RRS Sir David Attenborough

I recently had the privilege of visiting RRS Sir David Attenborough when it was alongside at Thanckes Oil Fuel Depot, Torpoint. It was only there for 24 hours and was bunkering (filling up with) aviation fuel ahead of its trip south.  

If you squint in the photo on the left, you can also see HMS PROTECTOR, the Royal Navy Ice Patrol Ship (it's a red blob). 

I was beyond excited to have an opportunity to visit this ship, having not only worked for the UK Hydrographic Office for 25 years, but also having been down south on HMS ENDURANCE.  

First up we visited the bridge.  They have chart back-ups, but only for the Antarctic region.

Their flying bridge wings were fancy, being fully enclosed.  Which was obviously a lot more comfortable in sub-zero temperatures.

The ship was full of memories of previous Arctic/Antarctica memorabilia and each stairwell had historic photos.  The Met Office had gifted (or maybe not gifted, just 'loaned'?) them an atmospheric pressure gauge.  

The ship had two landing craft used to offload supplies.  This was Terror.  I correctly guessed that the other one was called Erebus.  Erebus and Terror are mountains in the Ross Sea, named after HMS EREBUS and HMS TERROR, James Clark Ross' ships of the expedition of Antarctica (1839-1843). 

The ship is flagged to the Falkland Islands, which I couldn't quite capture in the wind/light conditions.

The ship's bell.

We headed up to deck 11, where the poop deck was (kind of the crow's nest).  The Captain explained this used to be very handy in the ice, where its vantage point helped see clear lines.  It is used less frequently nowadays as they tend to put a UAV (drone) up over the ice which gives them a great view.  He added that it's actually now a nice spot to have a quiet moment if he needs a short break.

We headed back down and had a quick trip to the heli deck.  RRS Sir David A doesn't have embedded helos, but can land/maintain/victual them as necessary (which happens down south).  The heli deck is used as a recreational area - indeed I remember the crew on HMS ENDURANCE nearly strangling themselves playing volleyball on the heli deck.  The strangulation coming from the fact that the ball was tied to a rope to avoid them losing it to the ocean.

Back inside we visited the relaxation areas.  Although RRS Sir David A felt like a navy ship at times - mainly because that's my only experience of being at sea - there were significant differences.  A main one being that there were no separate recreation areas and messes (dining areas) for different ranks of crew.  So there was only one lounge area with sofas, jigsaws, bean bags and a very cool custom-made carpet.  If you don't spot what the map shape is of it's OK.  

Their conference room had a super cool table design.

We then explored the science areas.  My geek antenna were in full radar mode here.  They knew I was ex-hydrographic office, and this map/chart of their echo soundings was fascinating.  The plan is that they try to fill in the gaps in sonar coverage each time they navigate a route.  South Georgia, where I spent 3 weeks in 1995, is the island surrounded in red to the centre/right of the image.  The South Sandwich Islands are the volcanic island chain to the bottom of the image.

We saw the wet and dry labs.  Some of the labs are kept stupidly cold to preserve the live samples they collect.  It is all incredibly adaptable and at the beginning of the season, where they are now, they take on board TEU shipping containers, in complete lab formation, and slide them into the working areas.  It must be absolutely awesome to be a scientist on this ship.

We saw their off-ship equipment, the snow-skis.

The captains showed us their emergency room.  This was full of racks of survival kit, enough to keep 90 people alive for 20 days on the ice.  Each kit bag would keep a person warm, so if you're in your pyjamas when the evacuation order comes, you will still be cosy.  And there are tents, sledges, food, cookers etc.  They can evacuate the ship with all the emergency kit in 20 minutes.  Pretty awesome.

Of course, behind every great ship's bridge, heli pad, scientific labs and snow-mobiles, is the engineering team that keep it all rolling.  Their winch room is a particular beauty.  It contains 7 winches and can lower scientific equipment pretty much any-which-way from the ship, at whatever speed necessary.  They even have a plastic winch cable to lower light, delicate instruments, where a metal cable would change the buoyancy of the lightweight sensor.  They can winch down to ~6,000 m. They have 12 km of winch cable in total which should cope with spares, as sometimes they have to cut a winch and lose 1 km of cable.

They are a totally self-sufficient ship.  Their engineering team can fix anything, as there is no popping to B&Q down south.  This photo does not do justice to the size of their spanners or adjustable spanners (left end edge of photo).  

One of their engineers took us around their engine rooms. RRS Sir David A is a DP2 ship, meaning it has a dynamic positioning system that maintains position and heading following any single equipment failure - excluding total loss of power.   He was obviously in the right job, and enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the engine room which to me looked quite baffling (I'm more suited to life in the ops room).  He took us down to see the drive shaft which contained break points.  It was too noisy to hear exactly what he said but I think it was something to do with being the prop being stuck in the ice and not breaking the drive shaft.  

Finally he showed us the bow thrusters.  These are super important for sidewards movement when docking - be it next to a wharf or an iceberg.

I am so grateful to the Nautical Institute for running this and for fitting me in. I had such a great geek evening out in Torpoint on this magnificent ship.