the Thames at
Deptford while she was offered for charter but in June was laid up in the South West India Dock. All her equipment was removed to be stored or sold while her machinery was preserved in a layer of grease. She was still at her berth in South West India Dock in early 1922 when the HBC agreed to loan the ship as a temporary headquarters for the 16th
Stepney Sea Scouts.
Discovery investigations In 1923 her fortunes were revived when the
Colonial Office of the British government purchased her for further research work. The Hudson's Bay Company sold
Discovery for £5000 and retained a right of first refusal to re-purchase the ship if she was sold in order to prevent a rival firm using her to compete on the Canadian fur trade. The government had bought the vessel to mount long-term projects investigating, charting and analysing the
whale populations of the
Southern Ocean.
Discovery underwent a £114,000 refit at
Vosper & Company which amounted to a rebuilding to put right years of wear and tear and equip the ship for her new purpose. Much of the cost was borne by the
Government of the Falkland Islands as the territory was increasingly dependent on
whaling for its economy and the voyage would provide essential information on the location, size and management of the whale stocks. Because of this, ownership of the
Discovery was vested in the Falkland Islands executive council and her
port of registration was changed from London to
Port Stanley. Now in the official service of the British government she was also designated as a
Royal Research Ship. Because her new role would require many thousands of miles of open-ocean travel, changes were made to improve ''Discovery's'' handling and sailing performance. As suggested by Scott and Shackleton in 1900 her fore- and mainmasts were moved forward (by respectively) to make her more balanced and steady on a course while new yards and the addition of split
topgallant sails increased her sail area by 20 percent to improve her speed. As built the ship's
helm was positioned near the stern and connected to the rudder via chains, while the ship was
conned from the bridge forward of the mainmast, creating communication problems between those commanding the ship and those actually steering it. In her refit a second wheel was positioned on the bridge, operating the rudder via a newly fitted steam-powered steering engine. The original helm and steering gear was retained as an emergency system. All three of her hull skins were extensively re-planked and parts of her keel were replaced with new sections of imported
Quebec oak, it proving impossible to obtain English oak of the required shape, size and strength. New cabins and other rooms were built both below deck and in deckhouses. These included biological and chemical laboratories, a library, a
darkroom and new cabins and other facilities, including a new
wardroom. The ship was fitted with several winches for handling
sounding lines and deep-water
trawling nets with cables totalling thousands of fathoms in length, plus an early electronic
echo sounder. This allowed the ship to not only chart the depth of the ocean as she travelled but recover samples of the seabed, seawater and specimens of deep-sea fish. She was fitted with electric lighting powered by both a steam generator and a
paraffin engine for use when under sail and also now boasted a
refrigerated store for fresh provisions. She carried four
motorboats of various sizes. In her new form she was re-registered as a steamship.
Stanley Wells Kemp was appointed the project's director of research while
Joseph Stenhouse, veteran of the
drift of the Aurora, was made captain of
Discovery. The ship left
Portsmouth in July 1925. The final aspects of the refit and trials had been rushed in order to reach the Southern Ocean before the start of the whaling season in November, which led to a number of faults developing in the ship as she sailed through the
Bay of Biscay and she had to put into
Dartmouth for repairs and modifications which took two months. She made her final departure on 24 September and reached
Cape Town on 20 December, having stopped only at
Ascension Island. She resupplied and took on cargo and mail to be delivered to
Tristan da Cunha on her way to
South Georgia. During all her movements beyond this point
Discovery stopped regularly to take
oceanographic surveys which could take up to six hours to complete at each pre-set position. The ship reached South Georgia on 20 February and was based there for two months while her crew of scientists and seamen worked alongside the whalers, both on shore at
Grytviken and at sea, examining the remains of the caught and processed whales and observing their numbers and movements.
