ICE-DEFYING SHIP

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1931, Page 5

ICE-DEFYING SHIP

SCOTT’S DISCOVERY.

AN ANTARCTIC LOSS.

“A strong wooden ship of about tons register (1700 tons displacement' was built at Dundee, and named th Discovery. She was made entirely non magnetic amidships, so that magnet! observations might be carried on with out interference from local attraction.’ These sentences are taken from th story of Captain Scott’s Antarctic Ex pedition in the Discovery, beginning ii 1901. After 30 years of Polar adventuri the Discovery visited New Zealand .agau this year (having completed her Ant arctic work under Sir Douglas Mawson) and she recently left New Zealand, per haps for good. But there are som people who think that this . “strop wooden vessel” (with her immens thicknesses of British oak, to withstam the stresses of the pack ice) shoul never have been allowed to leave th Southern Hemisphere. Among thse i Sir Douglas Mawson himself, who write to the honorary representative of hi Antarctic expedition in New Zealand Mr. A. Leigh Hunt: “I note that you found the Discovery an interesting proposition, and wouli like to see her stationed out in Nev Zealand. I should like to see her there also. I think that such a vessel shouk be on this side of the world in case o emergency in connection with whalin’ operations in the Antarctic, and also fo. the conduct of oceanographic surveys.’ Besides her useful potentialities, thi Discovery is a link with many phase: of Polar exploration, and the names o: Scott and Shackleton are connected witi her. Mr. Leigh Hunt thinks that she migh be obtained, through the British Admir alty, at no excessive price—at a prici that is indeed low, compared with wha she has cost. Her work for the Falk land Islands Administration, in whicl she was engaged before Sir ’ Dougla Mawson secured her for his two recen voyages South, is now, he understants undertaken by a newer vessel. “Strong wooden ships” like the Dis covery are now few •. indeed? Being : sailing ship inheriting all the tradition; of sail, the Discovery would, he adds maks an admirable training ship, am could be used in the marine fisherie research which science and commerc alike demand. The newer vessel referred to abov is Discovery 11., which recently returns to England after having, during the las two summers, covered 2600 miles of th South Georgia whaling grounds. Th London cablegrams announcing her re turn also stated that she has take: thousands of water samples and has in vestigated “the temperatures, saliniti and density of sea water, and the con tent of phosphate and nitrate controllin; the growth of the miscroscopic plant on which animals and whales subsist The studies of the Discovery and th William Scbresby will be compared will the areas and seasons in order to ascer tain the concentration and migration o whales, and the occurrence of good am bad whaling years. The work has don much to make navigation safer. Th ship, which was built expressly, for re search in Southern waters, and is speci ally strengthened for ice navigation, cai steam over 10,000 miles without refuel ling. The object of her investigations i to secure the permanence of the whalin. industry in the south.”