 Terra Nova in 1911 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Namesake | Newfoundland (Terra Nova in Latin) |
| Builder | |
| Launched | 1884 |
| Fate | Sunk off Greenland, 13 September 1943 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type |
|
| Tonnage | 764 grt |
| Length | 187 ft (57 m) |
| Beam | 31.4 ft (9.6 m) |
| Draught | 19 ft (5.8 m) |
| Propulsion | |
| Crew | 65 |
Terra Nova was a whaler and polar expedition ship. The ship is best known for carrying the 1910 British Antarctic Expedition, Robert Falcon Scott's last expedition.
Terra Nova (Latin for "new land") was built in 1884 for the Dundee whaling and sealing fleet and was ideally suited to the polar regions and had been operating for 10 years in the annual seal fishery in the Labrador Straits.
In 1903, Terra Nova sailed in company with fellow ex-whaler SY Morning to assist in freeing the National Antarctic Expedition's RRS Discovery from McMurdo Sound. On return to Great Britain, expedition leader Commander Robert Falcon Scott was promoted to the rank of captain.
On return from the Antarctic, Terra Nova was purchased by the American millionaire William Ziegler and placed under the command of a Norwegian, Captain Johan Kjeldsen. She sailed to the Arctic to return members of the US Fiala/Ziegler expedition from Franz Josef Land to Norway. This expedition had lost its ship America, crushed by ice, during an attempt to reach the North Pole.
After returning to Newfoundland in 1906, Terra Nova resumed sealing duties with her owners, C. T. Bowring & Co. of St. John's and Liverpool.
In 1909, Terra Nova was bought by Captain R.F. Scott RN for the sum of £12,500, as expedition ship for the British Antarctic Expedition 1910. Reinforced from bow to stern with seven feet of oak to protect against the Antarctic ice pack, she sailed from Cardiff Docks on 15 June 1910 under overall command of Captain Scott. He described her as "a wonderfully fine ice ship.... As she bumped the floes with mighty shocks, crushing and grinding a way through some, twisting and turning to avoid others, she seemed like a living thing fighting a great fight". [2]
Although the twenty-four officers and scientific staff made valuable observations in biology, geology, glaciology, meteorology, and geophysics along the coast of Victoria Land and on the Ross Ice Shelf, Scott's last expedition is best remembered for the death of Scott and four companions.
After wintering at Cape Evans on Ross Island, Scott, Henry Bowers, Edgar Evans, Lawrence Oates, and Edward Wilson set out on a race to be the first men at the South Pole. Starting with tractors and Mongolian ponies, the final 800 miles (1,300 km) had to be covered by man-hauling alone. Reaching the South Pole on 17 January 1912, they found that Roald Amundsen's expedition (based on Fram ) had beaten them by thirty-four days. Worse was to come, as all five men died on the return journey. The frozen bodies of three were discovered eight months later, in November 1912. Their journals and papers were found and retrieved.
After returning from the Antarctic in 1913, Terra Nova was purchased by her former owners and resumed work in the Newfoundland seal fishery. Estimates for her career as a sealing vessel is over 800,000 seal pelts. [3] In 1918 she was chartered by the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation to transport coal from the coal mines at North Sydney to Bell Island. She also assisted at the disaster of the SS Florizel in February 1918.
In 1942, Terra Nova was chartered by Newfoundland Base Contractors to carry supplies to base stations in Greenland. On 12 September 1943 at 2205, the vessel sent an SOS reporting damage, that water was over the boilers and pumps were not working. The US Coast Guard Cutters Atak, Amarok, Laurel, and Manitou, all part of the Greenland Patrol of the US Atlantic Fleet, responded. Atak reached Terra Nova on 13 September. They rescued all personnel aboard and set the ship alight before proceeding to Narsarssuak, Greenland. Amarok and Manitou turned back after their services were not needed. Laurel proceeded to the site of Terra Nova. The burning hulk was sunk by gunfire the same day at 60°15′15″N45°55′45″W / 60.25417°N 45.92917°W . [4]
The figurehead from Terra Nova was removed in 1913 and presented to Cardiff City Council which in 1932 donated it to the National Museum of Wales. [5] Her bell is kept at the Scott Polar Research Institute, part of the University of Cambridge. It was given to the institute on 20 October 1952 by Lady Nicholson of Eden, who was given the bell by her nephew, EL Atkinson, the surgeon on Scott's last expedition. The bell is rung every weekday at 10.30 and 16.00 when everyone working within the institute is invited to gather for coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon, as is the British tradition. It is rung in the manner of a ship's watch, five bells in the morning and eight bells in the afternoon.[ citation needed ]
The binnacle of Terra Nova is displayed in the Pierhead Suite of the Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay, a short distance from the point where Scott's crew departed Cardiff on the fated voyage.
