45-554: RRS Sir David Attenborough is a research vessel owned by the Natural Environment Research Council and operated by the British Antarctic Survey for the purposes of both research and logistic support. The ship replaces a pair of existing vessels, RRS James Clark Ross and RRS Ernest Shackleton . The vessel is named after broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough . In 2014,
90-462: A Cummins KTA38-DM1 885 kW (1,187 hp) harbour generator, and two 2,500 kW (3,400 hp) battery systems each of 500 kWh (1,800 MJ) capacity. The power plant, which can run with different configurations depending on the mission and operating conditions, produces electricity to power four 2,750 kW (3,690 hp) asynchronous electric motors driving two 5-bladed controllable pitch propellers. This gives Sir David Attenborough
135-424: A capacity for approximately 900 cubic metres (32,000 cu ft) of cargo. Accommodation is provided for 30 crew and 60 research staff. Sir David Attenborough has a twin-shaft hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system. The vessel's power plant consists of two 3,600 kW (4,800 hp) 6-cylinder Bergen B33:45L6A and two 5,400 kW (7,200 hp) 9-cylinder Bergen B33:45L9A main diesel generators,
180-465: A company at the forefront of shipbuilding. The company also built a number of vehicles for the London Underground . An order was placed for 20 trailer cars and 20 control trailer cars in 1919, which were known as 1920 Stock , and were the first tube cars to be built with doors operated by compressed air. They ran with converted French motor cars, originally built in 1906. The doors were fitted with
225-475: A corner of the ship's IT office was turned into a dedicated "pets' corner" for scientists to put pictures of their pets. This had the effect of boosting the morale of those on board. The first steel for the construction of the ship was cut in July 2016. The keel-laying ceremony for the ship, yard number 1390, took place on 17 October 2016. The ship was constructed by combining individually fabricated blocks, much like
270-530: A maximum speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) in open water and ability to break up to 1-metre (3.3 ft) thick level ice at a speed of 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph). At an economical cruising speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph), she has an operating range of 19,000 nautical miles (35,000 km; 22,000 mi). For manoeuvring and dynamic positioning , the vessel has four 1,580 kW (2,120 hp) Tees White Gill thrusters with Teignbridge Propellers 60 inch 4 blade rotors, two in
315-562: A sample car to a general specification, which were put into service in February 1923, and three of the builders subsequently built production runs. The company supplied 41 motor cars and 40 trailer cars in 1923, 25 control trailers in 1924, and a further 48 motor cars in 1925. In 1927, they built 160 passenger coaches for use in India. To transport them, Cammell Laird asked Watsons of Gainsborough to build five dumb barges. The coaches were loaded onto
360-516: A sensitive edge, designed to re-open the door if someone became trapped in it, but the mechanism was too sensitive, and was removed after an initial trial period. The cars continued in operation until 1938, eight years after the motor cars were withdrawn, but following withdrawal, five cars became a mobile training school. Cammell Laird also built a number of Standard Stock vehicles for the Underground. They were one of five builders approached to build
405-615: A year later. In October 2018 it was announced that the yard had won 'Lot 3' of an MOD contract to maintain the four new Tide class of tankers for the RFA in a deal worth an estimated £262m. A new contract worth £357m was also announced that would see Cammell Laird continue to maintain the five RFA ships it currently supports. The yard was named as part of a consortium to build the Royal Navy's new Type 26 Frigate in September 2023. BAE System are
450-529: Is a merchant navy vessel of the United Kingdom that conducts scientific research for His Majesty's Government . Organisations operating such ships include; the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). A warrant from the monarch is required before a ship can be designated as an RRS. In the 1950s and 1960s
495-704: The Queen Elizabeth -class aircraft carriers . The majority of the blocks were manufactured by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead , but due to a tight schedule, the stern of the ship (named 'Block 10') was fabricated by the A&;P Group at Hebburn on the River Tyne . The section was transported to Merseyside on a barge in August 2017. The stern section was loaded onto the barge by heavy lifting company ALE , using self-propelled modular trailers (SPMT) . The same procedure in reverse
