HMS Endurance

Issue Date: 24th January 2005









Long-established maritime tradition permits, on special occasions and/or situations, the names of former illustrious ships to be bestowed upon newly commissioned vessels. Two Royal Naval ships named HMS Endurance are examples of this.

The original Endurance, a three masted barquentine, conveyed Sir Ernest Shackleton's British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition team southwards from Britain in March 1914. The vessel was beset off Caird Coast, in the polar region, and drifted for several months before finally being crushed by pack ice in November 1915. She is featured on this recently issued 42p British Antarctic Territory stamp.

The first HMS Endurance (originally named Anita Dan) was launched in May 1956 and awarded Pennant number A171 sometime later. She acted as an ice patrol and hydrographic survey ship until 1986. Her equipment included a Westland WASP helicopter. Toward the end of her career she became known as HMS Encumbrance due to unreliability.

Today's modern HMS ENDURANCE is a class 1A1 ice-breaker, bought from Norway 1992 where she had been known as MV Polar Circle. She is based at Portsmouth but makes annual forays to Antarctica where she can penetrate through 0.9 metres of ice at a speed of 3 knots. She has a complement of 126 marine personnel and carries two LYNX helicopters.

The hulls of these two later vessels are painted red as a distinguishing identification feature.


Technical Details:
Release Date 24 January 2005
Designer Tony Theobald
Size 30 x 41mm
Printer BDT International Security Printing ltd
Process Lithography
Watermark CA Spiral
Values 42p Shackleton's Endurance
50p HMS Endurance 1968-1990
£1 HMS Endurance 1991 - present



Copyright: FI Philatelic Bureau Created and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited