Science Source ftp Apr 2015

Print entitled: "Sled dogs on the deck of the Terra Nova, 1910." The Terra Nova (Latin for Newfoundland) was built in 1884 for the Dundee whaling and sealing fleet. She worked for 10 years in the annual seal fishery in the Labrador Sea, proving her worth for many years before she was called upon for expedition work. In 1903, she sailed in company with fellow ex-whaler Morning to assist in freeing from McMurdo Sound the National Antarctic Expedition's Discovery, under Commander Robert Falcon Scott. Reinforced from bow to stern with seven feet of oak to protect against the Antarctic ice pack, she sailed from Cardiff Docks in June 1910 under overall command of now-Captain Scott. Although the twenty-four officers and scientific staff made valuable observations in biology, geology, glaciology, meteorology, and geophysics along the coast of Victoria Land and on the Ross Ice Shelf, Scott's last expedition is best remembered for the death of Scott and four companions. After returning from the Antarctic in 1913, Terra Nova was purchased by her former owners and resumed work in the Newfoundland seal fishery. In 1943 she was damaged by ice and sank off the southwestern tip of Greenland. In July 2012 the wreck of the Terra Nova was discovered by the Schmidt Ocean Institute's flagship R/V Falkor.