SS Explorer: The Ship Built to Understand the Sea

When we think of historic ships, we tend to picture warships, explorers and celebrated voyages. SS Explorer is a different kind of maritime hero: a ship built not to conquer the sea, but to understand it. In this episode, recorded on board the Explorer in Leith, Scotland, we explore how this pioneering 1950s fisheries research vessel became a floating laboratory, measuring fish, plankton, currents, temperature and salinity to answer an increasingly urgent question: could the sea continue providing indefinitely? The painstaking science conducted aboard Explorer helped transform our understanding of the oceans from an inexhaustible larder into a living ecosystem—and laid foundations for modern fisheries management and marine conservation. Now undergoing restoration she is a rare survivor from a transformative period in Britain’s scientific and maritime history.

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