Antarctica mission launch for Aberdeenshire brothers' ships
Two model ships built by brothers Ollie and Harry Ferguson from Turriff, have finally been launched in an effort to circumnavigate Antarctica.
The mission takes its inspiration from the Ross scientific expedition of 1839-43 which involved HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.
Replicating the construction of the original ships, they built one metre long replicas of the two vessels, which will follow the circumpolar current around Antarctica, a journey of around 20,000km and which could take up to two years to complete.
Although initially constructed with the masts to replicate the look of the originals, the hulls were stripped back to help reduce potential damage due to the ocean currents, and as was proven just after launch, some interested wildlife.
As part of the journey the boats transmit scientific data on a regular basis including air temperature, ocean temperature and ocean pH along with a monthly photograph which is uploaded via satellite.
A long term project, the construction and transportation of the ships via the Falkland Islands has taken over two years, as official approval for the project was sought and transport down to the Antarctic waters
The boats have been crafted from elm wood and are fitted with bespoke tracking and monitoring devices developed by Icoteq, with a battery life of more than six years.
They are also fitted with cameras which will be able to send around one image a month.
After the boats were completed, they were shipped to the Falkland Islands until the family received official approval from authorities that they could be launched into the Southern Ocean.
The Pharos SG, a South Georgia fisheries patrol vessel, then transported them out and launched them into the circumpolar current on Tuesday, July 11.
They were quickly attacked by a pair of petrels which seemed to think the boats were food but fortunately the birds soon lost interest and flew away.
The boys are no strangers to such challenges as they have undertaken many adventures, previously setting the world record for the longest distance travelled at sea by a toy boat.
They sailed their Playmobil pirate ship Adventure more than 3700 miles across the Atlantic to the Caribbean as part of a list of 500 adventures.
The boys’ father, MacNeill Ferguson, said that this has been one of their biggest challenges so far.
He said: “The boys are absolutely over the moon that we’ve finally achieved this. It’s probably one of our hardest adventures.”
Ollie, 13, said: “It’s amazing because it’s taken over two years and the scientific data that could be collected as markers of climate change is going to be amazing, hopefully.”
To see where the boats are, and find out more about the project visit www.icoteq.com/project-erebus/