Discovery herself made
hydrographic and oceanographic surveys of the seas around South Georgia and surveys of the poorly-charted island itself and its wildlife were also made. Due to her delayed departure from Britain these voyages were made in the depths of the South Atlantic winter and the ship's excessive roll, high
windage and limited engine power all caused difficulties in her work. On 17 April 1926,
Discovery left Grytviken and sailed for the
Falkland Islands before returning to
Cape Town on 29 June, having taken five weeks to make the eastbound voyage in heavy seas while carrying out her research work. The difficulties encountered led to
Discovery being placed in
dry dock at the
Simon's Town naval base for three months to be fitted with
bilge keels to improve her stability. For the same reason her foremast topgallant and all the yards and topmasts on the mainmast were removed to reduce the weight she carried high up and 'stiffen' the ship. Her
donkey boiler, mounted in the forecastle, was removed for the same reason. For the next season of work
Discovery was joined by the British government's brand new purpose-built research steamer, . She returned to South Georgia on 15 December, with her crew finding the alterations had greatly improved her seakeeping and reduced the pronounced roll. She carried out a
plankton survey of the surrounding seas until February 1927, when she headed to the
South Shetland Islands, where she carried out a programme to 'tag' whales in order to track their movements. In March
Discovery visited
Deception Island, which at the time served as a natural harbour to eight large
factory ships for further studies. During the southern winter the ship travelled down the coast of the
Antarctic Peninsula, carrying out surveys to draw and correct
nautical charts.
Discovery Sound was explored and surveyed for the first time and was named after the ship. She was at
Cape Renard on 24 March, before working back north to Deception Island, still taking regular oceanographic surveys and biological samples.
Discovery was the first ship to take oceanographic readings in the stormy and dangerous
Drake Passage, including one survey station just a few miles off
Cape Horn. This sequence provided the missing data to construct the first complete view of the Antarctic currents. After anchoring off the
Hermite Islands and transiting the
Le Maire Strait,
Discovery anchored at Port Stanley on 6 May 1927. A final surveying trip was made back to Cape Town before the expedition's work was concluded and
Discovery sailed for Britain. She arrived at Falmouth on 29 September 1927.
Sidney Frederic Harmer called the voyage "the most important scientific expedition that has left our shores since the time of the
Challenger."
BANZARE While
Discovery was in the Southern Ocean, the
1926 Imperial Conference considered the question of British imperial
sovereignty in Antarctica. At the time only two territories in the Antarctic were formally part of the
British Empire – the
Falkland Islands and the
Ross Dependency. The conference identified seven other parts of the continent, totalling over 3 million square miles (8 million square kilometres) which could be claimed by Britain on the grounds of first-discovery. With the increasing economic and strategic importance of Antarctica and its waters, it was deemed vital that the British claim be formalised. An expedition would be sent with officers authorised to claim land in the government's name while also carrying out further surveying, exploration and scientific work. The expedition would be the joint responsibility of Britain,
Australia and
New Zealand, thus becoming the
British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, frequently abbreviated to BANZARE. The Australian government was to be in charge of the practical aspects of the expedition, under the leadership of the
Australian National Research Council. The ANRC identified
Discovery as the only suitable vessel to accommodate the expedition. The ship was still under the control of the committee for the
Discovery Investigations and owned by the government of the Falkland Islands, who were initially reluctant to part with the ship as their work was still ongoing. When the
Norvegia expedition annexed
Bouvet Island for
Norway in December 1927, political pressure meant that it was swiftly arranged for
Discovery to be leased to Australia free of charge. Antarctic veteran
Douglas Mawson was appointed leader of the BANZARE, and he assigned
John King Davis, of Shackleton's
Nimrod expedition and Mawson's own
Australasian Antarctic Expedition as captain of
Discovery.
