RRS Shackleton
{{About|the Royal Research Ship built in 1954|former Royal Research Ship launched in 1995|RRS Ernest Shackleton}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
{{short description|British Antarctic research vessel}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=File:"Sea Profiler" awaiting demolition at New Holland - geograph.org.uk - 2652425.jpg |Ship caption=Sea Profiler awaiting scrapping in 2011 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag=60px |Ship name=RRS Shackleton |Ship namesake=Ernest Shackleton |Ship owner= |Ship operator=Falkland Islands Dependency Survey / British Antarctic Survey / NERC |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Solvesborgs Varv A/B at Sölvesborg, Sweden |Ship original cost= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=11 November 1954{{csr|register=MSI|id=5321576|shipname=Arendal |accessdate=19 January 2021}} |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship acquired=1955 |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service=1955 |Ship out of service=1992 |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit=1971 |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Panama |Ship flag=60px |Ship name=MV Sea Profiler |Ship namesake= |Ship owner= |Ship operator=Gardline Shipping Limited., Great Yarmouth |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder= |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired=1992 |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=*{{IMO Number|5321576}}
|Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type=Research ship |Ship tonnage={{GT|1,082}} |Ship displacement= |Ship length={{convert|65.78|m|ft|1|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|11.08|m|ft|1|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught={{convert|4.66|m|ft|1|abbr=on}} |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=MAN 6-cylinder diesel, 785 BHP at 275 RPM, Kamena reversible pitch propeller{{cite journal |title=Royal Research Ship Shackleton |journal=The Polar Record |date=May 1956 |volume=8 |number=53 |pages=180–181 |publisher=Scott Polar Research Institute |doi=10.1017/S0032247400046210|s2cid=251060325 }} |Ship speed=*{{convert|9.7|kn}} (maximum)
|Ship range= |Ship endurance=28 days |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship complement=31 berths |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship aircraft facilities= }} |
RRS Shackleton was a Royal Research Ship operated by the British scientific research organisations the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) in the Antarctic from 1955 to 1983. She was subsequently operated as a seismic survey vessel under the names Geotek Beta, Profiler and finally Sea Profiler before being scrapped in 2011.
History
Built in 1954 by Solvesborgs Varv A/B at Sölvesborg, Sweden, she was launched as MV Arendal (III){{cite web| url=http://www.ads.no/fleet_old.html| title=Fleet over the years| publisher=Arendals Dampskibsselskab| accessdate=23 May 2009| url-status=dead| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724174109/http://www.ads.no/fleet_old.html| archivedate=24 July 2011| df=dmy-all}} for work in the Baltic. She was purchased in 1955 by the Falkland Islands Dependency Survey (FIDS. British Antarctic Survey (BAS) from 1962) as a supply vessel to re-stock British research stations. After conversion to carry more passengers, she was renamed RRS Shackleton and sailed to the Antarctic for the 1955/56 season.Fuchs (1982) page 142
On 29 Nov 1957 Shackleton, having completed the relief of the FIDS research station on Signy Island, was seriously damaged when she hit an iceberg off Coronation Island and was holed in two places below the waterline. The ship started to take on water and was almost lost.Fuchs (1982) pages 188-90Woodfield (2016) pages 69-71 Temporary repairs allowed the vessel to reach the whaling station of Stromness on South Georgia, more than 500 miles from the accident, where the hull was repaired. She was met en-route by HMS Protector, which provided an additional pump and shipwrights to help contain the damage Woodfield (2016) pages 74-78 and took off scientists and other passengers.[https://www.nytimes.com/1957/12/02/archives/antarctic-ship-aided-scientists-taken-off-british-vessel-damaged-by.html "Antarctic Ship Aided; Scientists Taken Off British Vessel Damaged by Floe "], The New York Times. 2 December 1957. Page 6. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
File:1963stampShackletonBAT.jpg stamp featuring Shackleton]]
