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Revision as of 10:52, 4 January 2006 by GraemeLeggett (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| HMS Endurance (A171) | ||
| Career | RN Ensign | |
|---|---|---|
| Ordered: | ||
| Laid down: | ||
| Launched: | ||
| Commissioned: | 21 November 1991 | |
| Decommissioned: | ||
| Fate: | Template:Active in service | |
| Struck: | ||
| General Characteristics | ||
| Displacement: | 6,100 tonnes | |
| Length: | 91 m (298.6 ft) | |
| Beam: | 17.9 m (58.7 ft) | |
| Draught: | 8.5m (27.9 ft) | |
| Propulsion: | 2 Bergen BRM 8 Diesels, 8160 hp (6 MW) | |
| Speed: | 15 knots | |
| Range: | 65,000 nautical miles (120,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) | |
| Complement: | 126 | |
| Armament: | ||
| Aircraft: | 2 Lynx helicopters | |
| Motto: | Fortitudine Vinvimus (Latin: By Endurance We Conquer) | |
HMS Endurance is the Royal Navy's Antarctic ice patrol ship. She is a class 1A1 icebreaker, pennant number A171. She was originally built in Norway in 1990 by Ulstein Hatlo for Rieber Shipping as MV Polar Circle. The navy chartered her in 1991 for eight months as HMS Polar Circle on November 21, 1991. She was bought outright in 1992 and renamed HMS Endurance on October 9 of that year. She provides a sovereign presence in Antarctica, performs hydrographic surveys and supports the British Antarctic Survey.
She can move through up to 0.9 metres of ice at 3 knots. Her propulsion system uses a computer-controlled variable pitch propellor and stern and bow thrusters.
HMS Endurance carries a survey motor boat named James Caird, and other boats named Stancomb Wills and Dudley Docker which were also boat names on Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance. The original open boat the James Caird was used by Shackleton to make his epic open boat voyage of 800 miles (1,300 km) from Elephant Island, to South Georgia.
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.
See HMS Endurance for other ships of the same name.