Discovery left London on 1 August 1929, carrying a complement of 25 officers and men, some scientific equipment and a partially-dismantled
de Havilland DH.60 Moth light aircraft on her deck, which was to be used for aerial survey work. After loading with coal and further supplies in
Cardiff, the ship headed into the Atlantic to follow the
clipper route to
Cape Town, where Mawson and the scientific staff (most of whom were Australian) would join the ship. Like Scott, and despite the vessel's modifications made during the 1923 rebuilding, Davis was not initially impressed with
Discovery as a sailing vessel, finding her sluggish and awkward in the light winds of the
Doldrums and often being unable to point closer than 75 degrees off the wind. He also struggled with the inexperience of the crew, with none of the officers and (despite his efforts) few of the crew having experience in ocean-going sailing ships. As with her previous captains, Davis' opinion of the ship changed as they reached the strong winds of the higher latitudes. In a gale on 1 October
Discovery was able to carry all her sail and was logged as travelling at 10 knots. The ship reached Cape Town on 5 October, making the journey in three days less than she had on her maiden voyage under Scott. Preparations for the expedition proper included (following Stenhouse's experiences in the same waters) removing all the yards from the ship's mainmast and taking down the fore topgallant yards and storing them on the deck to both reduce the centre of gravity, lessen the roll and hopefully improve performance when steaming. Two new boats, including a motor-whaler, were added to the ship, as well as 40 tons of food and supplies, a library of 100 books, 2000 cases of scientific equipment and over 300 tons of coal. The twelve scientists, including zoologists, biologists, an ornithologist, a cartographer and a hydrologist, as well as veteran Antarctic photographer
Frank Hurley, also joined the ship here.
Discovery departed Cape Town on 19 October and called at
Île de la Possession, the
Kerguelen Islands and
Heard Island – the latter reached on 26 November, with parties going ashore to study the wildlife and carry out geographical surveys at each location. The weather was nearly perpetually stormy and after leaving Heard Island the ship was pummelled by three days of continuous gale. The weather calmed as they headed south and on 8 December
Discovery reached the Antarctic ice field and entered the pack ice three days later. The ship continued to work through dense field ice, heavily populated by
penguins and seals. The aircraft, fitted as a
seaplane was used for scouting and survey work, becoming the first aircraft to be operated in Antarctica. Oceanographic work and trawls of sealife at various depths were made at regular intervals. A flight on 1 January 1930, with Mawson on board, sighted new land and mountains, which were named
Mac. Robertson Land. Davis refused to draw the ship near enough for a landing – an attitude that would be a regular source of conflict between the captain and Mawson. On 4 January, the ship reached
Kemp Land, confirming its presence as it had been unseen since its initial discovery in the 1830s. On 12 January
Discovery sighted
Enderby Land. The first landfall was made the next day, with the
Union Jack being planted on
Proclamation Island by Mawson. Two days later
Discovery encountered her fellow expedition ship, the
Norvegia, still engaged in similar exploratory and territorial work on behalf of Norway. Mawson had been sent regular wireless messages informing of his rival's whereabouts. The Norwegian leader,
Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, was received aboard
Discovery. The
longitude of the meeting – 44°38′E – became the boundary between the subsequent Australian and Norwegian
territorial claims. After the ships had parted
Discovery was swept 150 miles to the west before a fierce storm, once again impressing those aboard with her seaworthiness. Captain Davis was beginning to worry about his coal supplies, leading to more disagreements with Mawson who refused to let up on the expedition's scientific work which added greatly to the fuel consumption and distance travelled. Working back eastwards, the expedition surveyed and photographed
Cape Ann and confirmed it to be the headland recorded by
John Biscoe in 1831. Unknown to the BANZARE crew, the Norwegians had also made aerial photographs of the same point and had reached the same conclusion just a few weeks before. With Davis still refusing to risk the ship close inshore, Mawson made a flight over Enderby Land on 25 January and dropped a second flag inland. The next day Davis informed Mawson that there were only 120 tons of coal left in ''Discovery's
bunkers and that they had to turn for home. Mawson felt that they should stay until they were down to 80 tons given that, despite the removal of some of her yards and rigging, Discovery'' was still fully capable of voyaging under sail. Davis was backed up by W. Griggs, his engineer, who felt that the boilers would need cleaning within three weeks. Reluctantly Mawson agreed to head north. Some oceanographic work was carried out on the return voyage to the Kerguelen Islands, where 190 tons of coal were taken aboard and the boilers washed out. Severe weather meant that Mawson had to abandon his plans for a cruise to
Queen Mary Land and instead
