Terra Nova
1884 A three-masted wooden sealer, built by Dundee Shipbuilding Co to their own account. Of 744 tons and 187 ft. in length, barque-rigged and fitted with auxiliary steam power
1885 Employed in seal hunting. She saw considerable service in Arctic water.
1903 The British Government acquired her for work in the far south, one of 2 vessels commissioned to search for the Discovery
1904 Discovery and Terra Nova returned to New Zealand in the spring of 1904.
1909 the Terra Nova was chosen to carry Scott's second expedition to the Antarctic. She was purchased for the purpose by Messrs. David Bruce and Co., for the sum of £12,500, her owners at the time being C. T. Bowring and Company.
The Terra Nova was handed over to Scott in the West India Dock, London, in November. She was docked by the Glengall Ironworks Company, who altered her to meet the needs of her new service. She was rigged as a barque, her original rig, and a large, well-insulated ice-house, holding 150 carcasses of frozen meat, was erected on her upper deck. Other alterations and additions included the rebuilding of her galley, and the installation of a new stove; the fitting of the wardroom with mess tables and lockers; the construction of a lamp-room, with tanks to hold 200 gallons of paraffin, and the addition of new storerooms, an instrument-room and a chronometer-room. Her saloon was altered to accommodate 24 officers, while a smaller mess was built for her warrant-officers. Two large, zinc-lined magazines and a clothing-store were constructed between-decks, while a new mizzen-mast was fitted and all her blubber-tanks withdrawn.
1910 On 1st June she left London Docks for the Solent where she was registered as a yacht; she was thus entitled to fly the burgee of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and had also the honour of sailing under the White Ensign. Leaving the Solent, she visited Cardiff, to take in a gift of several hundred tons of coal before leaving for the Cape. She left South Africa in September.
Reaching Lyttelton harbour, New Zealand, she was unloaded, thoroughly overhauled and completely re-stored, many final additions being made to her stores and equipment. As in the case of her predecessor, the Discovery, she was heavily overloaded, her cargo including a number of Siberian dogs and ponies. It is said that she left Port Chalmers on 29th November with her Plimsoll line almost a foot under water which caused problems on the voyage south.[1]
1911 She dropped anchor off Cape Evans, Ross Island. From here she proceeded to transfer the western party to the ice near the Ferrar Glacier. She then attempted to land the eastern party on King Edward VII Land, but found the way blocked by icebergs. In attempting to negotiate Shackleton's Bay of Whales, she discovered Amundsen's Pram already established therein. After visiting the rival expedition, her crew decided to report the presence of the Norwegian party to headquarters, and then proceed with the eastern party to Victoria Land. Having carried out this programme the Terra Nova "dipped her ensign and, with three blasts of her whistle in salute, stood away to the northward" reaching New Zealand in April 1911.
1912 She sailed to Antarctica to collect those members of the expedition who were unable to stay a second year.
1913 She made her third and last voyage south to bring home the survivors of the party, leaving the Antarctic in February; she then returned to Britain via New Zealand[2], arriving at Cardiff in June[3]
She later became a member of the sealing fleet operating from Newfoundland.
1943 She was lost at sea, the last but one member of the sealing fleet[4]