Tristan da Cunha Survey – for the first time in forty years the remote island of Tristan da Cunha has had its waters mapped.      The Ice Patrol Ship PROTECTOR, en route to Antarctica, during a three day spell off this volcanic island (nearly 1,750 miles west of Cape Town), did the work, though much of this was done by the embarked 30m Survey Motor Launch JAMES CAIRD IV.    The PROTECTOR is too large to berth in the small harbour at Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, ‘capital’ of the island, so the ship had to remain a few hundred yards offshore, with the Sea Boat used to put a small party ashore on the island to assist the JAMES CAIRD IV.   The JAMES CAIRD IV is fitted with multi-beam echo sounder, used especially to map the Edinburgh anchorages and the only such survey using modern techniques.

The PROTECTOR was also able to renew the past links with the island forged when the previous ship of the name, the converted Net Layer, commissioned as such in 1936, and converted for Antarctic service in 1955.       The "old"  PROTECTOR came to aid the island following the eruption in 1961 which forced the island’s inhabitants to be evacuated to England.     The PROTECTOR also recovered members of a Royal Society expedition which assessed the damage the following year, reporting that the settlement had only been marginally affected, and delivered supplies and mail to Tristan in 1964 after most islanders had returned.    Although Edinburgh remained habitable, the waters surrounding the settlement were badly affected by the volcanic eruption, making them particularly hazardous for navigation.

The "new" PROTECTOR took the opportunity to carry out a fishery protection patrol of the Tristan archipelago – which comprises the main island itself, along with the uninhabited Nightingale Islands and the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible Island and Gough Island.   The Tristan fisheries are home to lobster and crayfish – the key to the modern Tristan economy.

The PROTECTOR is now on passage to the frozen continent for a second season amid the ice mapping waters and supporting Britain’s Antarctic scientists.