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Dr Neil Alison Mackintosh 1900-1974

In order to continue the Discovery Investigations in to the lives of whales, Scott's ship Discovery was replaced by Discovery II in 1929 for five further cruises. The stamp shows her along side a blue whale.

Service: Senior biologist succeeding as Director of the Discovery Investigations in 1936. Leading authority on the International Whaling Commission latterly Deputy Director of the National Institute of Oceanography

RRS Discovery II, Length 234 feet, beam 36 feet, 1036grt. Built 1929, Glasgow, as a steel, (reinforced forward with a double plated bow), ice strengthened oceanographic survey vessel. Polar Voyages: A series of five voyages to investigate the ecology of whales in the Southern Ocean 1929-51. In 193537 and with William Scoresby, she rescued Lincoln Ellsworth and Hollick- Kenyon after their trans-Antarctic flight from Antarctic Peninsula. War service as HMS Discovery with Trinity House, 1939-45. Subsequently employed on oceanographical work in temperate regions for National Institute of Oceanography. Fate : Unknown.

Details from BAT philatelic bureau.

SG 2008?

Built as a steel screw scientific and exploration vessel under yard no 295 by Ferguson Bros. (Port Glasgow Ltd.), Port Glasgow for the British Antarctic Expedition. (as given by the official Ferguson building list.)
1929 Launched under the name DISCOVERY II.
Tonnage 1.036 gross, 334 net, dim. 221.1 x 36.2 x 16.6ft., draught 17.5 ft.
Triple expansion steam engine 221 nhp., speed 13 knots. Oil fired, two Scotch boilers. The engine and boilers were manufactured by the ship builder.
One deck, two holds.
Cellular double bottom. Forepeak tank, ballast 100 tons, after piek tank 29 tons.
She was strengthened for navigation in ice. She did not have cross bulkheads. The hull of ships with cross bulkheads would corrugate very easily, if trapped in thick pack ice, without this cross bulkheads the hull would bow in, and when the pressure is less spring out.
She was fitted out with wireless, direction finder and had electricity.
12 November 1929 completed.

The Falkland Islands Government later owned her
Mostly built for monitoring the fast declining whale population in the Antarctic waters. When she was involved in the monitoring of whales and whaling, she was assisted by the WILLIAM SCORESBY.
From 1929 did research work in the waters around the Falkland Islands under command of Capt. S.Kemp, later W.M. Carey.
From 1931 during the Antarctic summer season did research work in the Antarctic waters, mostly every voyage circumnavigation the Antarctic.
From 1933 used as basis for biological research in the Scotia Sea.
16 January 1936 she picked up the downed American airmen Lincoln Elsworth and his co pilot Hollick-Kenyon when there plain landed on the ice of the Antarctic.
From 1937 until 1939 made again during the Antarctic summer season voyages in the Antarctic waters.
Between 1929 and the outbreak of the Second World War she carried out 5 expeditions.

Nov 1939 hired by the Royal Navy as Armed Boarding Vessel not an armament given.
Used by the D-Day landings at Normandy as a buoy-laying and survey vessel, she left from the Solent on 6 June 1944.
1945 Handed back to owners.
1948 Fitted out with radar.
1950 Transferred to National Oceanographic Council. Mostly used in survey and research voyages in the Antarctic, Indian Ocean and Pacific.
During the season 1951-52 for the last time she circumnavigated the Antarctic.
1963 Broken up by Haulbowlines Industries, Passage West, Cork Eire, she arrived there on 25 May 1963.

Australian Antarctic Terr. 1979 20c sg43
Falkland Islands 1938 6d/6d sg155/6, scott89. 2008 £1.61, sg?, scott?
Falkland Islands Dependences 1944 A6, B6,C6, D6. 1954 3d sgG31, scott1L24 and 1956 3d sg G43
South Georgia 1976 11p sg48

Source Info received from Mr. John D. Stevenson. Ships of the Royal Navy Vol. 2 by J.J.Colledge.
The D-Day ships by John de S Winter. Register of Merchant Ships Completed in 1929