British Antarctic Survey – Annabel L.
The RRS Sir David Attenborough is a large, £200 million, research vessel that set off on a 10-week journey to Antarctica in October 2024. The ship departed from Harwich, stopping off in Madeira and the Falkland Islands before visiting the four British Antarctic Survey stations where the scientists on board researched Antarctica’s ocean, seafloor, ice and atmosphere to see how climate change is going to affect us in the future.
Fun Fact – the ship runs on hydronated vegetable oil!
The scientists on board tested their upgraded ‘swath bathymetry system’ which they use to picture the sea floor beneath the ice. It works by sending sound signals from a transducer on the bottom of the ship. The sound travels through the water, reflects off the sea floor and returns to the transducer, where the time taken for the round trip is measured. The shorter the time taken for the sound to return to the ship, the shallower the water! The sound pulses are sent out at regular intervals as the ship sails through the water, painting a picture of the sea floor as it goes – a sort of undersea radar!
There is a special dog called Gem and before the ship leaves, they send out Gem to sniff out biosecurity. Gem’s job is to sniff out other species that could be on board because they could affect the ecosystem and wildlife in Antarctica if taken over to the continent.
Fun Fact – The ship’s chief chef- Steve- uses 5kg of flour every day to make enough bread for all of the crew!
The ship travels at 13 knots (about 15 MPH) so it took a month to reach the Falkland Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean! They then sailed across the Drake Passage (south of Cape Horn) which is known for the waves being a bit…choppy, to reach
Antarctica. In that area, recorded waves have reached up to 18m tall! The waves are large because the Southern Ocean is the only ocean in the world where the currents can flow around the globe, uninterrupted by land. It is called the ‘Antarctic Circumpolar Current’ because it circumnavigates the continent. And waves aren’t the only challenge, you have to keep a look out for icebergs too. In 2023, there were record-breaking lows of sea ice, but luckily, it re-grew over the winter (but very slowly). When the sea ice should have been reaching it’s maximum winter coverage, there was an area of ice missing that was bigger than Algeria! Which is the 10th biggest country in the world. This is all because of climate change.
After five weeks, the RRS David Attenborough reached Antarctica! I signed up online for the ‘Ticket to Antarctica’ journey which provided me with updates about the voyage. A cool bonus of this was that my name is now in a time capsule and was handed to the Station Leader at the Rothera Research Station where it will be on display. The Rothera station is their largest research station in Antarctica; it is the centre of marine biological research. Their brand-new discovery building is almost finished it’s construction and will be used to contain everything that the scientists and operations teams need to carry out their research on the trip.
Everyone on board and at the research stations had to spend Christmas either on-board or in Antarctica. Whilst in the Northern Hemisphere it is Winter right now, in Antarctica, it is Summer, some days even having 24 hours of daylight!
In conclusion, the RRS Sir called David Attenborough has made a successful journey to Antarctica, I believe that the ship has made a huge difference in our understanding of our future on such a remote island. There are many different jobs and commitments to take control of on the voyage, and everyone involved all play an important role in taking care of the scientific research, the ship, and the crew. Find out more at…
https://tickettoantarctica.com/journal
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