Voyage of the Scotia 1902-04

People of the Expedition

The Scotia off Ireland, heading home with escorting ships at anchor

On her homeward journey in July 1904 from the 1902-1904 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, organised and led by William S Bruce, the Scotia made such good progress across the Atlantic from the Azores that the personnel had to kill time off the coast of Ireland to avoid arriving too early for their planned reception.

During the period between 15 July and 21 July the vessel was given a warm welcome in the Irish ports of Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), Bangor (on the south shore of Belfast Lough), and Larne.

Here we see the Scotia, probably in an Irish sea lough adjacent to one of these ports, with two larger and one smaller escorting steam yachts.