Ice patrol ship HMS Endurance has boldly gone where she has never gone before – almost to the foot of the world.

In the most southerly deployment in her Naval career, icebreaker HMS Endurance has been helping support research in Antarctica until the end of the decade.

The ‘Red Plum’ – so named for her distinctive colour scheme, which stands out among ice floes – used the ice as her berth as she delivered vital fuel supplies to the British Antarctic Survey on the Flichner Ice Shelf.

Crew predicted the mission to the bottom of the world would prove hazardous even before the survey ship sailed from Portsmouth last October.

Those hazards became all too apparent when one of Endurance’s two Lynx helicopters came down on the ice minutes after delivering the last barrel of fuel.

But the passage down to the ice shelf in the Weddell Sea was no less trying for the 120 sailors and Royal Marines on board.

Crew used satellite images to monitor the density and direction of the ice floes and find the best route to reach the ice shelf, accompanied by the BAS research ship Ernest Shackleton.

Once the pair found a suitable location, they used the ice as a berth – there are not too many major ports or harbours in this inhospitable part of the world.

“A team is sent across to the ice by the sea boat, carrying telegraph poles and an ice drill,” said Lt Sarah Boardman, Deputy Logistics Officer.

“They make holes in the ice and wedge the poles in so that the ship can use them to secure herself parallel to the edge of the ice.”

The berth picked was close to the BAS outpost of Halley, 76°S 26°W, a research centre built on stilts 30 miles from the edge of ice shelf and 14,255 miles from London.

“Soon after arriving a lone Emperor Penguin approached the rear of the ship, and was so enthralled by the red hull that he didn’t leave for the duration of our stay,” said Lt Boardman.

The penguins were also fascinated – enough to cast the occasional glance at the activities carried out by crew members, including games of ‘ice cricket’ and an extreme ironing event during a two-day stand-off for crew.

Other Endurance sailors staged a volleyball match and school sports day for grown-up kids, some found time to ride on Snow Cats to the research station, and all crew took part in the ship’s most southerly barbecue on the quarterdeck, joined by colleagues from the Ernest Shackleton and the research station.

With the fun over, the resupply of the fuel dumps used by the BAS Twin Otter aircraft began, with 250 barrels of aviation fuel transferred from Ernest Shackleton by Endurance’s helicopters.

As this mission was being completed, Lynx 435 crashed on the ice not far from Endurance, injuring three of her five crew – including LA(PHOT) Phil Wareing, whose photographs accompany this article

The casualties were flown back to the UK via Chile before the ship herself resumed her operational duties.

Endurance was loaned a Lynx by veteran destroyer HMS Glasgow, on patrol in the South Atlantic, to provide the mutual search-and-rescue capability which is required to operate safely in the Antarctic.

The two helicopters were then used to extract the BAS team which had been dropped off with their equipment on James Ross Island earlier in the deployment.

The deployment began in earnest around South Georgia when the Red Plum dropped off a schools party carrying out adventurous training and historical/scientific research under the leadership of a retired Royal Marines brigadier.

For the ship herself, work centred on surveying waters around the island.

Thanks to repeated visits by the Red Plum, the UK Hydrographic Office is building up an increasingly complete picture of the waters surrounding South Georgia – needed as the island becomes increasingly popular with eco-tourists.

As Endurance’s two specially-equipped motor survey vessels collected data, her aircraft delivered signposts for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and carried out aerial photography for the BAS and Hydrographic Office.

A party of sailors laid a wreath at the grave of heroic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, while the ship’s Royal Marines detachment retraced the route he took to raise help for his crew during their doomed Antarctic expedition 90 years ago.

Endurance has now turned north and left the Antarctic for good on this deployment, and is first visiting Argentina on her long journey back to the UK.

She is due back in Portsmouth in May, having visited the tiny community of Tristan de Cunha, Cape Town in South Africa, St Helena and Ascension Island on the return voyage.