RRS Discovery

The three masts of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s famous polar expedition vessel the RRS Discovery dominate the riverside to the south of the city centre. The ship was built in Dundee in 1900, with a wooden hull at least half a metre thick to survive the pack ice, and sailed for the Antarctic in 1901 where she spent two winters trapped in the ice. From 1931 on she was laid up in London where her condition steadily deteriorated, until she was rescued by the efforts of Peter Scott (son of Robert) and the Maritime Trust, and restored to her 1925 condition. In 1986 she was given a berth in her home port of Dundee, where she became a symbol of the city’s regeneration.