The ship was built under the hull number 899 by Hall, Russell & Company in Aberdeen . The construction cost was around £ 850,000. The keel of the ship was laid in October 1961, the launch on July 3, 1962. On December 17, 1962, the ship was delivered to the National Institute of Oceanography and christened on January 31, 1963 in London . Godmother was the Viscountess Hailsham, the wife of the then Minister of Science Quintin McGarel Hogg . The ship replaced the 33-year-old Discovery II , which had been decommissioned on September 7, 1962.
The ship's first expedition began on June 1, 1963, from Plymouth. Until 2006 it was the largest British research ship. The ship was initially operated with a crew of 45 people. There were 20 places available for scientists. The ship was rebuilt and modernized several times. Between October 1968 and January 1969 a. a. one of the first computer systems to be installed on a ship with an IBM 1800 computer and the first satellite navigation system to be installed on a ship flying the British flag. In 1982 the crew was reduced to 23 people. In the early 1990s, the ship was rebuilt at the Portuguese shipyard Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo . It was lengthened by around ten meters, given new superstructures and re-engineered. The renovation was completed in 1992. As a result of the conversion, the ship was to be used for a further 15 years. After the conversion, there was space on board for up to 28 scientists.
The ship's last research voyage ended on November 24, 2012. The ship was decommissioned on December 21, 2012 and scrapped in 2013 at Galloo in Ghent , Belgium .
The propulsion of the ship was diesel-electric . An electric motor (AEI MP.60 / 32) with an output of 1,500 kW was available for the propulsion , which acted on a fixed propeller . The electricity was generated by four diesel generators (2 × Mirrlees Blackstone ESL6, 2 × Mirrlees Blackstone ESL9) with a total power of 3,750 kW. A propeller nacelle with a power of 550 kW that could be rotated 360 ° served as the bow thruster . This was installed during the reconstruction of the ship in 1992 and replaced the old bow thruster with an output of 261 kW.
The ship had various lifting tools and winches . At the stern there was a stern boom that was retrofitted during the rebuilding of the ship in the early 1990s. The ship was equipped with various laboratories and workshops. The hull was reinforced with ice ( ice class C). The ship could stay at sea for up to 28 days. After the renovation in 1992, this increased to 55 days. The idle time for research trips was up to 45 days.
Laboratory containers could be loaded on deck and the laboratory capacity increased for individual research trips.
literature
Frank P. Verdun: The Royal Research Ship Discovery: A Marine Platform for the 90s. In: Ocean Challenge , Vol. 2, Summer / Autumn 1991, pp. 25-29
John Gould: 50 Years of Discovery from the Days of Steam to the 21st Century . In: Ocean Challenge , Vol. 19, Autumn 2012, pp. 31-37 ( PDF file , 8.5 MB).
Oceans Wormley - Special Discovery 50 edition. No. 4, August 2012 ( PDF file , 877 kB).
↑ Peter Herring: Life on Discovery ... forty years ago. In: Ocean Challenge , Vol. 13, No. 1, p. 17 ( PDF file , 3.4 MB). Retrieved January 31, 2017.
^ John Gould: 50 Years of Discovery from the Days of Steam to the 21st Century . In: Ocean Challenge , Vol. 19, Autumn 2012, pp. 31-37 ( PDF file , 8.5 MB). Retrieved January 31, 2017.
^ Metamorphosis of RRS Discovery , Shiprepair & Conversion Technology, 1992. Transportation Research Board. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
↑ Ship shape , The Engineer, August 15, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
↑ a b Discovery , Aberdeen Built Ships. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
