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History
Denmark
Name	Anita Dan
Owner	Lauritzen Lines
Builder	Kröger-Werft, Schacht-Audorf
Yard number	1080
Launched	26 May 1956
In service	October 1956
Fate	Sold to the Royal Navy, 1967
United Kingdom
Name	Endurance
Acquired	1967
Out of service	1991
Homeport	Chatham and Portsmouth
Identification	IMO number: 5017967
Nickname(s)	The Red Plum HMS Encumbrance
Fate	Scrapped
General characteristics
Type	Icebreaker
Displacement	3,600 long tons (3,658 t)
Length	93 m (305 ft)
Beam	14 m (46 ft)
Draught	5.5 m (18 ft)
Propulsion	1 × Burmeister & Wain diesel engine
Speed	14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph)
Complement	119
Armament	2 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
Aircraft carried	1967–87: 2 × Westland Wasp helicopters 1982: Westland Wessex helicopter 1987–91: 2 × Westland Lynx helicopters (after 1987 refit)
Service record
Operations:	Falklands War

HMS Endurance was a Royal Navy ice patrol vessel that served from 1967 to 1991. She came to public notice when she was involved in the Falklands War of 1982. The final surrender of the war, in the South Sandwich Islands, took place aboard Endurance.

Background

The ship was built and launched in 1956 by Kröger-Werft of Germany as Anita Dan for the Lauritzen Lines. In 1967 the UK government purchased the vessel and then had Harland & Wolff carry out the conversion prior to being commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Endurance, named after the sailing ship Endurance that took the explorer Ernest Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic in 1914.

Operational history

1967–1982

The new Endurance maintained a UK presence in Antarctica and the Falkland Islands during the southern summer. She also supported the British Antarctic Survey. She had a bright red hull, as is common for polar vessels to aid visibility but otherwise uncommon for the Royal Navy, so her crew nicknamed her The Red Plum. In February 1972 when the cruise ship Lindblad Explorer ran aground, Endurance was in the vicinity under Captain Rodney Bowden and took part in the rescue.

Endurance was equipped with a signals listening suite on top of the hangar, and was staffed with Spanish linguists to monitor radio communications and collect signals intelligence off South America. The data was processed by GCHQ, and in the 1970s underlay much of GCHQ's South America analysis. Endurance's captain later stated "It could be argued that the main armament of the ship was the listening suite."

The Ministry of Defence's 1981 Defence White Paper proposed naval cuts including decommissioning Endurance, which was scheduled for 15 April 1982.

Falklands War

Endurance's withdrawal from Antarctic patrol without replacement was perceived in Britain as having encouraged the Argentine invasion. The subsequent Franks Report acknowledged that it "may have served to cast doubt on British commitment to the Islands and their defence".

On 19 March 1982, while Endurance was at Stanley, British authorities there received news that an Argentine navy ship had landed Argentine civilians on South Georgia who had raised the Argentine flag. The Argentine group (containing Argentine Marines in mufti) posing as scrap-metal merchants, occupied the abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbour on South Georgia. Endurance, commanded by Captain Nick Barker, was sent to order the Argentines off the island. Endurance had a small Royal Marines detachment and took further Marines from Naval Party 8901 (NP 8901), and sailed on 21 March for South Georgia.

Arriving on 25 March 1982 Endurance encountered the Argentine transport ARA Bahía Paraíso, whose forty Argentine troops had come ashore while the scrapping operation took place. Endurance landed her marines, then returned to the Falklands on 30 March. In April the UK command ordered Endurance to join the UK Task Force, which in April landed SBS soldiers at Hound Bay on South Georgia on 22 April.

Task Force vessels moved into deeper waters as a precaution against Argentine submarines, but Endurance moved into sea ice near the shore.

Endurance was involved in combat action on 25 April 1982 when her two Wasp ASW helicopters took part in attacks on the submarine ARA Santa Fe, which was later abandoned by her crew. When Argentine forces surrendered the next day, Endurance remained near the island to show the UK flag, maintain a naval presence, and guard the waters.

Endurance also took part in the rescue of wildlife film-makers Cindy Buxton and Annie Price, who were caught up in the war while working on South Georgia.

