Survey ship HMS Protector stopped off at the tiny and remote island of Tristan da Cunha on her way to Antarctica to map its waters for the first time in 40 years.
The Portsmouth-based ship and her hi-tech motor launch spent three days off the volcanic isle, which lies nearly 1,750 miles west of Cape Town.
Pictures: LA(Phot) Aaron Hoare, HMS Protector
FOR the first time in four decades the waters around one of the most remote communities on the planet have been mapped courtesy of the Royal Navy.
Survey ship HMS Protector dispatched her hi-tech motor launch to chart the seas around the tiny volcanic island of Tristan da Cunha – the latest stop for the Portsmouth-based scientific ship as she edges her way towards Antarctica.
The bright red survey ship is too large to berth in the small harbour at Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, ‘capital’ of the island which lies 1,750 miles from South Africa and more than 2,000 miles from South America.
So with Protector herself a few hundred yards offshore, her sea boat put a small party ashore on the island while her survey motor launch James Caird IV used her multi-beam echo sounder to map the Edinburgh anchorages – the only such survey using modern techniques.
Protector has long-standing links with Tristan da Cunha courtesy of the previous Antarctic survey ship – and a volcanic eruption in 1961 which forced the island’s inhabitants to be evacuated to England.
The then Protector, a pre-war net layer converted into an ice patrol ship in the 50s, recovered members of a Royal Society expedition which assessed the damage the following year (reporting that the settlement had only been marginally affected) and delivered supplies and mail to Tristan in 1964 after most islanders had returned.
Capt Peter Sparkes (centre) goes ashore on Tristan via Protector’s sea boat
Although Edinburgh remained habitable, the waters surrounding the settlement were badly affected by the volcanic eruption, making them particularly hazardous for navigation and requiring the survey work of today’s Protector.
In addition to her scientific data gathering, the ship also carried out a fishery protection patrol of the Tristan archipelago – which comprises the main island itself, along with the uninhabited Nightingale Islands and the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible Island and Gough Island. The waters are home to lobster and crayfish – key to the Tristan economy.
“It’s been a genuine pleasure and privilege for HMS Protector – and the Royal Navy – to be able to help in making the waters around Tristan da Cunha safer for all seafarers; we are delighted to be here,” said the ship’s Commanding Officer Capt Peter Sparkes, who paid a short visit ashore to meet islanders.
Her work complete around Tristan – and her powerful computers now ‘crunching’ all the data gathered by the survey equipment in its waters – HMS Protector is beginning her passage to the frozen continent for her second season amid the ice mapping waters and supporting Britain’s Antarctic scientists.
