Dundee’s Dramatic Discovery Point

Dundee.

The name conjures images of marmalade and a flimsy 80s action(?) hero with a knife. For the aspiring visitor to Scotland, Dundee hasn’t leaped off the map begging for attention in a long time. Maybe ever. In fact, more than one old guidebook I’ve perused essentially says to avoid the city.

That is the past, and if you want to get a taste of the future you ought to come to Dundee soon because things are changing in Scotland’s fourth largest city, and they’re changing fast. A youthful energy suffuses Dundee today and with that energy comes modern high tech industry, attractions, and hospitality. I visited for the first time last spring and experienced the thriving atmosphere rippling across the city. I also found my favorite “museum” in Scotland: Discovery Point.

Located on Dundee’s waterfront opposite the rail station and adjacent to the new and lavish V&A Museum, Discovery Point provides an immersive dive into Antarctic exploration and a chance to wander onboard an actual tallship that made the voyage — the RRS Discovery.

The Discovery Point experience begins in the exhibit, which is housed in an interesting octagonal structure beside the ship. Scale-model tallships, artifacts, and scads of informational boards detail the story of Captain Scott’s 1901 expedition to Antarctica, known as the British National Antarctic Expedition.

The RRS Discovery is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship purpose-built for this mission, the last traditional three-masted ship ever built in the United Kingdom, and one of only two surviving expedition ships from the so-called Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. That title might seem a little overblown — I certainly thought it was before I visited Discovery Point — but I soon learned it is apt indeed.

Wandering the exhibits and learning about Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his courageous crew of 48 hand-picked men, it’s impossible not to feel the anxiety and excitement of this mission, and the bravery these men displayed by volunteering to journey into the frozen unknown a world away. Among the crewmen was Ernest Shackleton, one of the age’s true heroes and a folkloric figure among whisky drinkers as well, for it was beneath one of his Antarctic encampments that a case of 100-year old whisky was discovered not long ago.

The RRS Discovery had next to no time for sea trials, so her maiden voyage to New Zealand via Madeira and Cape Town would prove to be her testing ground. That’s a horrifying thought, and I can’t imagine how the crew shook that from their minds during the interminable sea voyage. I think of a journey like this with a mix of dread and boredom, but we have passenger planes that get us anywhere in the world in less than a day. At the turn of the 20th century, a sea voyage into the unknown like this was certainly the trip of a lifetime.

The men of the RRS Discovery found problems along the journey, but with no time for drydocking they had to make do with…caulk. Gulp. After five months at sea the RRS Discovery finally sighted Antarctica. The purpose of this expedition was primarily scientific — among the crew were five scientists covering the realms of biology, geology, physics, zoology, and botany — and the journey was a rousing success that discovered hundreds of species and filled ten mammoth tomes of research.

But this was also an adventure. Captain Scott, Shackleton, and zoologist Edward Wilson set off in November 1902 to go further south than any man had ever gone. With a team of 19 dogs and five sledges with nearly a ton of equipment, they reached 82° 17′ latitude at the end of December. The exertion was ghastly. Dogs died left and right and the men suffered from a myriad of maladies. They were forced to turn back for the Discovery and by sheer force of will crossed 950 miles of cracking, frozen desert in 93 days.

There was one problem. By December 1903 the Discovery was ice-locked with no apparent way to free itself. Supplies ran low and emergency communications were sent out. A pair of relief ships arrived in January 1904 and through the use of ingenious, controlled explosions the Discovery was freed from her glacial prison and began the journey home to the United Kingdom.

She made landfall in September 1904 and the crew were hailed as heroes. This journey was big news and filled the minds of luminaries such as H.P. Lovecraft, whose story At the Mountains of Madness was certainly fueled by images and missives from Antarctic expeditions like the British National Antarctic Expedition.

Today, the RRS Discovery is safe and sound dry-docked on Dundee’s Waterfront, a monument to the past and an incredible visit. I loved wandering the gleaming deck and taking the narrow ladders to the mess, captain’s quarters, and various cabins. I could almost feel the icy southern seas beneath the keel and hear the cracking of ice echo through the fog.

I tip my hat to the memory of these heroes, and to the proprietors of my favorite exhibit in Scotland. You might not be able to explore Antarctica like Captain Scott, but you can explore Dundee.

Remember, there’s no medicine for regret.