From the Collection: RRS Shackleton plaque
Current ship wardroom plaques, otherwise known as ship’s plaques or ship’s emblems, or formally as ship’s badges came from an old tradition that reaches back to the age of sail. As a means of identification, sailing ships used carved figureheads as a distinguishing feature; however, with the move from sail to steam, there was no place on the prow or the bow to place ornate carvings. Utilitarianism eventually won out over embellishment and on haze-gray hulls became painted dull numbers and names. Yet, sailors wished to hold on to tradition and over time developed a system of naval heraldry; similar to, but distinct from that of landsmen.
Ships’ badges first appeared on United Kingdom Royal Navy vessels in the 1850s. Originally, they were found on ship’s stationery, and this innovation came to mark the small boats assigned to a ship and also the ship itself, on the bridge. The Admiralty decided to reign in the rather haphazard means of creating badges and appointed its first advisor on naval heraldry in the person of Charles ffoulkes, then curator of the Imperial War Museum, in 1918. He picked up the mantle of the Ships’ Badge Committee. Their main innovation was the use of a visual means to determine the class of ship or establishment by shape of badge: circular (battleships and battle cruisers), pentagonal (cruisers), U-shaped shield (destroyers), and diamond (shore establishments, depot ships, small war vessels, and aircraft carriers).
By 1940, the designs for all ships were standardized to a circular design. This was due to the bureaucratic nightmare of re-use of names on newly commissioned ships requiring re-configuration of badges to match ship type. Post-war, After the war, the pentagonal badge shape was assigned to Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels and the diamond to commissioned shore establishments. RRS ship also used a circular configuration badge was noted in the example of the RRS Shackleton.
The RRS Shackleton was in service with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS)/British Antarctic Survey (BAS) from 1955/56 until 1968/69. Her role was primarily that of a survey and science vessel, supporting marine geophysics programs. Originally named the Arendal, she was built in 1954 at Sölvesborg in Sweden for Arendals Dampskibsselskab, Norway. In August 1955, she was bought by FIDS for £230,000, and further strengthened for work in sea ice. She was renamed RRS Shackleton by Mrs. Arthur, wife of the then Governor of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies, in a ceremony at Southampton on 19 December 1955.
Her namesake is Sir Ernest Shackleton, 1874-1922, one of the most famous figures from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Sir Shackleton served on Scott’s Discovery Expedition (British National Antarctic Expedition) 1901-04, he led the Nimrod Expedition (British Antarctic Expedition) 1907-09 but is most well-known for the Endurance Expedition (Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition) 1914–17 – a remarkable story of survival against the odds. Sir Shackleton died during the Quest Expedition (Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition) 1921-1922, and is buried in the whalers’ graveyard at Grytviken, South Georgia.
From 1969, the RRS Shackleton was operated by BAS’s parent body, NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) as an oceanographic research vessel. Under NERC ownership she carried out geophysical and marine geology cruises in Antarctic waters until being withdrawn from service in May 1983 and sold.
Technical specification
Lloyds classification: 2-3 for ice
Dimensions: length 200 ft 6 ins; breadth 36 ft 1 ins
Loaded displacement: 1658 tons
Gross tonnage: 1102 tons
Propulsion: diesel engine, 785 SHP
Speed: service speed 12 knots
Port of registry
Stanley, Falkland Islands
A second ship was also named after Ernest Shackleton in 1999 – the current RRS Ernest Shackleton.