Familiarise Friday with a difference.
My blog post today will, hopefully, familiarise you with a ship rather than with a person.
As part of my recent jaunt around and about earlier this week, I visited the
Discovery Centre at Dundee, Scotland, with my husband and
almost 3 year old granddaughter.
I’ve been on the ship before but not for some
years. We needed to take a break during what was a long journey for a little
one and the Discovery Centre was much better than a fast food stop - the 'baked tattie' from the cafe more tasty and nutricious than I've had at many other food outlets. If the museum entry fee was included, the stop was maybe a little
more expensive for us but well worth it!
If you’ve never been on the ship, here’s a little potted
version of what the visitor attraction is about. Skip back to 1901, when the
world was a much smaller place and daring adventures were being made by our
intrepid discoverers to parts hitherto almost unknown – like the polar regions
of the globe.
Polar Research ship - RSS Discovery- was built in 1901 by
Dundee Shipbuilders’ Company.
The visitor
attraction and museum tells the story of this famous tall ship and of its crew led by Robert Falcon Scott. The RSS Discovery was the first ship to be built
specifically for research purposes, the aim of its journeys to be used for scientific
research, and as such, it was never the objective for it to be the first vessel
to reach the South Pole in a ‘race’ situation. It was the first Official British Scientific Exploration of the polar regions though not the first British ship to explore the area. (For more details reaad about the voyages of James Clark Ross)
The RSS Discovery was also one of the last three-masted wooden
vessels to be built in Scotland.
Though famous for the research expedition of 1901-1904, the Discovery went on
to have a long and fascinating career.
Read more of this at this site:
Some of the design aspects were a challenge. Since magnetic
surveys were an important part of the expedition, the design of the ship had to
incorporate an exclusion zone around the Magnetic Observatory. No iron or steel
was used for some 30 metres around it to ensure greater accuracy of the data.
Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical
Society, had the vision and the expertise to raise the funds for the design and
the building of the vessel. Once those details were organised he went in search
of a man to lead the expedition to the South Pole. His criteria included the
person being a naval officer of some experience – though Markham also wanted the man to still be
relatively young and fit for such a hazardous journey. Robert Falcon Scott,
born in Devon, was appointed as Commander at
the age of 33.
I’ve been to many
visitor attractions and the Discovery Centre is attractive and informative. It
has static displays of the equipment used on the ship with sufficiently detailed
explanations for the average visitor. For a 3 year old, there’s plenty of
interesting things to encounter. Wandering around the extremely well preserved and well set out ship, it's amazing how compact it must have been for such a large crew, many of them functioning on a daily basis as scientists rather than as seamen.
 |
| imagining ice blindness! |
I hadn't any plans to include the building of the RSS Discovery in my writing, before my visit, but now I can just see something sneaking into my family saga which, happens to have some references to Dundee.(*inserting a smiley face here*)
Visiting centres like this one always leaves with the urge
to learn more. Someday maybe? When my priorities are different? Seeing as this
was only intended as a break in our journey to Kenmore,
Loch Tay, Perthshire – the location of The Scottish Crannog Centre - that someday might be a while in coming.
Look out for my blogs tomorrow on crannogs!
Slainthe!
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