After the Argentine surrender of the Falkland Islands, Endurance, HMS Yarmouth, RFA Olmeda and the tug Salvageman sailed to the South Sandwich Islands, where Argentina had established a base in South Thule since 1976. Endurance was carrying a Wessex helicopter for the first time, in addition to her two Wasps. The ten Argentine military personnel surrendered after they saw HMS Yarmouth's firing display and when they realised recce marines from Endurance and 42 Commando Royal Marines had landed. The surrender was signed in the wardroom of Endurance.

1983–1991

Toward the end of her life the ship was nicknamed HMS Encumbrance due to reliability problems.

In 1989 she struck an iceberg, and, although she was repaired, a survey in 1991 found that her hull was not sound enough for a return to Antarctica, so she was finally decommissioned. She was replaced by Polar Circle, later renamed HMS Endurance.

See also

• Endurance Reef

References

1. Morrell, Margot; Capparell, Stephanie (2001). Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer. London: Penguin. p. Preface. ISBN 978-1-1012-0029-2.
2. "Captain Rodney Bowden". The Daily Telegraph. 5 November 2004.
3. Aldrich, Richard J. (2011). GCHQ. London: Harper Press. pp. 391–392. ISBN 978-0-007312-665.
4. Gibran, Daniel K (1998). The Falklands War: Britain versus the past in the South Atlantic. McFarland & Co. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-7864-0406-3.
5. House of Commons debate 23 March 1982; Hansard Vol 20 col 798–801
6. The Times 25 March 1982, p 13: letter from BG Frew, Hon Sec UK Falkland Islands Committee
7. "Q&A: The Franks Report". BBC. 27 April 2004. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
8. Britain Small Wars Archived 2007-10-14 at the Wayback Machine
9. Freedman, Lawrence and Gamba, Virginia, Señales de Guerra. Javier Vergara Editor, 1992. ISBN 950-15-1112-X (in Spanish), page 81ss.
10. Buxton, Cindy; Price, Annie (1983). Survival South Atlantic. London: Granada. p. xiii. ISBN 0-246-12087-8.
11. "The race to regain Thule". Navy News p.21. August 1982.

External links

• MaritimeQuest photo gallery: HMS Endurance

v t e British Naval Forces of the Falklands War
Royal Navy	Active Alacrity Ambuscade Andromeda Antelope Antrim Ardent Argonaut Arrow Avenger Brilliant Bristol Broadsword Cardiff Conqueror Cordella Courageous Coventry Dumbarton Castle Endurance Exeter Farnella Fearless Glamorgan Glasgow Hecla Herald Hermes Hydra Intrepid Invincible Junella Leeds Castle Minerva Northella Onyx Penelope Pict Plymouth Sheffield Spartan Splendid Valiant Yarmouth
Naval Auxiliary (RFA)	Appleleaf Brambleleaf Bayleaf Blue Rover Engadine Fort Austin Fort Grange Plumleaf Pearleaf Olna Olmeda Regent Resource Sir Bedivere Sir Galahad Sir Geraint Sir Lancelot Sir Percivale Sir Tristram Stromness Tidespring Tidepool
Ships Taken Up From Trade	Alvega Anco Charger Astronomer Atlantic Conveyor Atlantic Causeway Avelona Star Balder London Baltic Ferry British Avon British Dart British Enterprise III British Esk British Tamar British Test British Trent British Wye Canberra Contender Bezant Eburna Elk Europic Ferry Fort Toronto G.A.Walker Geesport Iris Irishman Laertes Lycaon Nordic Ferry Norland Queen Elizabeth 2 Rangatira Salvageman Saxonia Scottish Eagle St Edmund St Helena Stena Inspector Stena Seaspread Strathewe Tor Caledonia Uganda Wimpey Seahorse Yorkshireman
Civilian Auxiliary (RMAS)	Goosander Typhoon
- Sunk

• 1956 ships
• Falklands War in South Georgia
• Falklands War naval ships of the United Kingdom
• Icebreakers of the United Kingdom
• Patrol vessels of the United Kingdom
• Ships built in Germany
• Survey vessels of the Royal Navy