HMS Endurance (A171)

Career

MV Polar Circle was built in Norway in 1990 by Ulstein Hatlo for Rieber Shipping. The Royal Navy chartered her for eight months as HMS Polar Circle from 21 November 1991. She was bought outright and renamed HMS Endurance on 9 October 1992.

Endurance provided a sovereign presence in polar waters, performing hydrographic surveys and supporting the British Antarctic Survey in Antarctica. Her usual deployment saw her in the Southern Ocean and returning to the UK through tropical waters each year. Later, a longer, 18-month deployment was designed to maximise her time available for BAS usage.

In 1997 she made the first visit to Buenos Aires after the Falklands War, and she returned there in 2002.

In 2005, Endurance was chosen to carry HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh at the International Fleet Review as part of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations.

Although she enjoyed a varied, purposeful career as the UK's sole ice patrol vessel, Endurance's later years were problematic and ended in ignominy. After her 2004 docking period in Falmouth, the ship suffered a minor accident which resulted in her listing badly when the drydock she was situated in flooded up. The subsequent months after the refit were troublesome and the ship suffered numerous debilitating machinery failures. This was to become something of a theme over the next four years as the ship's crew struggled to keep her serviceable, set against more demanding challenges.

Docking in Puerto Belgrano 2006

During survey work in Antarctica in January 2006, the ship's engineering staff discovered that her rudder was apparently loose on the stock. Her work period was cut short and she returned to Mare Harbour in the Falkland Islands for further inspections. Det Norske Veritas, the ship's assurance certification company, instructed that the ship should dock at the nearest available port – the nearest large enough being Puerto Belgrano, Argentina's largest naval base, where Endurance docked in mid-March 2006. Without hotel services on board, the ship's company moved to shore-side accommodation in the city of Bahía Blanca, some twenty kilometres west of Puerto Belgrano. The rudder was removed for repairs, and once it was on the floor of the drydock, a dockers' strike followed. The ship remained there for nearly three weeks. Picket lines formed at the gates of the naval base, preventing Endurance's crew from relieving the stranded duty watch on board. When the strike broke, the rudder was replaced and welded into position and the ship left Puerto Belgrano in early April 2006. She returned to Portsmouth via Lisbon and to drydock again for further engineering work on the rudder and stock.

In July 2007 the United Kingdom offered Endurance to supply Argentine Antarctic bases after their ARA Almirante Irizar icebreaker suffered extensive damage in a fire.

2008 near loss

In December 2008, while on an 18-month deployment, Endurance suffered extensive flooding to her machinery spaces and lower accommodation decks resulting in the near loss of the ship. A serious engine room flood left her without power or propulsion, and she was towed to Punta Arenas by a Chilean tug. After an extensive survey was completed, the estimates to refit the ship were put at around £30m. On 8 April 2009 Endurance arrived off Portsmouth, on the semi-submersible transporter ship MV Target.

The Royal Navy inquiry found that the flood happened while a sea-water strainer was being cleaned, in an attempt to improve the production of fresh water. The air lines controlling a hull valve were incorrectly reconnected, resulting in the valve opening and an inability to close it. The pipe installation fell below generally accepted standards, which made reconnection of the air lines ambiguous. The inquiry also found that due to manpower constraints the ship did not have a system maintainer, and that clarity of engineering command had been lost, with no-one clearly in charge of risk-management. It was fortunate that, once without propulsion, Endurance drifted over an area shallow enough for anchors to be lowered and to hold. Otherwise, Endurance would probably have been lost by flooding or running aground. The inquiry judged that the ship’s company responded well to control damage in challenging conditions.

Ice Patrol (TV series)

In 2009, National Geographic Channel ran a four-episode documentary series on Endurance. Five ran the same series the following year under the name Ice Patrol, with the final episode showing what happened the day the ship almost sank.

Replacement

On 9 September 2010, speculation in the press suggested it was likely that Endurance would be scrapped and replaced with another icebreaker from Norway.

On 22 March 2011, it was announced that the Royal Navy intended to hire MV Polarbjørn, to be renamed HMS Protector, for three years whilst a final decision on whether to repair or scrap Endurance is made. HMS Protector was purchased in September 2013.

It was announced on 7 October 2013 that Endurance would be sold for scrap, as it was not 'economically viable' to repair the damage sustained in 2008. In July 2015 the Ministry of Defence gave advanced notice of sale of the vessel for further use or recycling, noting that "parties interested in acquiring the vessel for future use should note it will require considerable investment". The vessel left Portsmouth under tow on her final voyage to the breakers yard in Turkey on the 1 June 2016.

Layout

Endurance was a class 1A1 icebreaker. Her two Bergen BRG8 diesel engines produced over 8000 shaft horsepower and could move her through up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) of ice at 3 knots (5.6 km/h). Her propulsion system used a computer-controlled variable-pitch propeller and stern and bow thrusters.

She carried two ice-modified Lynx helicopters. which were highly instrumental in the making of the BBC Documentary Series Planet Earth.

Link to Sir Ernest Shackleton

Endurance was named after the ship which Sir Ernest Shackleton used in his Antarctic expedition of 1914-1917. The names of Endurance's boats and landing craft continued the Shackleton connection: James Caird and Dudley Docker were named after boats carried by Shackleton's Endurance, Nimrod was named after the ship which Shackleton used on his Antarctic expedition of 1907-1909, and Eddie Shackleton was named after the explorer's son. The motto of Endurance, "fortitudine vincimus" ("by endurance, we conquer"), was also the Shackleton family motto.