HMS Endurance

HMS Endurance

HMS Endurance started life as the the Norwegian passenger/research vessel MV Polar Circle, but in November 1991 she was chartered as HMS Polar Circle, and a year later was bought outright as the new HMS Endurance. Endurance’s strengthened hull – painted red to aid visibility against the ice, giving her the soubriquet ‘the Red Plum’ – allows her to smash her way through a metre of ice at 3 knots. She regularly sailed south from Portsmouth in the autumn to carry out hydrographic work and support the British Antarctic Survey during the austral summer, while also providing a presence in the South Atlantic and Falklands. Her near-foundering off Chile, in December 2008, when seawater flooded the engine room, left Endurance without power or propulsion, but her sailors saved the ship and a Chilean tug towed her to safety. She is now in her home port of Portsmouth, awaiting a decision on her future.