Young brothers hope to replicate historic Antarctic trip with model

Two brothers have teamed up to send two replica ships to circumnavigate Antarctica in what is thought to be a world first.

Ollie, 12, and Harry Ferguson (10) from Turriff are gearing up to send the one-metre wooden boats on the 12,400-mile mission to the Southern Ocean in a trip that will replicate the Ross scientific expedition of 1839 to 1843, where the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror discovered the Ross Ice Shelf.

The boats will be made to scale from elm and will be fitted with sensors to measure sea temperature and ocean ph – both of which can be used as markers for climate change.

Harry said putting the project together “is like a mission to Mars” and added: “We cannot rescue the boats once they are launched so we have to plan every detail.”

Ollie hopes the vessels will gather some useful data. He said: “To stop the impacts of climate change, then we first need to understand how it is affecting us. We hope our boats will gather some useful data.”

Macneill Ferguson, the boys’ father, said: “We wanted the adventure to have a scientific component as a homage to the original 1839 expedition and to this end the boats will carry a camera and two sensors that can be used to send back data via satellite on ocean acidity and temperature.

“The vessels will drift through the Southern Ocean following the circumpolar current around the coastline of Antarctica. They will send a GPS location signal several times a day with the onboard cameras sending a photograph once a month via satellite.

“These will be the smallest boats ever to sail the Antarctic seas and will need to stay afloat in the world’s harshest waters and survive long enough to drift 20,000km.”

The Ferguson brothers previously set the world record for the longest distance travelled at sea by a toy boat.

Ollie and Harry sailed their Playmobil pirate ship Adventure almost 4,000 miles to the Caribbean.

“We can’t rescue the boats once they are launched