Inside Britain's First Polar Research Vessel | RRS Discovery
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2024
- 'Inside Britain's First Polar Research Vessel | RRS Discovery'
Dan Snow steps aboard the RRS Discovery in Dundee, the first purpose built scientific research vessel for the Antarctic. Guided around the ship by Ali Gellatly, he learns what life and adventure was like aboard this unique vessel.
The legendary polar explorer Captain Scott commanded Discovery's first expedition south from 1901-1904, during which the ship would spend two years locked in the polar ice.
Also on that expedition was none other than Ernest Shackleton, who would later go on to gain global renown after the Endurance expedition of 1914.
#Discovery #Antarctic #HistoryHit
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An interesting feature on the Discovery is the section where all the metal in the structure is brass to avoid magnetic interference with the scientific equipment!
I visited the ship in August 2021 on day trip from Edinburgh
And just a little further along the river is HMS Unicorn a 19th century frigate, it's like a small scale Nelson's Victory also worth a visit.
I love the Unicorn, much prefered going there as a bairn than to the Discovery. Both are great ships but the Discovery was a much more curated experience, you followed the route, look at the displays etc. 8 year old me found that quite dull. The Unicorn though, was amazing. On you went and off you explored, from the top deck, past the canons, down to the orlop deck, along the carpenters walk and into the magazine. 8 year old me, thought it was so cool! 44 year old me still does.
Not going to lie when I heard the name I thought of the boat from tintin,
"It's the only ship that still exists from that heroic age, built for that heroic age, that took people all the way down to the frozen continent." Apart from the Fram, used by Nansen and Amundsen, preserved in its own museum in Oslo.
Can't go mentioning the Norwegians though. because then we will have to admit we lost!
I had the chance to meet and talk to Ali when I helped out on filming at the RRS Discovery a couple of years ago. Lovely chap and can definitely recommend visiting if you're ever in the area
That was a long way up with no harness, good job chap.
My dad lives in Dundee, I always make time to go visit the Discovery. The cafe is pretty decent too!
It's awsome that the ship still exists, but it's not the only polar expedition ship from that age still around. In Oslo, you can visit the Fram Museum and see the ship Fram used by Norwegian explorers Nansen and Amundsen to arctic as well as antartica
The British have a tendency to toot their own horns quite a bit. If I’d have a buck for every time I have seen, read or heard brits describe Cutty Sark as the greatest and fastest sailship ever built, I’d buy the Khruzenshtern and a box of cigarettes from the spare change
I really want to see what a fully-loaded, ready for a long voyage sailing ship looked like on the inside. Where the livestock was, how full the holds were, what was stored on the deck.
Watch this video on the reconstructed Dutch ship "Batavia".
czcams.com/video/9nBTiOiiazM/video.html
I would urge you to watch the movie "Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World" and season one of the AMC show "The Terror." Both offer excellent and historically accurate representations of ship-board life in the early 19th century.
@@cleverusername9369 , Master & Commander is one of my favorites. I'm embarrassed to write how many times I've watched the movie. The real humans that it was based upon truly had grit. Thanks for the suggestion about the other post. v
Ill check those out. Master and Commander didn't portray full supplies though.
update: nothing showed a realistically fully-loaded ship for a long voyage. I want to see what the Beagle looked like at max capacity. Even Master and Commander was dramatized.
Dan Snow, you are a braver man than me, very well done
Yes it's one thing getting up into the foretop, quite another coming down again! A fascinating peek into this most important vessel. Really enjoyed this. Nice one Dan! 👍
I must say, I have been really enjoying the videos since the relaunch/reboot of the channel.
Glad to hear it!
You climbed that with no rigging! The men who operated that ship would love you for that
I would argue that Nansen’s ship Fram launched in 1892 rather than Discovery in 1901 was the first purpose built polar research vessel
Agree, and since you can visit it and walk inside it in Oslo it also still exists ;-).
Not for Antarctic. Fram was built for Arctic.
@@alistairgellatly That is true :-). Fun fact is that Endurance mentioned in the video was built in the next town to where Fram was built. But a different beast that was, as mentioned in the film.
