HMS Endurance (A171) - Career

Career

Endurance was built in Norway in 1990 by Ulstein Hatlo for Rieber Shipping as MV Polar Circle. 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 provides a sovereign presence in polar waters, performs hydrographic surveys and supports the British Antarctic Survey in Antarctica. Her usual deployment has seen her in the South Atlantic and returning to the UK through tropical waters each year. More recently 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 returned 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 UKs 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.

During survey work in Antarctica in January 2006, the ship's engineering staff discovered 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 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.