Ice patrol ship heads back to Antarctica

THE Royal Navy’s only ice patrol ship has resumed four months of monitoring the impact of global warming and environmental changes to Antarctica.

She will build on her efforts 12 months ago when she helped count the penguin population, recorded glacier melt and updated nautical charts of the region to name just a few achievements.

Devonport-based HMS Protector, the Royal Navy’s sole icebreaker and affectionately known as its ‘Swiss Army Knife’, will work in and around the Antarctic peninsula, as well as remote islands and sensitive wildlife zones until March. This is when a southern hemisphere summer officially ends.

Protector spent the summer in Canada and the rather more tropical Caribbean – the latter working with the inhabitants and authorities in British Overseas Territories in the region to prepare for the 2022 hurricane season. The ship – which is based in Plymouth when in the UK, but will often be kept away for up to five years on longterm scientific missions – has spent the past few weeks in Montevideo

in Uruguay for maintenance.

In addition to the maintenance work, her sailors and Royal Marines took the opportunity to experience the city and renew ties with the Armada Nacional (Uruguayan Navy).

Sub Lieutenant Ollie Dean said: “I was lucky enough to visit various schools in Montevideo and speak to the students about the ship.

“They were excited to hear about the wildlife in Antarctica and the work we do there.”