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#1732848321055540-825: The Battle of Cartagena de Indias against the British in 1741, putting forward his "contribution to British underwater archeology". Many of those supporting the choice made comments which referenced Spanish nationalist issues such as the English defeat of the Spanish Armada and the Gibraltar sovereignty dispute. The choice gained over 38,000 votes before it was removed, with a NERC spokesperson stating that they would "remove or reject any name suggestion that we deem liable to cause offence". Royal Research Ship A Royal Research Ship ( RRS )
585-529: The Birkenhead , Teesside and Tyneside shipyards owned by Cammell Laird shiprepair were acquired by the A&P Shiprepair Group in 2001. Cammell Laird Gibraltar, the Royal Dockyard facility in Gibraltar , was disposed of through a local management buyout . A&P Group sold its Birkenhead subsidiary (A&P Birkenhead) to Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders in 2005. Peel Holdings , owners of
630-671: The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration . In early 2023, Sir David Attenborough was accused by Argentine authorities as having transited illegally through Argentine national waters to the port of Punta Arenas in Chile. Argentina specifically objected to the ship's use of facilities in the Falkland Islands prior to her arrival in Chile, utilization which Argentina argued violated its national laws but which Britain did not recognize as valid. In March 2016,
675-597: The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and 50% owners of Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders, purchased the Cammell Laird shipyard site and surrounding land in January 2007, to facilitate the proposed Wirral Waters development, although Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders continue to maintain a long-term lease on the shipyard facilities, which will form an integral part of the regeneration scheme. In 2007, it
720-469: The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) announced that members of the public were being asked to suggest names for the ship. Names previously used would not be eligible, but otherwise it was open to suggestions. The NERC stated that they would have the final say, and that the most popular name in the poll would not necessarily be the one used. Former BBC Radio Jersey presenter James Hand jokingly suggested RRS " Boaty McBoatface ". This quickly became
765-524: The UK Government announced funding for the construction of a new polar research vessel for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to replace a pair of existing ships. This new ship was intended not only to be fully equipped with the latest instrumentation for the purposes of carrying out research in polar regions, for which it would have an improved icebreaking capability and greater endurance over
810-540: The prefix "RRS" - Royal Research Ship. Cammell Laird Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, when that side of the business was separated and became part of the Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage & Wagon Company . The Laird Company
855-609: The Cammell Laird slipways into the River Mersey . Among the many famous ships made by the companies were the world's first steel ship, the Ma Roberts , built in 1858 for Dr. Livingstone's Zambezi expedition, CSS Alabama that was built in 1862 for the Confederate States of America , HMS Caroline that holds the record fastest build time of any significant warship (nine months from her keel being laid till her launch),
900-641: The Royal Research Ships of the day were owned by the Admiralty , partially managed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), and run as ships of that fleet. The work of the Royal Research Ship operated by the British Antarctic Survey is complemented by a Royal Navy icebreaker , currently HMS Protector , which provides science logistics support to the British Antarctic Survey. All ships bear
945-512: The Second Anglo-Boer War. The armoured road train was the first self-propelled, free-roaming, armoured military land vehicle ever built, predating the tanks of World War One by nearly two decades. The company was nationalised along with the rest of the British shipbuilding industry as British Shipbuilders in 1977. The yard was subject to a labour dispute in 1984 triggered by the yard making nearly 1,000 redundancies. This led to some of
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#1732848321055990-671: The awarding of preferred bidder status for two new car ferries for Dunoon -based operator, Western Ferries . Construction of MV Sound of Seil and MV Sound of Soay began in October 2012. In April 2014, the government authorised procurement of a Royal Research Ship for the British Antarctic Survey , at an estimated cost of £200 million. Cammell Laird won the construction contract in 2015. The vessel, named RRS Sir David Attenborough began sea trials in 2020; she took her maiden voyage to Antarctica in November 2021. It
