HMS Protector arrives in Antarctica

HMS Protector’s first task within the frozen wilderness was to disembark stores and personnel for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) teams stationed on the Antarctic Peninsula.

While in the British Antarctic Territory, a key part of HMS Protector’s duties is to make contact with Antarctic base stations. Since their arrival the crew have visited the Uruguayan base, Artigas, and the Argentine base, Jubany.

At Artigas the crew heard that the Uruguayan President Jose Mujica was staying overnight. In the spirit of international friendship, the Commanding Officer of HMS Protector, Captain Peter Sparkes, donated a crate of the ship’s own brand of beer, ‘Ice-Breaker,’ for the President to enjoy that evening.

From Artigas, the crew sailed HMS Protector’s workboat Terra Nova to the Argentine base on King George Island. Humpback whales and penguins greeted the crew as they rounded the headland into Potter’s Cove, where Jubany station is situated. Here, HMS Protector’s state of the art Survey Motor Boat (SMB), James Caird IV, operated close in to shore - dwarfed by a spectacular glacier.

On Jubany, the team received a warm welcome and tour around the facilities. The purpose of the visit was to hold discussions on local co-operation, and the team met up again onboard HMS Protector the following day. While hosting their visitors the Protector and Jubany diving teams enjoyed an extremely successful dive in Potter’s Cove. Although the weather was challenging and the underwater visibility poor, it was a good opportunity to exercise the navy divers in the cold waters of Antarctica for the first time, and to fortify relations between HMS Protector and the divers based at Jubany station.

The next task was to install a tidal gauge at South Korean King Se Jong station to update the tidal knowledge in a busy shipping area. Currently the tides are largely calculated on two days worth of historic data collected over 40 years ago, so this was an invaluable part of HMS Protector’s survey work to improve hydrographic knowledge of the area.

The James Caird IV undertook her first survey of Potter’s Cove using the latest EM3002 MultiBeam Echo Sounder. The data collected will be sent to the UK Hydrographic Office, Taunton, to update the charts of an area last surveyed with a leadline in the 19^th Century. To show how things have changed, the survey team managed to take James Caird IV ‘in land’ on the chart as the Glacier had retreated over 2km in the last 150 years.

HMS Protector will continue to undertake taskings within the British Antarctic Territory over the next few months, visiting bases, supporting scientific work and undertaking hydrographic survey work.

The Prime Minister’s message [follow link ] to mark the centenary was broadcast to the ship’s company on Tuesday 17th, 100 years after Captain Scott reached the South Pole.