The Terra Nova has been discovered by US researchers. The ship, which sank 70 years ago off the coast of Greenland, has been found using hi tech equipment.

The ship is famous for having transported Captain Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. The Terra Nova set sail from Cardiff on 15 June 1910. Scott and his team reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to discover that a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had preceded them by 33 days. Scott's entire party died on the return journey from the pole.

After the expedition, the former owners repurchased the ship and it was then used for a variety of purposes. It was badly damaged by ice in 1943, when the 24 crew members were rescued by the US Coastguard and the ship sank off the Southern coast of Greenland.

Memorials to Scott in Cardiff include a lighthouse on Roath Park Lake, constructed in 1915 to commemorate the ill-fated voyage. There is a scale model of the Terra Nova ship on the weather vane.
 

Other memorials are a bronze plaque of Captain Scott on the stairway in Cardiff’s City Hall (pictured) and in June 2003 a commemorative sculpture was unveiled in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff-based artist Jonathan Williams created the sculpture, a 3-metre tall mosaic inspired by Barcelona’s modernist architect Gaudi.

Earlier this year a painting of the ship leaving Cardiff Docks was bought by the Cardiff Story museum. The museum is well worth a visit. It has an interactive permanent display about the making of Cardiff.