Tag: HMS Protector

HMS Protector, Royal Navy survey ship, smashed through approximately 300 miles of Antarctic ice to help scientists begin a five year mission in order to understand how West Antarctica contributes to global sea-level rise. The vessel 'opened the path' in the Antarctic to support a team of 100 scientists who seek to understand a glacier the size of Great Britain.

HMS Protector punches through Antarctic ice The Navy's Antarctic patrol ship had to punch her way through ice to first deliver, then pick up a team of scientists as the pack ice threatened to trap them - and the ship.The Portsmouth-based survey ship was charged with putting a small team from the British Antarctic Survey ashore so they could collect geological samples on remote James Ross Island off the eastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.She did so courtesy of her small work boat, Terra Nova, which carefully negotiated the ice field to land the scientists and their equipment, including sufficient food and fuel to last up to 30 days in one of the world's most inhospitable locations.While the scientists got to work, the weather and ice forecasts aboard the survey ship began to look increasingly unfavourable.After four days on James Ross Island, the decision was made to pull the scientists out much earlier than anticipated - a change of wind direction meant there was a chance ice from the Weddell Sea would be driven towards James Ross Island - potentially blocking HMS Protector in, like a cork in a bottle.Protector's Commanding Officer Capt Peter Sparkes decided the safest and least ...

HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, has cut through the ice floes of Antarctica for the first time.The ship arrived in Antarctica for the first time two weeks ago after her long sail south from Portsmouth and is following up important survey work for shipping in the region with visits to remote research bases locked in the frozen continent.At Deception Island, a stunning water-filled volcanic caldera that is one of just two in the world, Protector sent her smaller survey boat James Caird IV with multibeam echo sounder equipment to survey the area known as 'Neptune's Bellows'.It was here that in 2007 the cruise ship MV Nordkapp ran aground and was assisted by the previous ice patrol ship HMS Endurance.Leading Seaman Chris Smith, the boat's coxswain, said:"Working on the Neptune's Bellows survey was a highly satisfying job professionally; being part of a team that worked on something this important to the safety of navigation makes all the hard work of being away from my family worthwhile."A team of four spent two nights at an abandoned Admiralty base, braving gale-force winds with 55-knot (100km/h) gusts to both collect information used for ...

In place of MV Polar Bear She arrived at her new home port few days ago after a quickfire refit in Denmark which saw some major changes completed in just ten days.That included the stripping down of the engine and gearbox, the moving of the flight deck from bridge roof to the stern (which took just three days) and the fitting of a state-of-the-art multibeam echo sounder survey system to the hull requiring the cutting of steel plates 4in thick.The work of navalising what was the MV Polarbjørn (Polar Bear) will continue in Portsmouth with the fitting of gun mountings, Navy communications kit and RN paraphernalia including a picture of the Queen, without which no wardroom would be complete.The exploration/research support ship was designed to operate in any waters, from the Antarctic (she is an icebreaker) to the tropics her last job was supporting BP oil operations in the Caribbean.She is on a three-year charter from a Norwegian commercial shipping company to cover for HMS Endurance, out of action since a flooding incident off Chile almost three years ago in which the Red Plum came close to foundering.Protector entered Portsmouth under the Norwegian flag, going alongside at the South West ...