#ShackletonShips - The Ross Sea announced as the World’s largest marine park in the Antarctic is where ice patrol survey ship HMS Endurance nearly sank in the south Atlantic in 2008. Since then the ship has remained laid up, however in recent months she was scrapped, writes Jehan Ashmore.

HMS Endurance (A171) a former Royal Navy vessel based in the polar seas was named in honour of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s original expedition sail and steam ship Endurance.

The three-masted barquentine, Endurance was crushed by pack ice and sunk more than a century ago in late 1915. The incident took place during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-1918 led by the Irish born polar explorer. A 15ft model of the ship is on display in the Athy Heritage Museum, Co. Kildare and more recently a statue of Shackleton was unveiled. 

The 1995 built HMS Endurance had a near floundering incident in December 2008 while off Chile. The 5,129 gross tonnage vessel suffered flooding of her engine room that nearly sank her, following an error during routine maintenance on a sea suction strainer.

The damage was so severe that HMS Endurance was transported by semi-submersible ship to the UK, firstly Dartmouth and then Portsmouth  Naval Base. It was deemed far too expensive to carry out repairs and she was sold for scrap in 2013, however since Afloat’s coverage almost three years ago, the towage of the vessel only took place in June when bound for breakers in Turkey.

She had been employed as a hydrographic and support vessel for British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which is responsible for the UK's national scientific activities in Antarctica. A £150m newbuild RRS Sir David Attenborough currently under construction will join her fleetmates as outlined below. 

HMS Endurance was originally built as MV Polar Circle for Norwegians in 1990, then chartered to the Royal Navy and purchased. The navy equipped the vessel with Lynx helicopters as BAS aircraft cannot reach certain locations in the vast polar expanse.

Currently, the Royal Navy’s presence in these polar waters and the South Atlantic is tasked to HMS Protector (A173). Likewise of her predecessor, she operates along with BAS ships.

They are the civilian-manned polar research vessels, RRS Ernest Shackleton and RRS James Clarke Ross. The naming of the ship honours that of the British explorer who in 1841 visited the area (Ross Sea) located in southern Antarctica.