Discovery carried out a month of biological and oceanographic work in the waters around the islands until she headed for Australia, reaching
Adelaide on 1 April 1930. A second year of research was authorised soon after the expedition's return and the British government's free loan of
Discovery was extended. Mawson was still in command. Captain Davis showed no interest in returning for the second expedition but personally recommended the first officer,
Kenneth N. MacKenzie, as captain. The second expedition left
Hobart on 22 November 1930. She carried 73 tons of supplies, which included 20 live sheep (accommodated in a pen on top of the sounding winch deckhouse) with a ton of fodder. There was also two tons of butter plus an 'electric cow' which would mix water and
powdered milk, six tons of potatoes, 7800 eggs, half a ton of fresh meat in the refrigerated locker and 30 tons of fresh water (loaded aboard from a single hosepipe on the dockside). She also carried 430 tons of coal. With a standard load
Discovery normally drew of water but on leaving Hobart she drew . Five days out of port the expedition made its first discovery – an under-ocean ridge rising out of a flat sea floor. This would later be found to be part of the
Macquarie Fault Zone. On 1 December the ship anchored off
Macquarie Island, where shore parties were put ashore to study wildlife, the inland lakes and plants while
Discovery made soundings and surveys in the coastal waters. On 15 December the expedition rendezvoused with a whaling ship to take on 100 tons of coal and 25 tons of fresh water – an operation which took 16 hours. Scientific records were made of the whales being processed on the factory ship while the transfer was being carried out. The expedition headed towards a small sliver of known coastline called
Adélie Land, hoping to discover and claim land on either side. The southern summer of 1930 proved to be one of extremely heavy ice, with 111
icebergs being sighted from the ship in one day (21 December) alone. Snow flurries, fog and gales hampered navigation but on fine days
Discovery could make nearly 150 miles a day but over the Christmas period the ship was blocked in by pack ice. A Norwegian whaler was met on 29 December, which gifted the
Discovery a further 50 tons of coal. On 31 December the ship was struck by a violent storm with winds of up to 70 mph (Force 11 on the
Beaufort Scale). The ship was driven against the ice, while larger bergs were blown onto the ship by the wind. For eight hours
Discovery was repeatedly slammed into and onto thick ice and battered by bergs but MacKenzie was able to slowly work the ship offshore by use of the engine and, despite the fierce wind, sails. The ship found safe anchorage at Mawson's old base camp site at
Cape Denison, where the wind moderated to Force 9. Here readings of the magnetic field were taken over 18 hours, which relocated the
South Magnetic Pole and showed it had moved to the northwest since Mawson's previous readings in 1913. On 5 January 1931, another flag-planting ceremony and proclamation was made as Mawson claimed the newly surveyed coast, Cape Denison and all the land between the coast and the pole for the British Empire as
George V Land. During the rest of the month
Discovery continued to work westward, prevented by heavy ice from approaching closer than around 100 miles from the coast. Most survey and photography work was carried out by aircraft while the shipboard team continued their oceanographic and biological work. The aerial team relocated a coastline originally found by the
United States Exploring Expedition in 1840 and renamed it and the newly surveyed land around it as the
Banzare Coast. The work was still frequently interrupted by gales and storms, which brought many large icebergs and floes around the ship. On 11 February both the weather and the seas cleared, allowing
Discovery to edge in to less than 10 miles from the coast, allowing surveying from the ship and inland flights by the aircraft. This land, entirely unknown before the BANZARE's arrival, was named
Princess Elizabeth Land, which was claimed by means of the flag being dropped from the air. The
Murray Monolith was discovered and claimed a few days later. By now the ship was back at the coast of Mac. Robertson Land which had been charted the previous year. Now conditions were right to send a party ashore to undertake another flag-planting ceremony. On 18 February the coal bunkers had only 100 tons of fuel left, which both Mawson and MacKenzie had agreed would be the minimum for the ship's return voyage. The next day
Discovery sheltered in the lee of a large iceberg while the topgallant yards were rigged to ready the ship for the ocean crossing. The early days of the northward journey were in the teeth of another furious gale. With only two sails carried on the foremast
Discovery still averaged over 24 hours, in seas with waves over high and with crests apart. In his diary recording these days MacKenzie called
Discovery "my wonderful little ship". The weather eased after three days and
Discovery arrived back at Hobart on 19 March 1931, having covered since she left. The ship and most of her crew still had to return to Britain. She did so via the traditional
clipper route via
Cape Horn, which was rounded on 1 June. She arrived back at her usual berth in London's
East India Dock on 1 August 1931, exactly two years after her departure.
