The ship Terra Nova - the vessel used by Robert Falcon Scott (1868 -1912) for his South Polar Expedition in 1911-12. Built originally for the Dundee whaling and sealing fleet (launched 1884), the Terra Nova was purchased from Bowring Brothers Limited for the British Antarctic Expedition, known also as the Terra Nova Expedition, for the sum of ?12,500. Reinforced from bow to stern with seven feet of oak to protect against the Antarctic ice pack, she sailed from Cardiff on 15 June 1910 under overall command of now Captain Scott, who described her as "a wonderfully fine ice ship.... As she bumped the floes with mighty shocks, crushing and grinding a way through some, twisting and turning to avoid others, she seemed like a living thing fighting a great fight."