Ice patrol ship HMS Endurance is due back in Portsmouth this morning after an eventful eight-month deployment to the Antarctic.

The Red Plum carried out a full programme of survey work, support for scientific research and defence diplomacy.

One such example of the latter came on the journey home, when members of the ship’s company visited a maternity hospital in Colombia to drop off much-needed medical supplies.

The Commanding Officer of HMS Endurance, Capt Ian Moncrieff, was joined by the British Ambassador to Colombia, Tom Duggin, and by two of the ship’s medical staff, ship’s doctor Surg Lt Callum Gardner and POMA Jez Eden, at the Clinica de Maternidad Rafael Calvo at Cartagena.

Although short on funding and in a building in a poor state of repair, the hospital has a dedicated and hard-working medical staff committed to helping the local community.

The Cartagena hospital carries out around 12,000 births each year for the women of the city and surrounding districts.

Endurance’s efforts are in the grand tradition of Royal Navy ships helping hospitals, orphanages and the like with items such as essential medical supplies and extra goods with money raised on board.

Capt Moncrieff said: “The humanity and dedication of the doctors and nurses is impressive, and is producing primary care for mothers-to-be and their new-born children in circumstances where there would otherwise be hardship and higher mortality.

“While they are slowly coming to grips with the building repair work, the staff focus and effort is rightly on equipment and medical supplies that will guarantee that most basic of human rights – a decent birthplace and chance of survival.”

While visiting the hospital the guests toured the facilities and talked to staff and patients at the maternity centre.

This stop in Colombia was part of Endurance’s long journey home to Portsmouth from her annual deployment to the South Atlantic and Antarctica.

She is expected back in the UK in early June, having spent eight months away and clocked up over 40,000 miles under her belt.

Her return voyage has seen Endurance working at sea in the Caribbean and conducting a number of visits to South American countries such as Chile and Colombia.

But Endurance’s fundraising efforts are still under way in the final stages of her homeward voyage and her ship’s company are intent now on raising money for the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth’s Save a Life Appeal.

Earlier in the deployment Endurance suffered minor damage when she struck an uncharted underwater pinnacle six miles off the Antarctic ice shelf in January.
The weather was perfect, with no wind, a sea state of 1 and less than ten per cent ice in the area.

Endurance subsequently completed a detailed investigation, which revealed that the seabed shoaled without warning and incredibly steeply from more than 40 metres to 6.4 metres in eight seconds.

As ever, when working in uncharted waters, the ship had been running gradually from surveyed areas into the sections to be surveyed in lines running parallel to the coast. The ship was moving at barely above walking pace, with a safety level set at 40 metres – once that depth has been encountered (around five times the draught of the ship) the surveying stops and alternative methods are employed.

The shallowest shoals in the area had been reported at 37 metres, and depths earlier the same day had been between 50 metres and 300 metres.

But even with the engines full astern when the 40-metre mark was encountered, eight seconds was not enough, and the 6,500-ton Endurance grounded, staying there for just over an hour while her ship’s company went through emergency stations, carrying out a thorough search of the interior of the hull.

On establishing there had been no breach of the hull, the ship’s divers went over the side to determine how the ship was sitting on the rock, while tons of water was jettisoned and other fluids transferred to alter the trim.

Later in the afternoon Endurance eased astern off the rock and returned to the mainland for further examinations. She then continued her programme, and her return voyage has seen her complete around 40,000 nautical miles.

She will now undergo maintenance and the ship’s company will catch up with training and leave before the ship heads south again in the autumn.