Boy Scouts/Sea Cadet Corps Having returned to Britain,
Discoverys research days were now over. As well as RRS
William Scoresby; the British government also had a brand new steamship available for research work. had been launched in 1929, partially to tide over the Discovery Committee (still continuing the whale and ocean research started in 1923 – the
Discovery Investigations would not conclude until 1951) while the original
Discovery was undertaking the BANZARE but also in recognition of the original ship's age. She had now had thirty years of hard work in some of the most punishing seas in the world. Her limitations, not being originally designed for open-ocean research work, were clear – despite improvements she was still slow, ponderous and notoriously prone to rolling. As both Davis and MacKenzie found, it was increasingly difficult to find crew with sufficient experience to man traditional sailing vessels and when used purely as a steamship
Discovery lacked the engine power and bunker capacity for the work required. In the years following her return from Australia
Discovery was laid-up and offered for charter. Several proposed expeditions were either offered to the ship (often at little or no charge) or expressed interest in using her, but none came to fruition. Either the proposed expedition failed to raise the required funds in the years of the
Great Depression or the organisers felt that
Discovery was unsuitable for their purpose. The
Crown Agents, the statutory corporation which was the ship's ultimate legal owner, made moves to sell or dispose of the ship in 1935. Two members of the Discovery Committee worked to find a means to ensure the ship's survival and recognition of her national importance. The solution was found in 1936 when she was presented to the
Boy Scouts Association as a static
training ship for
Sea Scouts in
London. She was kept at a mooring in the centre of London on the
Victoria Embankment near
Westminster Bridge. During the
Second World War Discovery served as the headquarters and
depot ship for the River Emergency Service, a network of
first aid stations and 'floating ambulances' using requisitioned pleasure craft. In 1941 a
barrage balloon broke its moorings and became entangled in the ship's main course
yardarm. When the balloon was cut free it was found that the yard was rotten and all the yards and spars were removed. To maintain the ship's trim and stability with the loss of her machinery the bilges and shaft tunnel were filled with
ballast in the form of small rocks (shingle). The former engine space became a mess hall and the boiler room and coal bunkers became a classroom. During the
Festival of Britain in the summer of 1951 (held at
South Bank just across the river from ''Discovery's'' mooring), the ship hosted an exhibition on
Antarctica and the history of its exploration. This required opening much of the existing crew quarters as public exhibition space and the former water tanks were removed and replaced with new crew quarters. – the first time she had been back to Dundee since her construction.
Discovery Point, Dundee Placed in a custom-built dock in 1992,
Discovery is now the centrepiece of Dundee's visitor attraction Discovery Point. She is displayed in a configuration as near as possible to her 1923 state, when she was refitted in the Vosper yard at Portsmouth. She is listed as part of the
National Historic Fleet. Discovery Point is a fully accredited museum and has won numerous national awards, as well as being a 5-star rated tourist attraction with
Visit Scotland. In 2008,
Discovery and the associated polar collections were named as a Recognised Collection of National Significance. Since the 1990s, the Discovery Point museum has concentrated on interpreting the vessel on all of her voyages, with personal items from the ship's crew as well as information on her scientific activities. Items range from the games played by the crew on her first expedition to examples of sea fauna. Star objects on display include Captain Scott's rifle and pipe. ''Discovery's'' three main voyages, the
National Antarctic Expedition (1901–1904), the
Discovery Oceanographic Expedition (1925–1927) and the
BANZARE expedition (1929–31), are all explored in the museum through film and photographic evidence with artefacts from each era represented. The museum also holds other pieces from Scott's subsequent
Terra Nova expedition and Shackleton's
Endurance expedition. The ship also features on the
crest of the
coat of arms of the
British Antarctic Territory. ==Subsequent ships==