@@alistairgellatly Amundsen took the Fram to Antarctica, so it was used for both ends of the world.
@@OwenM476 indeed he did. But she was not built for that second purpose
6:15 The odd building in the background is the V&A Museum (Design museum)
I visited Discovery a few times when I was studying in Dundee, such a beautiful ship
wow no way would I climb to top of that mast! and no safety harness :-O
This is really cool but I wish they acknowledged Fram as the original purpose-built polar explorer. I'd be curious what lessons Dundee took from Colin Archer & Co
Remember to join us LIVE at 6pm GMT this evening guys where we'll be kicking off our season of polar exploration! #Endurance22 😄
czcams.com/video/CVbMgoXVhSo/video.html
Just saw the BBC piece this morning, but had no idea you were part of this. In my youth I was deckhand on Canadian oceanographic research ships, and have voyaged up fjords on Baffin Island studying sedimentology, been to places like Pond Inlet, did box cores and piston cores whilst following iceberg scours on the mid-Atlantic Ridge, and I spent 3 days in a November gale with 50 ft. seas on the Flemish Cap. I'd kill to be on this trip with you, you lucky sod!
Glad to see the Discovery get some love!
What an amazing host. Really enjoyed this. Thank you!
Thanks Dan and team! This is awesome!
Fantastic ship and a great piece of history for Dundee ……. But doesn’t the V&A look great too👍 I love seeing both when visiting my family in Broughty Ferry.
Did you climb that with no safety wire? Dan the man! 🙂
What a beautiful ship! Fantastic! Thanks for sharing, appreciate it a lot.
Greets from the Netherlands 🌷, T.
I just visited today and it was spectacular!
Another fantastic video
Absolutely incredible!!
Love this channel
Awesome I lived in tayoort as a child my schoolroom looked over the river Tay, when it was really windy the waves in the Tay looked like mini ice bergs
You have such a cool channel. so many interesting videos
Amazing ship
Very well presented, great story
Great questions and response, on a journey into the unknown.
Getting up the crows nest is one thing getting back down is anther. Just seeing Dan coming down Scared me. I would be reaching deep for my inner Fred the Famous Steeple Jack From Bolton God Rest is soul
Dibnah would look at the height of that mast & laugh.
Love your work 👍
1902: Discovery, Dundee. Scotland, Great Britain
1892: Fram, Larvik, Norway.
1880: Eira, Peterhead, Scotland, Great Britain
The guide was great
fantastic!
Amazing.
RRS Discovery used to be berthed on The Embankment in London. I remember going on board and seeing a stuffed Emperor Penguin and the Huntley & Palmers biscuits in a glass case!
That must have been some time ago then. I'm from Dundee and saw it when I was in primary school which is 30+ years ago now and it's been in Dundee for at least that long.
@@jacktorrance3522 yes a long time ago back in the early 1970's🐧
Even if it’s not as large, please do not forget the “FRAM” polar ship in Oslo Norway. FRAM was also built for the job. It could even change the propeller at sea if damaged by the ice. FRAM took Roald Amundsen to the South Pole in 1911, and we all know the race with Scott and how sadly it ended.
Great video
2:51 So I take it you don't fully embrace your English heritage, now do you Mr. Snow?...
Just kidding, I am fully with you on this one, and excellent channel, one of my favourites.
Its always weird seeing somewhere close to home on TV or CZcams
My hat is off to you for not going thru the Lubber's hole and climbing like a real seaman!
Great tour. Where can I buy a wool.cap like the guide wore in this video? :)
Guy has a fantastic hat
She was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom.
this channel is more interesting than gcse history
This is sooo cool!
Gosh dang, i love history!
Humans are such cool creatures! The things we have achived and done is always impressive to learn about!
and the Fram is worth a visit.
Sixty years ago, Discovery was moored in the Thames, just near the Egyptian Obelisk and (I think) was either owned by the Scout Association or they were the caretakers. To this day, there is a Discovery Sailing Project which is part of the Scout Association, named after this lovely ship.
