Discovery’s new berth

Press, 3 July 1979, Page 25

Discovery’s new berth

From KEN COATES in London

The Discovery, the ship which took Captain Robert Falcon Scott to Antarctica, will get a final resting place on the South Bank of the Thames under a plan to transform part of Southwark into a big tourist attraction.

By 1981 the timbered ship will be permanently berthed at St Mary Overy Dock, a few yards from Southwark Cathedral. The National Maritime Museum will arrange for the 78-year-old ship to be open to visitors to see special displays of equipment used by

Captain Scott and members of his expeditions. The Discovery is now berthed alongside the embankment near Waterloo Bridge. Visitors have not been allowed on board since a serious attack of dry rot was discovered in her stern some time ago.

The equivalent of more than $BOO,OOO is being spent to make her shipshape. Sir Patrick Bailey, director of the Maritime Trust, is confident the move will preserve the Discovery for future generations especially athere is every chance it wilbecome a popular tourist at

traction like the Cutty Sark at Greenwich.

He says the ship is basically sound and that the trust’s original fears that it may be riddled with dry rot have proved unfounded.

The trust’s decision to choose a berth on the South Bank has come as a surprise but has delighted European Ferries, which is redeveloping the site at St Mary Overy Dock. The company developing St Katherine’s Dock, Taylor .Voodrow, is disappointed: it lad expected the Discovery o be moored there as part >f its maritime exhibition.