Royal Research Ship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2006)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

A Royal Research Ship is a British-operated merchant ship that conducts research for British Government scientific research organisations, notably the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

In the 1950s and 1960s the Royal Research Ships of the day were owned by the Admiralty, partially managed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and run as ships of that fleet. That association ended in 1968 after the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) took over full responsibility for the operations and manning of the vessels, initially through NERC Research Vessel Services - part of NERC Scientific Services. The "fleet" was divided into two groups under this umbrella, those ships operated in Antarctica managed by British Antarctic Survey and those which operate elsewhere. This second group of ships is now operated by National Marine Facilities, based at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton.

Notable RRS include:

RRS John Biscoe
RRS Charles Darwin
RRS Bransfield
RRS Discovery (three RRS have borne the name, Discovery - owned by NERC)
RRS James Cook (replacement for the Charles Darwin - owned by NERC)
RRS James Clark Ross (replacement for the John Biscoe - owned by BAS)
RRS Ernest Shackleton (replacement for Bransfield - bareboat charter by BAS)

RV Prince Madog is also a UK research ship (but not an RRS), jointly owned by the University of Wales, Bangor and VT Ocean Sciences. A small number of other UK research ships which are not RRS also exist.