From 1959 scientists from Birmingham University's Sub-department of Geophysics regularly undertook research from Shackleton, focusing on the marine geophysics of the Scotia Arc. This included two-ship seismic refraction experiments working with HMS Protector, sonobuoy work and magnetic surveys.BAS Annual Report (1968) page 84
At Deception Island in 1966 the Shackleton met and provisioned Bill Tilman's SV Mischief, the first private expedition to visit a British Antarctic base.Fuchs (1982) page 287 Shackleton joined the rescue of Deception Island base members when the volcano erupted in December 1967 and again in February 1969.Fuchs (1982) pages 291-92 She was withdrawn from service by BAS at the end of the 1968/69 season.BAS Annual Report 1968-69 p1 following a decision to replace her with a new vessel.BAS Annual Report 1968-69 p122
Shackleton was operated by the NERC after 1969, and underwent major conversion to fit her as a oceanographic research ship, starting in November 1970 at the shipyard of James Lamont, Greenock.NERC Annual Report 1970-71 p62 Construction work was completed in 1971 and her first Antarctic cruise with NERC was in 1971/72, continuing geophysical and marine geology work on the Scotia Arc.NERC Annual Report 1971-72 p107{{cite web |title=RRS Shackleton |url=https://www.bas.ac.uk/about/about-bas/history/history-of-bas-ships/rrs-shackleton/ |website=British Antarctic Survey |access-date=17 June 2022}}{{cite web| url=http://www.gardlinemarinesciences.com/vessel_sea_profiler.asp| title=MV Sea Profiler| publisher=Gardline Marine Sciences| accessdate=23 May 2009| url-status=dead| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416110717/http://gardlinemarinesciences.com/vessel_sea_profiler.asp| archivedate=16 April 2009| df=dmy-all}} On 4 February 1976, while taking part in a British economic survey of the Falkland Islands led by Lord Shackleton (son of the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton), RRS Shackleton was fired on by the Argentine destroyer ARA Almirante Storni in a precursor to the Falklands Conflict.{{cite hansard |house=House of Commons |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1976/feb/05/falkland-islands-rrs-shackleton |title=Falkland Islands (RRS "Shackleton")|date=5 February 1976 |column_start=1414 |column_end=1417}} She was withdrawn from service in May 1983 and sold.NERC Annual Report 1983-84 p82 During her service with NERC the ship carried out cruises in the Antarctic, Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean and Red Sea.NERC Annual Report 1982-83 p78
Shackleton was renamed Geotek Beta in 1983. In 1984 she was purchased by Gardline Shipping Limited and renamed Profiler. She was ‘retired’ from the South Atlantic in 1989 and reconfigured as a soils and high resolution seismic survey vessel, operated by Gardline Shipping Limited. They renamed her Sea Profiler in 1992. She was scrapped in New Holland on the Humber estuary in 2011.
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite book| author=BAS| title=British Antarctic Survey Annual Report 1967-68| publisher=BAS| year=1968}}
- {{cite book| author=BAS| title=British Antarctic Survey Annual Report 1968-69| publisher=BAS| year=1969}}
- {{cite book| author=BAS| title=British Antarctic Survey Annual Report 1969-70| publisher=BAS| year=1979}}
- {{cite book| author=Fuchs, Vivian| authorlink=Vivian Fuchs| title=Of Ice and Men| publisher=Anthony Nelson| location=Oswestry| year=1982| isbn=0-904614-06-9}}
- {{cite book| author=NERC| title=Natural Environment Research Council Report of the Council for the Year 1 April 1970 - 31 March 1971| publisher=NERC| year=1971}}
- {{cite book| author=NERC| title=Natural Environment Research Council Report of the Council for the Year 1 April 1971 - 31 March 1972| publisher=NERC| year=1972}}
- {{cite book| author=NERC| title=Natural Environment Research Council Report of the Council for the Year 1 April 1982 - 31 March 1983| publisher=NERC| year=1983}}
- {{cite book| author=NERC| title=Natural Environment Research Council Report of the Council for the Year 1 April 1983 - 31 March 1984| publisher=NERC| year=1984}}
- {{cite book| author=Woodfield, Thomas| title=Polar Mariner. Beyond the Limits in Antarctica| publisher=Whittles Publishing| location=Scotland| year=2016| isbn=978-184995-166-1}}
Further reading
- {{cite book| author=Stewart, John| title=Antarctica. An Encyclopedia| publisher=McFarland & Co Inc| year=2011| isbn=978-0-7864-3590-6}}
External links
- [http://www.coolantarctica.com/Community/FIDS%20gallery/FIDS_ships.htm Pictures] at Cool Antarctica
- [https://www.bas.ac.uk/about/about-bas/history/history-of-bas-ships.htm History of BAS Ships] - Shackleton
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Category:Icebreakers of the United Kingdom
Category:Research vessels of the United Kingdom