RRS William Scoresby explained

RRS William Scoresby was British Royal Research Ship built for operations in Antarctic waters. Specially built for the Discovery Committee by Cook, Welton & Gemmell of Beverley, the ship was launched on 31 December 1925, and named after the noted 19th-century Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman. Over the next 12 years the ship made seven voyages into Antarctic waters as part of the Discovery Investigations, accompanied by the ship until 1929, and then by Discovery II. During this time she marked about 3,000 whales and completed biological, hydrographical and oceanographic studies.^[1] She also took part in the 2nd Wilkins-Hearst Antarctic Expedition in 1929-1930, launching a Lockheed Vega floatplane for flights over Antarctica.^[2]

Laid up in St Katharine Docks in 1938, she was the requisitioned by the Admiralty in October 1939 and converted into a minesweeper. Commissioned as HMS William Scoresby (J122) in June 1940 she was stationed in the Falkland Islands. In early 1944 she took part in Operation Tabarin, establishing British bases in Antarctica. The vessel was decommissioned in September 1946, and transferred to the newly formed National Institute of Oceanography in February 1951. She made one last voyage, surveying the Benguela Current off the west coast of Africa, before finally being sold for scrapping by the British Iron & Steel Corporation in 1954.^[1]

Legacy

William Scoresby Bay and the William Scoresby Archipelago, off the Antarctic coast, are named after RRS William Scoresby.^[3]

Further reading

• Book: Bryan . Rorke . Ordeal by Ice: Ships of the Antarctic . 2011 . Seaforth Publishing.
• Book: Fuchs . Sir Vivian E. . Of Ice and Men. The Story of the British Antarctic Survey 1943-1973 . 1982 . Anthony Nelson.
• Book: Haddelsey, S.. 2014. Operation Tabarin: Britain's Secret Wartime Expedition to Antarctica, 1944–46. Stroud. History Press. 9780752493565.
• Book: Pearce . Gerry . Operation Tabarin 1943-45 and its Postal History . 2018 . Independent Publishing Network . 978-1-78926-580-4. (Self-published but extensively references primary sources in national and specialist archives)
• Book: Taylor . Andrew . Heidt . D. . Lackenbauer . P. W. . Two Years Below the Horn. Operation Tabarin, Field Science and Antarctic Sovereignty, 1944-1946 . 2017 . University of Manitoba Press . Canada . 978-0-88755-791-0.

External links

• Web site: Photograph of the William Scoresby with aircraft, c.1929-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111210143903/http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/393656/photograph-by-george-rayner-antarctica-circa-1920s . dead . 10 December 2011 . . 27 November 2012 . Rayner, George.
• Web site: Photograph of RRS William Scoresby 1949-1953 . rfanostalgia.org . 27 November 2012.
• Web site: Operation Tabarin. The National Archives Web Archive, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) . 25 September 2021.
• British Antarctic Oral History Project – Includes interviews with expedition members Marchesi (captain of William Scoresby during Tabarin), George James (wireless operator William Scoresby during Tabarin).
• British Antarctic Survey – British scientific organisation that developed from Operation Tabarin. The Archives holds official expedition records, photographs and moving film of William Scoresby.

Notes and References

1. Web site: The William Scoresby, Oceanographic Expeditions and University College Hull . . 27 November 2012 . 5 August 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120805152645/http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/TheWilliamScoresby.pdf . dead .
2. Web site: Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958) . south-pole.com . 27 November 2012.
3. https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=133723 William Scoresby Archipelago