From Shackleton to Shackleton (2)

Back in Europe, Shackleton stays attracted by the poles: after an aborted expedition to Spitzberg and some conferences, he will go back to the South in 1921. The aim is to sail around the Antarctic in serach of "lost islands". He buys in Norway a wooden whaler of 125 tons, called FOCA and renamed QUEST. Sick, Shackleton reaches South Georgia where he dies on 5 January 1922.

In 1967, the british navy buys to Lauritzen one of his polar ships, ANITA DAN, 2 641 tons, 93 m long, powered by a 2900 bhp Diesel engine. The ship is named HMS ENDURANCE by Miss Alexandra Shackleton, a granddaughter of Ernest Shackleton and her annually schedule was a trip from the U.K. in the northerly autumn and returning in the UK the next spring.
She is the single ship in the Royal Navy with a red painted hull, she is used in the Falkland war. After 22 voyages, she is decommissioned in 1991 at Portsmouth.

In 1991, the Navy charters during 8 months a class1 ice-breaker built in Norway in 1990: MV POLAR CIRCLE becomes A171 ENDURANCE on 9 October 1992. Powered by 2 diesels of 8160 hp with a computer-controlled variable pitch propellor and stern and bow thrusters, her cruise speed is12 knots. Her 91 m long allow to carry two Lynx helicopters
ENDURANCE carries a survey motor boat named JAMES CAIRD and two other boats named Stancomb Wills and Dudley Docker as on the first Endurance.

In August 1999, the British Antarctic Survey acquires the Norwegian ice-breaker MV POLAR QUEEN, built in 1995. 80 m long, powered by two Bergen of 2660 kW each, she has an endurance of 130 days or 40 000 miles. A 18 metres bridge allows to carry a Super-Puma type helicopter. The ship is registered in Fakland Islands with the name Royal Research Ship ERNEST SHACKLETON.

So the remembrance of the great explorer is still present on the globe seas...

Some links:

The "free encyclopedia": http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Transport/Ships/RRS_Ernest_Shackleton.html

My polar pages : ships in Antarctic, ships of French Antarctic(TAAF)

Click below for the pages list

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