2 days ago
Behind the scenes with Dundee restoration team fighting to save RRS Discovery
The rhythmic clang of metal-on-metal echoes through the belly of the RRS Discovery, bouncing off 124-year-old timber and reverberating through the ship's timeworn bones.
It's a cramped, dimly lit space where visitors duck instinctively to avoid thick beams and breathe in the scent of aged oak.
But here, in this tight chamber deep below deck, two figures are locked in a careful dance with history, attempting to coax rusted bolts from the ship's ancient rudder shaft.
For Nell Bond, 24, from Speyside, and Craig Doig, 39, from Dundee's Kirkton, it's noisy, painstaking work.
But for these two – part of the team behind the multi-million-pound restoration of Captain Scott's iconic Dundee-built polar ship – it's also a dream job while helping to revive old skills.
'I first met a wooden boat in a museum in Shetland and fell in love,' grins Nell, who now lives in Stirling.
'Now I'm here in Dundee, working on the RRS Discovery – and getting paid to do it. That's almost unheard of in Scotland.'
Nell, a labourer with boatbuilding experience, mostly focuses on woodwork.
She spends her days caulking – wedging oakum between planks to keep the ship watertight.
It's hands-on heritage, using skills once passed down through generations, and now being revived.
'This is the first time I've been paid above minimum wage to do boat building in Scotland,' she says.
'Everything here is usually voluntary-led, so to be doing this professionally feels amazing.'
Craig's path was less direct but just as meaningful. A former pupil of West March Primary and Kirkton High School in Dundee, he started out dismantling fridges at Shore Recycling in Perth.
He then spent a decade in Fife's timber trade before returning to Dundee and retraining in mechanical engineering.
'I've been doing this about a year now,' he says. 'I'm learning skills I've never used before – like caulking. It's old-school stuff, but really satisfying to get into.'
Craig visited RRS Discovery 'once or twice' as a child but didn't remember much. Now he's a vital part of the crew breathing life back into her bones.
Today's task? Wrestling corroded bolts from the rudder post so the structure can be levelled.
It's hard, sweaty work in the bowels of the ship, where each bolt tells a story.
Still, there's pride in it. Visitors often peer curiously below deck, and Craig is happy to show them what's happening.
Leading the restoration is Jason Struthers, director of JPS Restoration and Consultancy – a conservation engineering firm from Alloa now spearheading this ambitious project.
'This isn't just a ship – it's a massive timber engineering project,' says Jason, 51.
'It looks like a boat, but to us, it's a structure. What we're doing is really complex conservation.'
JPS may not be a traditional marine company, but their experience with historic sea gates, windmills, and large-scale work makes them a perfect fit.
Working closely with Dundee Heritage Trust, the team has uncovered more hidden damage than expected.
'From the outside, Discovery looks fantastic,' Jason says.
'But water has seeped in over decades, damaging the inner layers. We peel one section back, only to find more rot underneath. It's like opening a box of secrets.'
Materials for the restoration include Scottish oak from Scottish Sawmilling Services in Fife, European softwoods, and even Siberian pine to replace historically rare timbers like pitch pine.
Some parts, like the oak stanchions that support the outer handrails, stretch deep into the hull – requiring major dismantling just to access.
'There's an island in Sweden planted centuries ago to supply oak for warships,' Jason says. 'We're even looking at sourcing timber from there. That's the scale of what we're doing.'
But the work goes beyond wood and bolts. For Jason, it's about reviving disappearing skills.
'We're in line to get an intern from Historic Environment Scotland, and we're building a team from the ground up. These skills – caulking, steam bending, traditional joinery – are dying out. It's vital we pass them on.'
Visitors to Discovery – still open to the public throughout the restoration – can often witness live demos.
'Steam days,' as Jason calls them, are especially popular.
'They see us bending timber, fitting planks, doing things most people haven't seen done in a hundred years.'
The team is also staying true to Discovery's original craftsmanship.
'She's concreted in here now, so she'll never go back to sea,' Jason says.
'But we're restoring her in the same traditional way she was built. The ultimate goal of conservation is to retain as much as possible – and make everything we do reversible. You never do anything to this ship that can't be undone.'
Back out on the quayside, Dundee Heritage Trust ship and facilities director Ali Gellatly points towards the towering yellow steel braces holding the stern of RRS Discovery in place.
