RRS James Clark Ross

From the collection of

The North East Film Archive, based at Teesside University, save and celebrate the screen heritage of the North East of England. At the heart of their collection are films made by, and for, local people, reflecting and representing the communities, places and distinctive identity of the region. Together with their sister archive in Yorkshire they form the Yorkshire and North East Film Archive, a unique pan-regional resource with over 75,000 moving image artefacts, part of York St John University. They unlock the collections for artists, academics, curators, programmers, researchers, and producers to reveal compelling stories from the vaults. www.yfanefa.com

RRS James Clark Ross

North East Film Archive
Wallsend
1992
Sound

Breaking the ice for a generation; a North East shipyard builds for a future they couldn't possibly have imagined.

The RRS James Clark Ross was sold in the summer of 2021 to the Ukrainian National Antarctic Scientific Centre. The ship was renamed Noosfera (Ноосфера), after the philosophical concept of the same name, which deals with the thesis that the next evolutionary geological layer has been created, and will continue to be created, by human reason and scientific thought. This is particularly apt given that the ship has spent 30 years monitoring the effects of man-made climate change and the catastrophic impact it has had on the Antarctic.

A film made about the designing and building of the British Antarctic Survey vessel the James Clark Ross, which was built at Swan Hunter shipyards at Wallsend. The film looks at some of the latest technologies used to design and build the ship and features some of the key points in the building process.

The film features the ships launch by HRH Queen Elizabeth, the first ship that she launched on Tyneside. This is followed by the fitting out and sea trials in Scotland before being handed to the British Antarctic Survey with the ship entered service in 1991.

The North East in Business

Bigger and better is the motto of the North East: businesses build to outstrip European rivals and sporting events are world-class.

After the loss of many crucial industries from the area in the 1980s, the North East began the slow but steady process of rebuilding. Heavy industry was replaced in part by tourism, and overseas manufacturers saw the benefits of operating in the region. However, not all of these developments were long-lived, and the struggle to replace traditional industries with entirely new sources of prosperity continues.

10 videos in this collection