1035-493: The barges at Clifton , near Nottingham on the River Trent , and towed in pairs downriver by a twin-screwed tug named Motorman , built by Henry Scarr of Hessle in 1925. They were taken to Hull for export. In 1929, the railway rolling stock business of Cammell Laird was spun off and merged to become Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage & Wagon Company . Between 1829 and 1947, over 1,100 vessels of all kinds were launched from
1080-509: The bow and two in the stern. The vessel has been strengthened according to the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) Unified Requirements for Polar Class Ships . Her ice class, Polar Class 4 , is intended for year-round operation in thick first-year ice which may include old ice inclusions. However, her propulsion system is only rated for Polar Class 5 which is intended for medium first-year ice. In 2024,
1125-497: The business by his three sons, renaming the company John Laird, Sons & Co. The sons continued the business after their father's death in 1874 as Laird Brothers. Johnson Cammell & Co. was founded by Charles Cammell and Henry and Thomas Johnson: it made, amongst many other metal products, iron wheels and rails for Britain's railways and was based in Sheffield . In 1903 the businesses of Messrs. Cammell and Laird merged to create
1170-562: The end of the Upholder -class submarine building programme in 1993, the owners of Cammell Laird, VSE, announced the yard's closure. This was strongly opposed by the workforce through trade union campaigners including the GMB, led by communist firebrand official Barry Williams . Part of the shipyard site was leased by the Coastline Group as a ship repair facility. Coastline eventually bought part of
1215-402: The existing polar research vessel, but also to serve as a logistic support vessel for BAS teams in inshore locations. BAS contracted Houlder Ltd to undertake the basic design in which suggestions for the final configuration of the new ship were taken. Following the consultation period, in 2015, Rolls-Royce Holdings was selected to execute the detailed design and Cammell Laird in Birkenhead
1260-481: The first all-welded ship, the Fullagar built in 1920, Cunard's second RMS Mauretania , the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (1937) the battleship HMS Prince of Wales (1941) and the largest vessel to have been built for the Royal Navy up to that time, HMS Ark Royal (1950). In 1898, Cammell provided the half-inch armour plate used to fabricate the four Fowler Armoured Road Trains built during
1305-474: The lay public. Other leading choices in the poll were Poppy-Mai , in honour of a toddler with incurable cancer, and Henry Worsley , for a British Army officer who died in 2016 while attempting to complete the first solo and unaided crossing of the Antarctic. Spanish internet users from the forum ForoCoches attempted to hijack the poll by promoting the choice Blas de Lezo , a Spanish Navy officer who won
1350-434: The most popular choice and was the runaway winner when the poll closed, with 124,109 votes. The name has been described as a homage to "Hooty McOwlface", an owl named through an "Adopt-A-Bird" programme in 2012 that became popular on the internet. On 6 May 2016, science minister Jo Johnson announced that the choice had been made to name the ship after naturalist Sir David Attenborough , but that Boaty McBoatface would be
1395-505: The name of one of David Attenborough 's remotely controlled submersibles . A petition calling for Sir David Attenborough himself to change his name to Sir Boaty McBoatface "in the interest of democracy and humour" soon received over 3,800 signatures. In response to the poll, the Science and Technology Committee , a select committee of the House of Lords , announced that they were to review
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1440-660: The primary contractor, but Cammell Laird will be used to build sections of HMS Birmingham . The shipyard is referenced in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas as "Laird's of Liverpool". (though it is located in Birkenhead, not Liverpool) Verne visited Birkenhead in 1859 and 1867 and states in the story that some of the iron plates for the Nautilus were made there. Birkenhead band Half Man Half Biscuit 's ninth album
1485-450: The process by which the ship was named. NERC chief executive Duncan Wingham and NERC head of communications Julia Maddock faced the committee on 10 May. James Wilsdon, an outreach director at Sheffield University , told MPs that he voted for Boaty McBoatface . Despite the controversy, NERC directors felt that their poll was a successful initiative in that it generated a lot of publicity regarding their organisation and research mission among
1530-519: The shipyard and adopted the Cammell Laird name, before floating on the London stock exchange in 1997 and acquiring dockyards at Teesside , Tyneside and Gibraltar . After experiencing financial difficulties, partly due to the late withdrawal from a £50 million refit contract for the cruise ship Costa Classica cruise ship by Costa Crociere , the company was forced to enter receivership in April 2001, and