The temporary supports, stark against the historic wooden hull, hint at the massive and painstaking multi-million pound conservation effort underway.
'It's the biggest conservation project in Discovery's modern life,' says Ali, 41, who grew up in Douglas, Dundee.
'We've brought her back into alignment – essentially preventing the stern from drifting further.
'She's held in place while we replace structural timbers and carry out major caulking and deck repairs.'
Ali leads The Courier into the dry dock below, where the view under the ship is both humbling and fascinating.
There, etched into the wood, are long, pale gouges – the scars left by encounters with Antarctic ice a century or more ago.
'It's incredible, isn't it?' he says. 'You're looking at history you can touch.'
Not surprisingly, history is very much on Ali's mind with June 13 marking exactly 100 years since the Discovery was formally designated a Royal Research Ship – work being carried on today by her modern counterpart.
The original was already a legend, thanks to her pioneering voyage to the Antarctic from 1901–1904 under Scott and Shackleton.
But it was in 1925, after years of commercial work and wartime service, that she was reborn as RRS Discovery, a vessel dedicated once again to cutting-edge scientific exploration.
'Her life didn't stop with the Antarctic,' Ali says. 'She went on to carry out groundbreaking oceanographic research. What we're looking to do now is tell that story in the galleries while conserving the ship as an object.'
For Ali, RRS Discovery has been part of his life since childhood. Born in Dundee, he went to Powrie Primary and then Craigie High School.
He was on Broughty Ferry beach as a toddler in 1986 when the Discovery was towed up the Tay aboard the Happy Mariner, and again watched her final short voyage from Victoria Dock to her permanent berth in 1992.
Even back then, the ship had his imagination. 'I've got an entire bookcase at home just for polar exploration,' he laughs.
'Scott, Shackleton, Discovery – I've been fascinated by it all my life. It really is like our version of going to Mars.'
His path to this dream role wasn't exactly direct. He worked in pubs in Broughty Ferry before moving into banking, then served four years as a police officer with Tayside Police, working beats in Hilltown and Downfield.
But the draw of heritage work brought him to Dundee Heritage Trust a decade ago, first as a trainee through a Museums Galleries Scotland diversity programme.
He's since done everything from front-of-house and education to ship's crew and social media before eventually taking on the operations and facilities brief in 2021.
'This is absolutely the best job I've ever done,' he says.
'It's rare to have a job where you genuinely look forward to going in every day, even when it's a challenge.'
The current restoration project is the first of two major phases, with the financial challenges and ambitions recently explored by The Courier.
The initial £1.4 million phase – delayed and inflated in cost by the pandemic – is tackling urgent structural issues in the stern, including failing keel blocks, horn timbers, and long-deck beams.
Work is being done using traditional shipbuilding methods: oakum and Stockholm tar for caulking, steam-bent timbers, and even century-old teak salvaged from a shipwreck.
'This isn't just ship repair – this is conservation,' Ali says. 'Wherever possible, we use like-for-like materials and the methods she was built with. That's how you respect the heritage and ensure the repairs last.'
The second phase, due to start in August, is estimated at £1.9 million and will cover more hull planking, steelwork in the engine house, and structural elements like bulwarks that support the rigging. As with any old ship, more issues could be uncovered along the way. Essential fundraising is ongoing.
'There's always that fear – you take off one plank and find a dozen more problems,' he admits.
'But that's why we're working to a 100-year conservation plan. This isn't about patching her up for a decade. It's about making sure she's still here in another hundred years, inspiring future generations.'
Alongside the physical conservation, Ali is passionate about expanding the story told inside Discovery Point.
While the heroic age of exploration is well covered, the galleries are being reimagined to showcase the ship's oceanographic legacy – whale studies, deep-sea dredging, and early climate data collection that modern scientists still reference today.
'Modern Royal Research Ships still use net gauges designed to match Discovery's, so that comparisons over time are scientifically valid,' he says. 'The legacy of Discovery is real science, not just history.'
Back on the quayside, the ship looms large. Masts, rigging, and all, she's unmistakably the same vessel Captain Scott and his crew would recognise.
'She's changed a bit – wider bridge, extra bunks – but the bones are all still here,' Ali says. 'And we want to keep her that way.'
