Thursday 18 August 2016

The RSS Discovery



Most of  you would have hear of Scott and the Antarctic well this was the ship that took him and Shackleton  on the British Antarctic Expedition where it spent two years locked in the ice. It went to various owners after that but ended up back in Dundee where she was built in 1986 and eventually moved to where she is now at Discovery Point in 1992 If you want to read more on the history then look at the RSS Discovery link which can tell you a little more. 
So I'd see the ship when I drove into Dundee the first time with my Son and on one of my visits we went along for a look round the ship


The RSS Discovery in it's own purpose built dock 







The Water Line of Plimsoll Line as I know it you can read what the letters mean in the link

 The bow of the Discovery

Not sure if this can be called the figurehead anyway part of the Bowsprit 


and a head on view of the ship
 



When you get to the museum entrance you come across this mosaic 
















which shows the compass points











 With Penguins at the four points






I did not think to take any photos of the museum outside or inside but this is the view of the ship as you come from the museum













A couple of ships anchors and boxes representing some of the stuff you would see being loaded on the ship 












The ships steering












 

 View of the wheel





Going down below you see various representations of what the crew would do like the ships carpenter








 



The ships boilers were good to see, well not as they were removed as part of the war effort which is one of the reasons she will not leave dock












There should be a propeller shaft here but even that was removed





The ships kitchen where all the food was prepared










 






















Sips doctor and his surgery






Crew quarters with a couple playing cards












I think this was the laboratory where they  did some of the scientific research on the vessel










 





















More quarters, the one on the right I think was Captain Scott's


Not sure but this might have been captain Oats 



This is part of the Bridge on the ship or chart house




















Makers plate kept well polished













Think this may be the bow


















View of the bridge

















One of the ships compass

































Ships steering on the bridge with the compasses


And last photo the ships bell.  Hopefully I will get a chance to visit the ship and the museum again as I felt the Discovery is well worth the money you pay to look round this piece of history and if you go to Dundee you cannot really miss seeing it either.

Hope you enjoyed the tour





Thursday 4 August 2016

HMS Unicorn



Back in 2010 my son was working in Dundee and I visited him on a couple of occasions. He was staying in a flat looking over the historc docks of Dundee and out of the window I could see this ship HMS Unicorn, well I was not going to look at it long I had to visit.
A little bit of History for you  HMS Unicorn was built in 1824  and a superstructure built over her deck and she was laid up in the ordinary condition serving as a depot ship for around 140 years. In the 1960's steps were taken to convert her to a museum ship and the only time she went to sea was to be towed from Chatham Docks to Dundee. You can read more on the Official Website 







This is the view you get from the dockside





and some more looking across from the bridge





Stern of the ship

and the famous figurehead


I think it looks very impressive

Ships Anchor 

Go onboard and one of the fist things you see is the Unicorn figurehead



There is also a display you can see on things associated with the ship and one of the interesting ones was the surrender of a German U Boat





Canons on display




These are ether side of the Ships War Memorial

The fallen are listed in the Roll of Honour





These are battle honours







Montrose Battle Honours






The Ships Bell

The Bell I suspect is from this HMS Unicorn


Another Figurehead



 The captains dining room and quarters   the Queen Mother was entertained here in her visit

The fireplace with the Royal Crest (it's an electric fire)


  The Royal coat of Arms with Remembrance crosses in front of it







Looking along the Gun Deck







Above the capstan on the Gun deck
and on the right more guns

Bit of a mock up showing using life size cut outs of the Gun crew, shame they did not use life size mannequins it would have looked a little more realistic



The Royal stamp on the guns






These are some shots of the guns which you might have realised now are not real but reproductions using fibreglass. No doubt the ship is very unstable with out them but will last a little longer without the weight





This is right down in the lower deck and you can see the original 1924 timbers





Crew quarters and mess deck

And above a Cat O Nine-tails not the most pestilent thing to make knowing some one was going to whip you with it, yep part of the punishment





Part of the storage area showing some of the barrels which kept salt pork & beef




Right up the bow of the ship showing some of the ballast





More ballast here no  doubt to help balance the ship with out the cannons












Rope locker











 

Not sure if this is the sick bay or a part off the crew deck but show you a sailor laying in the hammock. If the poor guy was killed or died they just sewed him up in the hammock and buried him at sea





The ship never had any masts but this is where the main mast would have been going through the ship

















These are the officers quarters, see they have little rooms a bed and a table to eat from




This is the emergency steering if the main steering has gone, some poor soul has the job of going below decks to this and heaving the rudder around from here


No not the spare ships steering wheel but a pump which is hand cranked but the brass is kept well polished.


Well that's it for my trip round HMS Unicorn, I did not take as many photos as I thought but hope it gives you a little look as to what the ship offers. If your in Dundee and would like to visit then go along to Victoria Dock or visit the Official Website it is well worth while to look round