8o DISCOVERY REPORTS 



(ii) Large bunker capacity for fuel oil, allowing a cruising range or endurance of 

 about 8000 miles at full speed and some 10,000 miles at economic speed. 



(iii) Auxiliary deck machinery specially designed for various branches of scientific 

 research. 



(iv) In the accommodation — a biological and a physical and chemical laboratory, a 

 laboratory for simple and rough work, a dark room and various storerooms for scientific 

 gear, all these being specially adapted for the work. 



The vessel has a complement of fifty-two when carrying a scientific staff of six. 



The 'Discovery II' first sailed for the Antarctic in December 1929, and since then 

 has been continuously employed in the investigations undertaken by the Discovery 

 Committee. The first commission lasted from 1929 to 1931, during which period her 

 work was mainly in the waters of the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands and in the 

 South Atlantic sector of the Antarctic. During her second commission (193 1-3) her 

 voyages included a complete circumnavigation of the Antarctic continent, in the course 

 of which W- or V-shaped cruises, between the ice-edge and warmer waters, were carried 

 across the southern parts of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Voyages in the 

 third commission (1933-5) were mainly in the Atlantic and Pacific sectors of the Ant- 

 arctic, and included several long zig-zag cruises in the vicinity of the pack-ice. Recently 

 the ship sailed again on her fourth commission. 



Throughout these years the ' Discovery II ' has been found admirably suited to the 

 work for which she was designed. Encounters with the most adverse weather conditions 

 have proved her to be thoroughly seaworthy, and in facilities for the scientific work she 

 has risen to all expectations. 



The account of the vessel which follows owes much, particularly in the sections deal- 

 ing with construction, to a very careful revision undertaken by the late Mr A. Harker, 

 of Messrs Flannery, Baggallay and Johnson, Ltd., shortly before his untimely death. 



CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN 



The plans and specifications of the ship, her machinery and equipment were drawn 

 up by Messrs Flannery, Baggallay and Johnson, Ltd., acting under the instructions of 

 the Crown Agents for the Colonies, and the contract for her building was placed on 

 February 6, 1929, with Messrs Ferguson Brothers, of Newark Works, Port Glasgow, 

 who submitted the most favourable tender. The ship was launched on November 2, 

 1929, with steam up, practically ready for trials. 

 The principal dimensions of the vessel are : 



Length, overall 234 ft. 



Length at load water-line . . . 220 ft. 



Breadth, moulded 36 ft. 



Depth, moulded 20 ft. 



Load draught, designed mean 16 ft. 



Load draught, Lloyd's summer 



freeboard ... ... ... 17 ft. 



