HMS Scott (H131)

HMS Scott is an ocean survey vessel and is the third Royal Navy ship to carry the name. The only vessel of her class, she can remain at sea for up to 300 days a year, thanks to her novel crew rotation system.

Role

Commanded by Commander Sam Nightingale, HMS Scott was built as an ocean survey vessel that was specifically designed to carry the modern High Resolution Multi Beam Sonar System (HRMBSS). This swathe echo sounder is capable of collecting depth information over a strip of the sea bed several kilometres wide.

HMS Scott is the largest survey vessel in Western Europe, and the fifth largest vessel in the Royal Navy. Named for the famous Arctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, she also has an auxiliary role as a mine countermeasures vessel.

Unit history

1917

The Great War

The first HMS Scott was a First World War destroyer launched on 18 October 1917; she and her class sisters were named after historical Scottish leaders.

1918

Torpedoed

Her career with the Royal Navy was short-lived – she was torpedoed and sank in the North Sea off the Dutch coast on 15 August 1918, an attack generally credited to UC-17.

1937

The Second Scott

The second Scott, along with sister HMS Shackleton, was first envisaged as a Fleet minesweeper in 1937, but by the time she was completed in July 1939 she had been re-purposed as a survey ship.

1965

History

Displacing 830 tons, with a complement of 84, the ship enjoyed a long and productive life with the Navy – she was only broken up in Troon in 1965.

1995

Third HMS Scott

In 1995 a new Ocean Survey Vessel was ordered to replace the ageing HMS Hecla. This ship was the third to carry the name HMS Scott.

1997

Commissioned

In June 1997, HMS Scott was commissioned into the Fleet. She was not only the largest vessel in the Royal Navy's Hydrographic Squadron, she was also the largest survey vessel in Western Europe.

2013

Red Sea

In 2013 HMS Scott supported coalition maritime security operations and surveyed over 7,200 square miles of the sea floor in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

2015

42,000 miles

In 2015 HMS Scott discovered a chasm almost as deep as the Grand Canyon, mountains higher than Ben Nevis and rivers carving their way through the Atlantic sea bed. She also conducted survey operations all over the North Atlantic and Mediterranean mapping an area equivalent to that of the UK.

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