In July 2012, the wreck of Terra Nova was discovered by the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s flagship RV Falkor. [6] [7]
Captain Robert Falcon Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova expedition of 1910–13.
Edward Adrian Wilson was an English polar explorer, ornithologist, natural historian, physician and artist.
Terra Nova may refer to:
Admiral Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, was a Royal Navy officer and Antarctic explorer.
William Lashly was a Royal Navy seaman who served as lead stoker on both the Discovery expedition and the Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal. Lashly was also recognised with the Albert Medal for playing a key role in saving the life of a comrade on the second of the two expeditions.
USS Bear was a dual steam-powered and sailing ship built with six-inch (15.2 cm)-thick sides which had a long life in various cold-water and ice-filled environments. She was a forerunner of modern icebreakers and had a diverse service life. According to the United States Coast Guard official website, Bear is described as "probably the most famous ship in the history of the Coast Guard."
SS Southern Cross was a steam-powered sealing vessel that operated primarily in Norway and Newfoundland.
Old Polina is a traditional Newfoundland folk song. It is most likely based on the ship Polynia, built in 1861, of the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company fleet. Polynia was commanded by Captain William Guy from 1883 to 1891, when she was sunk by ice in Davis Strait. This song is similar to another song called The Balaena, about another whaler.
The Terra NovaExpedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objectives. Scott wished to continue the scientific work that he had begun when leading the Discovery Expedition from 1901 to 1904, and wanted to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole.
Victor Lindsey Arbuthnot Campbell was an English Royal Navy officer and Antarctic explorer.
Cape Adare is a prominent cape of black basalt forming the northern tip of the Adare Peninsula and the north-easternmost extremity of Victoria Land, East Antarctica.
Inexpressible Island is a small, rocky island in Terra Nova Bay, Victoria Land, Antarctica. Previously uninhabited, the Chinese Qinling research station on the southern edge of the island became operational in 2024.
Robert Forde was an Antarctic explorer and member of the Terra Nova Expedition under Captain Robert Falcon Scott from 1910–1912.
Farthest South refers to the most southerly latitudes reached by explorers before the first successful expedition to the South Pole in 1911.
HMS Discovery was a wood-hulled screw expedition ship, and later storeship, formerly the sealing ship Bloodhound built in 1873 in Dundee. She was purchased in 1874 for the British Arctic Expedition of 1875–1876 and later served as a store ship. Discovery was sold in 1902, reverting to the name Bloodhound and her previous sealing trade. The ship was wrecked in Newfoundland in 1917.
Quest was a low-powered, schooner-rigged steamship that sailed from 1917 until sinking in 1962, best known as the polar exploration vessel of the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922. It was aboard this vessel that Sir Ernest Shackleton died on 5 January 1922 while in harbour in South Georgia. Prior to and after the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition, Quest operated in commercial service as a seal-hunting vessel or "sealer". Quest was also the primary expedition vessel of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition to the east coast of the island of Greenland in 1930–1931.
Scotia was a barque that was built in 1872 as the Norwegian whaler Hekla. She was purchased in 1902 by William Speirs Bruce and refitted as a research vessel for use by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. After the expedition, she served as a sealer, patrol vessel and collier. She was destroyed by fire in January 1916.
MV Norsel was a Norwegian sealing ship home ported in Tromsø. Launched during the final weeks of the Second World War as Lyngdalsfjord and only completed in late 1949, the ship sailed in both Arctic and Antarctic waters for more than 53 years until shipwrecking off the coast of Norway in 1992.
Frank V. Browning (1882–1930) was a native of Devonshire and explorer of Antarctica. He was part of the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910–1913. In this service he was one of the castaways of the Northern Party that was marooned overwinter on Victoria Land in 1912.
The Terra Nova was mentioned in a sailing song: The Balena.
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