Great Scott! Watch timelapse video of ocean survey vessel HMS Scott returning home

Ocean survey vessel HMS Scott, the third Royal Navy ship to carry the name, has marked returning home after 382 days deployed, with a captivating timelapse video. 

With more than 500,000 sq km surveyed – the equivalent pf twice the size of Great Britain – and about 45,000 nautical miles steamed, the largest survey vessel in Western Europe is home. 

The fifth-largest vessel in the Royal Navy, named after the famous Arctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, has spent more than 12 months collecting environmental and hydrographic data so that other vessels can navigate safely at sea. 

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Since HMS Scott deployed in 2022, the ocean survey vessel has visited places such as the North Atlantic, Gibraltar, New York City, Portsmouth, USA and the Canary Islands, the last stop of the 2022/2023 deployment. 

In December 2022, HMS Scott tweeted that she had sailed 1,000,000 miles since commissioning in 1997, which, she said, is an equivalent distance to 46 times around the earth or to the moon and back – twice.

Only a matter of days before returning home, HMS Scott crossed the Bay of Biscay in calm weather, the perfect conditions for whale and dolphin sightings. 

HMS also has an auxiliary role as a mine countermeasures vessel and can remain at sea for up to 300 days a year, thanks to her novel crew rotation system.