I remember my Senior Scout patrol (we were Air Scouts!) visiting Discovery in the late fifties (maybe early sixties) and I know I climbed part way up the starboard mainmast ratlines. Also without a safety line!
Lovely ship, I'll get back there sometime.
Need to do a video on hms trincomalee
some of the technology there will probably be forgotten, people nowadays might not even think about the salt brine part
I have often thought it would have been a good idea to take a disposable ship on some of the early polar voyages.
A non specialised merchant ship that could have been loaded to the gunwales with coal, food and additional equipment, operated using a skeleton crew that could be shared between them & simply scuttled when it was no longer needed.
Even the very timbers it was made from could have been cannibalised to help a main ship over-wintering in the ice.
It is though some of the survivors in the Franklin expedition lived for many years and some may have missed rescue by mere months.
I have often wondered if the Franklin expedition could have had any survivors if there had been a depot ship to keep them going right up to the last moment.
Water how do they deal with that that motor will need a lot?
I hope you are doing a day by day cover
Dundee looks facken cold
8:00
RRS: Explain please. I thought UK ships were HMS.
Royal Research Ship
@@alistairgellatly Much obliged.
Royal Research Ship - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Royal_Research_Ship
A Royal Research Ship (RRS) is a merchant navy vessel of the United Kingdom that conducts scientific research for Her Majesty's Government.
@@plusart5322 Much obliged to you too.
RRS: Royal Research Ship
RMS: Royal Mail Steamer/Ship
HMS: His/Her Majesty's Ship/Submarine
HMCGS: His/Her Majesty's Coast Guard Ship
RFAS: Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ship
HMHS: His/Her Majesty's Hospital Ship
SS: Screw Steamer
You could not even begin to start building this ship for 40 million Pounds today,,,
Dundee to hammerfest the old whaling route
Shame it wasn't named Endurance. Then it could be Antarctic Research Ship Endurance - ARSE.
Avoiding the lubber's hole like a baws
If there weren't any women onboard who did the men use for women? "Hey seaman Davidson. Can you come down below decks for a moment please? I got something I want to show you".
6 tons of coal per day for 3 years is 6,570t. That’s a lot for a ship with one 50t and one 300t bunker! Hmmm 🤔
Good job there were various ports & whaling stations along the way for them to refuel then, hmmmmm...
They also weren't burning coal for the engine and boiler every day. They relied on sail power as much as possible.
See what’s annoying, as a person that lives in dundee, if I asked to climb up to the top I’d be telt a firm no
the FIRST? LOL
Yes it was the first Royal research ship
This ship offends me. Have it taken down like the statues are being taken down in America.
Hmmm no response after a month...you cant fit the criteria so its ok to offend you😂
@@shaunmcclory8117 , okay, but "I'll be back."
Sorry, but Scott was actually an incompetent fool, who believed that - ponies would be able to bring him new glory in the Antarctic, after he had failed miserably as a Commander of a Warship.
Don't be sorry. There's so much myth about what a hero Scott was. I agree with you - he was a fool. He could have done many things to make his attempt on the pole easier, but he believed anything that made life easier made the attempt less worthy.
Sorry but you're both wrong. He never believed that ponies could make the entire trek to the pole but he recognized that Shackleton had gotten further than anyone else using ponies on the Nimrod expedition and so he felt it was worth using them in the same manner.
The main problem was that the choice of ponies was from relatively poor stock (same for the dogs as it happens) and so they were generally a let down.
Scott's legacy has rightly gone through much scrutiny but the previously popular opinion to bash him as an "incompetent fool" (as you put it) is now largely debunked. Scott had unseasonably bad weather on the expedition and even Amundsen would have come into difficulty if he had been delayed by even just a couple of weeks.
I heartily recommend Sir Ranulph Fiennes book on Scott which is generally in praise of Scott but also doesn't withhold on relevant criticism where it's supported by facts.
excellent Dan as usual
But what's that EYESORE of a building at the side ?
It's the V&A museum. My parents went recently and said it was shite.