HMS Endurance (A171)

HMS Endurance off the Antarctic Peninsula, in 2007.
History
United Kingdom
Name	1990: MV Polar Circle 1991: HMS Polar Circle 1992: HMS Endurance
Operator	Royal Navy
Builder	Ulstein Hatlo
Completed	1990
Commissioned	21 November 1991
Out of service	2008
Homeport	Portsmouth
Identification	Pennant number: A171 IMO number: 8901561
Motto	Fortitudine Vincimus (Latin: "By Endurance We Conquer")
Nickname(s)	The Red Plum (from the colour of her hull).
Fate	Scrapped
General characteristics
Type	Icebreaker
Displacement	6,100 t (6,004 long tons)
Length	91 m (298 ft 7 in)
Beam	17.9 m (58 ft 9 in)
Draught	8.5 m (27 ft 11 in)
Ice class	1A1[citation needed]
Propulsion	2 × Bergen BRG 8 Diesels, 8,160 hp (6,085 kW)
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Range	24,600 nmi (45,600 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried	James Caird, Nimrod, Eddie Shackleton and Dudley Docker
Troops	Royal Marines
Complement	126
Crew	Royal Navy, civilian researchers
Sensors and processing systems	Type R84 and M34 surface search radar, Type 1006 navigation radar
Electronic warfare & decoys	Classified
Armament	2 × 7.62mm Mk.44 Miniguns 6 × 7.62mm L7 GPMGs[citation needed]
Aircraft carried	2 × Ice-modified Lynx HAS 3 helicopters
Aviation facilities	Full aircraft facilities and double hangar

HMS Endurance was an icebreaker that served as the Royal Navy ice patrol ship between 1991 and 2008. Built in Norway as MV Polar Circle, she was chartered by the Royal Navy in 1991 as HMS Polar Circle, before being purchased outright and renamed HMS Endurance in 1992 as a replacement for the previous HMS Endurance whose hull had been weakened by striking an iceberg.

Endurance was a class 1 icebreaker. Her two Bergen BRG8 diesel engines produced over 8000 shaft horsepower enabling her to travel through ice up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) thick at 3 knots (5.6 km/h).^[1] Her propulsion system used a computer-controlled variable-pitch propeller and stern and bow thrusters. She carried two ice-modified Lynx helicopters which were instrumental in the making of the BBC Documentary Series Planet Earth in 2006.

The ship was laid up in Portsmouth from 2009 to 2016, following serious damage caused by flooding following an error during routine maintenance on a sea suction strainer. In October 2013 it was reported that she would be scrapped;^[2] in July 2015 the vessel was offered for sale for further use or recycling and left Portsmouth under tow to the Leyal ship recycling facility in Turkey on 1 June 2016.^[3]