Ship Back From Cold for Warm Welcome 10.05.13
17HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's Ice Patrol Ship, has returned home to Portsmouth at the end of a nine-month deployment to the 'Frozen Continent'.
Operating in the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands throughout the Austral Summer, the ship conducted three intensive work periods in the ice, and a fourth work period in the waters surrounding South Georgia.
She provided direct support to a UK led multi-national Antarctic Treaty Inspection team as well as landing and recovering British Antarctic Survey scientists at ecologically important sites.
She also helped with ongoing environmental and conservation work, including hosting an international team updating the visitor guidelines for regularly visited sites and surveying the poorly charted waters around the Antarctic Peninsula.
HMS Protector's Commanding Officer, Captain Rhett Hatcher said: "Completing such a busy and diverse programme in the ship's second deployment to Antarctica in as many years represents a significant achievement for HMS Protector's ship's company.
"A very full summer lies ahead of us, which will include a visit to Cambridge our affiliated city and operational sea training. Protector will deploy to the Antarctic again in autumn 2013."