Despite numerous expeditions to the Antarctic waters during the 1800s, by the close of that century the continent itself remained a mysterious land mass. To remedy this the Royal Geographical Society proposed a National Antarctic Expedition and a purpose-built vessel, the Discovery, was specially designed. Based on a whaleship, she was massively built to withstand ice, and was equipped with a hoisting propeller and rudder. She set sail from Cowes on 6 August 1901, under the command of Captain Scott, and entered the Ross Sea in January. A sledging expedition, of Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reached within 500 miles of the South Pole. In 1905, a year after her return to Europe she was purchased by the Hudson Bay Company; she traded under charter throughout the First World War; was later sent to rescue Shackleton, marooned on Elephant Island; in 1925 she became a Royal Research Ship, and carried out surveys on whaling grounds; in 1929-31 she was used by Sir Edward Mawson to survey Australian Antarctic territory. She survived WWII and the postwar years and after restoration to her 1925 state returned to Dundee in 1986 where she is now a museum ship.

This new and abridged edition of Ann Savours earlier bestselling book vividly portrays the voyages and describes the bravery of the explorers who sailed her into icebond waters, and with its many illustrations evocatively conjures up the lost world of wooden ships and Antarctic exploration.”