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Built in Dundee in 1900 by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company, Discovery was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the UK. She was designed to carry out a scientific expedition to Antarctica, the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying pioneering explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first journey to the Antarctic.
She is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship - that is, she can move by sails or be powered by her coal-fired steam engine, or a combination of the two. Her coal bunkers would not be able to hold enough coal to allow her to travel the 12,000 miles to New Zealand on coal power alone, hence why she was also given sails.
The British National Antarctic Expedition departed only a week after the ship left Dundee; with limited time for sea trials, the ship and her equipment were largely untested. The expedition departed the UK on 6th August 1901, arriving in New Zealand in early December 1901, and departed for the Antarctic on 21st December after having spent some time in dry dock in Lyttleton to conduct repair work.
The Antarctic coastline was sighted on 8th January 1902; the following month was spent charting the coast. Then, the ship was anchored in McMurdo Sound in a sheltered bay in preparation for the onset of winter. By 8th February, Discovery was surrounded by pack ice, and was fully frozen into the ice by the end of March - and would not move again until February 1904, nearly two years later. During this time, the expedition continued to carry out research work, including confirming that Antarctica was a continent, not just floating ice.
Following her departure from Antarctica, Discovery followed the Clipper Route back to the UK, arriving at Spithead on the 10th of September 1904.
Following the BNAE's conclusion, Discovery was sold and repurposed as a commercial cargo vessel, and eventually saw service as such in the First World War, before being refitted again as a research vessel. She was involved in marine biological study work, before being involved in the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition.
She was returned to Dundee on 3rd April 1986, the first time she had been back there since her construction. She was placed in a custom-built dock in 1992, and now forms the centrepiece of Discovery Point, a museum dedicated to the ship, her crews, and the expeditions she took part in. You'll find Discovery Point on the waterfront just a short walk away from the railway station, next to the V&A Museum. If you're ever in Dundee, go check it out; it's brilliant.
Arthur C. Clarke, prolific author and scientist, named the spaceship featured in his novel "2001: A Space Odyssey" after the RRS Discovery. The Space Shuttle Discovery is also named after RRS Discovery.
There have been three subsequent ships with the Royal Research Ship designation to have been named Discovery; RRS Discovery II was launched in 1929, RRS Discovery was launched in 1962, and the most recent RRS Discovery was built in 2013.