RRS ''Discovery'' is a

Royal Research Ship A Royal Research Ship (RRS) is a merchant navy vessel of the United Kingdom that conducts scientific research for His Majesty's Government. Organisations operating such ships include; the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the British ...

operated by the

Natural Environment Research Council The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences. History NERC began in 1965 when several environmental (mainly geog ...

. The ship is the third such vessel to be built and named for the ship used by

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...

in his 1901-1904 expedition to the Antarctic. ''Discovery'' was built as a replacement for the previous ''Discovery'' in the "blue ocean" research role. The ship was ordered in 2010 from the C.N.P. Freire shipyard in

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the ...

, Spain, and was launched in April 2012. ''Discovery'' was delivered to the NERC in the summer of 2013 for a period of sea trials prior to her planned initial deployment. The ship is fitted with flexible laboratory spaces, allowing the laboratories to be tailored to the nature of the different scientific activities intended to take place on each cruise. ''Discovery'' is also fitted with an advanced hydroacoustic system in three major parts; a pair of major

echosounder Echo sounding or depth sounding is the use of sonar for ranging, normally to determine the depth of water (bathymetry). It involves transmitting acoustic waves into water and recording the time interval between emission and return of a pulse; ...

s plus a

hydrophone A hydrophone ( grc, ὕδωρ + φωνή, , water + sound) is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potenti ...

are installed in a special "blister" installation on the ship's

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

, while she also carries a pair of "drop keels" containing more echosounders, hydrophones and CCTV cameras. ''Discovery'' is also capable of operating the

National Oceanography Centre The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is a marine science research and technology institution based on two sites in Southampton and Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the UK’s largest institution for integrated sea level science, coastal and ...

's ROUV ''Isis''.

References

External links

Skipsteknisk AS Design ST-344RRS ''Discovery''Time lapse video of ''Discoverys construction
Natural Environment Research Council Oceanographic instrumentation Research vessels of the United Kingdom 2012 ships Ships built in Vigo, Spain {{ship-stub