1575-618: The vessel was attempting to reach Stange Sound in the English Coast in Antarctica. The vessel then collaborated with the French icebreaking cruise ship operated by Compagnie du Ponant , Le Commandant Charcot , which opened a channel for the research vessel. However, as the ice conditions became even more unfavourable, RRS Sir David Attenborough had to give up the original plan and seek another drop-off point to deliver scientific cargo to support
1620-442: The workers occupying a partially built gas rig, AV-1 . 37 workers were later arrested, jailed and sacked for their roles in the protest. In 1986, it returned to the private sector as part of Barrow-in-Furness -based Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering (VSE). VSE and Cammell Laird were the only British shipyards capable of producing nuclear submarines. In 1993, it completed HMS Unicorn (S43) – now HMCS Windsor . After
1665-576: The world today and will increasingly do so tomorrow." Sir David Attenborough was originally planned to enter service in late 2020, but in January 2020 Sky News reported that her delivery was at risk of delay, and that BAS planned to keep James Clark Ross in service for another year past her intended retirement. In August, Sir David Attenborough made a brief trip to the Liverpool Cruise Terminal before returning to Cammell Laird for final fitting out ahead of sea trials scheduled for late in
1710-575: The year. Sir David Attenborough began her sea trials on 21 October 2020. On 5 March 2021, an accident during a launching drill of a lifeboat resulted in injuries to a crew member. She officially made her maiden voyage to Antarctica on 16 November 2021, from Harwich and arrived at the Rothera Research Station on 17 December 2021 for the first time. In February 2022, RRS Sir David Attenborough encountered second-year ice with thick snow layer on top that she could not overcome on her own while
1755-400: Was announced in October 2017 that Cammell Laird had struck a 'teaming agreement' with BAE Systems to bid for Ministry of Defence contracts to build the Royal Navy's Type 31e frigates . In 2018, Red Funnel chose the shipyard to construct a £10m cargo ferry, MV Red Kestrel . Construction of the ferry began with a formal keel laying ceremony on 31 May and the vessel entered service
1800-410: Was announced that the company had won a £28m Ministry of Defence contract to overhaul the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship RFA Fort Rosalie . In January 2010, it was announced that Lairds had received a £44m order for the flight decks of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth . In May 2012, it was announced that complete shipbuilding was set to return to the yard with
1845-518: Was announced that the occupiers of Cammell Laird Dock , Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders, had acquired the rights to the Cammell Laird name. On 17 November 2008, Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders officially renamed itself Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Limited, stating that recent economic success had made the time right, and that "Cammell Laird is an internationally recognised brand which carries tremendous goodwill when bidding for contracts." In February 2008, it
RRS Sir David Attenborough - Misplaced Pages Continue
1890-473: Was founded by William Laird , who had established the Birkenhead Iron Works in 1824. When he was joined by his son, John Laird in 1828, their first ship was an iron barge. John realised that the techniques of making boilers could be applied to making ships. The company soon became pre-eminent in the manufacture of iron ships and also made major advances in propulsion. In 1860, John Laird was joined in
1935-432: Was selected as the preferred bidder to construct the ship. The ship cost £200m. The ship is about 125 metres (410 ft) long, with a beam of about 24 metres (79 ft). The draught is about 7 metres (23 ft) with a planned cruising speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) with a range of 19,000 nautical miles (35,000 km; 22,000 mi) at that speed. She is capable of carrying two helicopters and has
1980-409: Was smashed across the ship's bow by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge , at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead. Sir David Attenborough was present at the ceremony. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage wrote a poem "Ark" to celebrate the naming ceremony. Attenborough was also present at commissioning, stating "This astonishing ship... will find the science with which to deal with the problems that are facing
2025-405: Was then used to get the hull segment on to the slipway at Birkenhead. The hull of Sir David Attenborough was named by her namesake and launched on 14 July 2018. She was moved into a wet dock for the addition of her superstructure and fitting out. The ship was originally scheduled to be completed by October 2018. The official naming ceremony took place on 26 September 2019. A bottle of champagne
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