RRS William Scoresby

RRS William Scoresby was British Royal Research Ship built for operations in Antarctic waters. Specially built for the Discovery Committee by Cook, Welton & Gemmell of Beverley, the ship was launched on 31 December 1925, and named after the noted 19th-century Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman. Over the next 12 years the ship made seven voyages into Antarctic waters as part of the Discovery Investigations, accompanied by the ship Discovery until 1929, and then by Discovery II. During this time she marked about 3,000 whales and completed biological, hydrographical and oceanographic studies.[3] She also took part in the 2nd Wilkins-Hearst Antarctic Expedition in 1929-1930, launching a Lockheed Vega floatplane for flights over Antarctica.[4]

The RRS William Scoresby on a 1944 stamp of Graham Land
History
United Kingdom
NameWilliam Scoresby
NamesakeWilliam Scoresby
BuilderCook, Welton & Gemmell, Beverley
Yard number477
Launched31 December 1925
Completed14 June 1926
IdentificationOfficial number: 148757[1]
FateSold for scrapping, 1954
General characteristics
TypeRoyal Research Ship / Naval trawler
Displacement370 long tons (376 t)[2]
Length125 ft (38 m)[2]
Beam26 ft (7.9 m)[2]

Laid up in St Katharine Docks in 1938, she was the requisitioned by the Admiralty in October 1939 and converted into a minesweeper. Commissioned as HMS William Scoresby (J122) in June 1940 she was stationed in the Falkland Islands.[1] In early 1944 she took part in Operation Tabarin, establishing British bases in Antarctica. The vessel was decommissioned in September 1946, and transferred to the newly formed National Institute of Oceanography in February 1951. She made one last voyage, surveying the Benguela Current off the west coast of Africa, before finally being sold for scrapping by the British Iron & Steel Corporation in 1954.[3]

Legacy

William Scoresby Bay and the William Scoresby Archipelago, off the Antarctic coast, are named after RRS William Scoresby.[5]

References
  1. "RFA William Scoresby". historicalrfa.org. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  2. Skidmore, Mike. "Captain Victor Marchesi, RN". Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  3. "The William Scoresby, Oceanographic Expeditions and University College Hull" (PDF). Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  4. "Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958)". south-pole.com. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  5. William Scoresby Archipelago, Australian Antarctic Data Centre Gazetteer. Retrieved 26 January 2023.

Further reading
  • Bryan, Rorke (2011). Ordeal by Ice: Ships of the Antarctic. Seaforth Publishing.
  • Fuchs, Sir Vivian E. (1982). Of Ice and Men. The Story of the British Antarctic Survey 1943-1973. Anthony Nelson.
  • Haddelsey, S. (2014). Operation Tabarin: Britain's Secret Wartime Expedition to Antarctica, 1944–46. Stroud: History Press. ISBN 9780752493565.
  • Pearce, Gerry (2018). Operation Tabarin 1943-45 and its Postal History. Independent Publishing Network. ISBN 978-1-78926-580-4. (Self-published but extensively references primary sources in national and specialist archives)
  • Taylor, Andrew (2017). Heidt, D.; Lackenbauer, P. W. (eds.). Two Years Below the Horn. Operation Tabarin, Field Science and Antarctic Sovereignty, 1944-1946. Canada: University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 978-0-88755-791-0.
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