Dundee's iconic Discovery secures important funding
The funding will allow for crucial repairs to the sole survivor from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration
Last updated 1st Oct 2021
RRS Discovery, the world’s first ship to be designed specifically for scientific research has been safeguarded from critical deterioration thanks to £409,000 funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
The ship, whose work is still used by climate change scientists, is the centrepiece of Dundee’s Discovery Point. The Discovery is one of two five star rated visitor attractions cared for by the Dundee Heritage Trust. Now, more than a century after she was built in Dundee, urgent repairs are needed to preserve this iconic ship for future generations.
Specialist ship surveyors instructed by Dundee Heritage Trust recently found that the fabric of RRS Discovery has deteriorated as is common with a wooden ship of her age. The surveyors estimated that £1.3m of work is needed to prevent further damage and to secure her future as an internationally acclaimed visitor attraction.
The first stage of the urgent repair work, covered by the £409,000 funding announced today will address timbers in the ship's stern which are in an advanced state of degradation, affecting structural integrity. It will also address the stanchions along the portside, which are in poor condition, resulting in rainwater leaking into the hull. Action is urgently required to avoid further damage and progressive decay alongside a recaulking of the ship to ensure it is watertight.
The critical work, made possible by the funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, will form the first phase of the ship’s conservation, with further renovations planned as part of Discovery Point Transformed. The £12m redevelopment project was given the green light at the beginning of August 2021 thanks to substantial investment from the Scottish Government as part of the Tay Cities Deal and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with additional fundraising currently underway.
The project, run by the Dundee Heritage Trust, will transform one of Dundee’s most popular and highly rated museums, Discovery Point, into a new multi-element visitor attraction with a strong emphasis on climate change and environmental sustainability.
On the funding, Ali Gellaty, Dundee Herratige Trust's Operations manager said: "The funding from the National Heritage memorial fund is so important to us it's impossible to overstate. The funding is allowing us to do work we just could not do as an independent charity that's 98% self funded. Our small onboard team, this work is just too just too much for them to do so we need to bring in some specialists.
"Of course, specialists in historic ships, there are not a lot of them going around. So having that experience being bought in thanks to this funding will allow us to complete the works quickly, efficiently and will allow the ship to be safe for many more generations to come."
He added: "The people we work with to do work on the ship are carrying on centuries worth of traditions. Old tools, old methods and no modern machinery. Avoiding all of that where possible.
"We work with companies for our rigging and that is also done in traditional methods. We try not to use any modern materials where they shouldn't belong and only using it to the bare minimum where we have to so that it is a real authentic experience."
Today’s funding news comes as Scotland gears up to host COP26, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, hosted in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November.
Dr Simon Cook, an expert in Geographical and Environmental Science from the University of Dundee, told us the relevance of the Discovery's research to science today: "A group of scientists looked at all of the ships log books from the Discovery and from other expeditions from the heroic age of exploration.
"They used their observations of sea ice to try and reconstruct how far the floating, frozen, sea water extended out from the Antarctic mainland. So looking at ice cover and climate, having that 120 year record is really invaluable to contextualise today's observations of sea ice and climate."