ANTARCTIC RESEARCH.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17756, 7 May 1923, Page 13

ANTARCTIC RESEARCH.

9 EXPEDITION OF THE DISCOVERY. c ' ■ ■ -s (MOM OUB OWH CORRESPONDENT.) jfc LONDON, March 22. In regarof to the proposed voyage of the Discovery to the whaling fields j about Falkland Islands, South Georgia, j and the South Shetlands. the Duke of | Devonshire (Colonial Secretary) is taking 6teps for the appointment of an Executive Committee to undertake the management. It is proposed that the Colonial Office, the Admiralty, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the British Museum (Natural History), and the Royal Geographical Society should be represented upon the Executive Committee. The committee will keep in close touch with other institutions and individuals who are interested in Antarctic research. The principal task tor which the Discovery will be employed, of course, will be to ascertain the geographical limits of the stock of whales, to trace their migrations, and to form some idea of their numbers and the rate of reproduction, but the expedition will also afford opportunities for adding to scientific- knowledge in many other directions, and particularly 'in oceanography, meteorology, and magnetism. The Discovery was specially built for 'the first national Antarctic Expedition under Captain Scott, at a cost of £SI,QPO. She was a wooden vessel, with frame of solid oak, and some difficulty was experienced in arranging for her construction, which was eventually undertaken by the Dundee Shipbuilding Company. The architect was Mr W. E. Smith, Chief Naval Constructor, and no pains were spared to make her as perfect as possible for the work contemplated. -Captain Scott described[her''the finest Teasel which vm ever tmusj

for exploring purposes." Her registercel tonnage was 485, length between perpendiculars 172 ft, and breadth 34ft. She was fitted with two cylindrical boilers arranged to work at a i pleasure of 150 pounds per square inch, ' and a set of triple expansion engines designed to give 450 indicated horse- < power. A large area of the hull' was kept entirely free from any magnetic metal, so that the. most delicate magnetic observations could be made on board. Her keel was laid in March, 1900, and in March, 1901, she was [launched and named the Discovery by i Lady. Markham, wife of Sir Clement Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society. She sailed from Cowes in August, 1901, and in February, 1902, took up her quarters in the Antarctic in McMurdo Sound at the ; western end of Ross's Great Ice Bar-; rier. There she remained for the next | two years, serving as the base for the extensive explorations which were car-j ried out by the expedition till its re- j tuTn in 1904. Afterwards she was of- j fered to the Admiralty, to be kept for scientific exploration, but the offer was refused, and she was sold to the Hudson Bay Company for £IO,OOO. It is naturally not unlikely that. a number of explorers and scientists whose names are well known in connexion with former Antarctic expedi- '■ tio'ns -will be applying for places on the ' [ Discovery. No appointments have yet been made, but Commander F. A. ; Worsley, D.5.0., who knows South i Georgia and the seas thereabouts so: well, seems eminently suited to navi- I ' gate the vessel. He will certainly be , applying for a post with the expedition. .