Alexander Stephen and Sons built the 744-ton Terra Nova in 1884 as a whaling vessel in Dundee. She was said to have been the last of her kind to be built there and from 1885 to 1893 she was worked in the Labrador seal fisheries by William Stephen and Co. of Newfoundland – Terra Nova in Latin.
Between 1894 and 1897 she served as a relief ship for the Jackson-Harmsworth Artic expedition and then in 1903 she was leased by the Admiralty to accompany fellow Dundee whaler, Morning, to relieve and help free Captain Scott’s Discovery from McMurdo Sound. In November 1909 she was bought by the Admiralty for £12,000 after Scott had failed to secure the Discovery for a second expedition. As it turned out the Terra Nova served him well, however, sadly, she was destined to come home without him.
On her return in 1913 the Terra Nova was re-purchased by former owners CT Bowering & Co. and went back to working in the Newfoundland seal fishery.
Thirty years later she met an unfortunate end after springing a leak off Greenland. The crew were all saved but the Terra Nova sank and was lost. Terra Nova Green today stands close to Scott’s old family home of Outlands.
