2021

Build Feature :

SCOTIA

 

Martin Stevenson presents a Build Feature on the Fisheries Research Vessel SCOTIA (Aberdeen). (the finished model is shown opposite, photographed during its first outing on the water at Northfield Park pond, Ayr).


As with Martin’s earlier vessel METEOR (which is also Featured on this AMBC site), the build blog and accompanying photos are available on an external site: Model Boat Mayhem. To see the photos, you will need to register with that site, although you can look at the text as a visitor without having to register.

AMBC makes no particular recommendation about external sites and their suitability, but Model Boat Mayhem is a well-established site, and has many members.


To visit the site, click on the link:

Model Boat Mayhem

There have been four research vessels named SCOTIA, and the history of each, together with information about the current vessel can be found here.

Key details of each include:


  1. •The Steam Yacht SCOTIA

  2. 140 feet (42.7 metres) long; weighing 400 tons

  3. Barque-rigged, with an auxiliary steam plant driving a single screw.

  4. A former Norwegian whaler named HELA, this ship sailed to Greenland in 1891-2 as part of a Danish expedition. The ship was then brought to Scotland and was extensively rebuilt at Ailsa Shipyard.

  5. Leaving from Troon in November 1902, she sailed to the Falklands, crossed the Scotia Sea, and eventually was forced to over-winter at the South Orkney  Islands, until November 1903.

  6. From February 1904, she sailed south to Antarctica, where the captain named an area ‘Coats Land’ in honour of the expedition’s main sponsor, the Coats family of Paisley.

  7. She spent time exploring and mapping the Weddell Sea, before eventually returning the anchor off Millport, in July 1904.


  9. •The Steam Trawler SCOTIA

  10. 150 feet (45.7 metres) long; with a three cylinder triple expansion steam engine, converted from coal to oil buring). A British-built ship originally named FLUELLEN, built by Cocharne & Sons of Selby. Bought by the Scottish Home Department in 1948 and renamed SCOTIA, she was used for hydrographic research in the North Atlantic.

  11. During the period 1957-8 SCOTIA participated in the North Atlantic Polar Front Survey, along with 19 other ships from 10 countries.

  12. She was transferred to fisheries protection duties in late 1971, and scrapped in November 1973.


  14. •The Diesel-Electric Trawler SCOTIA

  15. Built by Ferguson Brothers of Port Glasgow, this was a purpose-built diesel-electric powered trawler.

  16. 224 feet (68.3 metres) long

  17. Initially used to track slamon migration, SCOTIA was fitted out with medical and dental failities and used to support British trawlers off Iceland dueing the second Cod War.

  18. SCOTIA continued her predecessor’s work in researching water circulation patterns around the coat of Scotland and in the North Atlantic. This work evolved to include pollution surveys.

  19. In 1991, the operation of SCOTIA was transferred to Marr Vessel Management Ltd. In 1998 she was sold to an Italian company operating out of Naples.

  20.  

  21. •The current SCOTIA

  22. Built by Ferguson Shipbuilders Ltd at Port Glasgow, and launched in 1998.

  23. 70 metres long; gross tonnage 2619

  24. A hybrid ship, with the features of a hydrographic survey vessel combined with features of a pelagic and demersal trawler. The ship has three diesel engines driving a generator for the main single-screw drive. The ship has bow thrusters, a stern thruster, an articulated rudder and GPS-assisted steering. The ship is a modern research vessel which can be flexibly re-equipped with removable containers carrying purpose-built laboratories. SCOTIA can carry out hydrographic operations from a platform with a retractable floor at the rear of the ship. When the floor cover is retracted, this rear section is used for trawling operations.

Fisheries Research Vessel SCOTIA (Aberdeen) photographed on its maiden voyage

at Northfield Park pond, Ayr.