Penguins and football matches on ice: Life onboard 'Boaty McBoatface' ship RSS David Attenborough
Neets Buttle tells Big Issue what it's like to be a member of the crew of the RRS Sir David Attenborough
by: Neets Buttle
6 Jan 2025
Image: Jamie Anderson
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As you read this, the Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough is somewhere in the Southern Ocean conducting scientific research about the impact of climate change at the extremes of the earth. Neets Buttle worked in IT and was sent on an expedition to set up new equipment in Antarctic outposts. But she couldn’t face the thought of leaving the crew so reapplied to join the ship as a steward and is now training to work on deck. She tells us what it’s like to be a member of the crew – from curious penguins to epic snowball fights.
At the moment we are on our way to the South Sandwich Islands. We’ll get there very early tomorrow morning. We’ve just come from the Antarctic Peninsula. There are lots of icebergs outside the window. This ship can go into ice about a metre deep and plough through it. Bigger things we really need to avoid. We’ve got a lot of people watching out for them, so it’d be very unlikely that we hit something we shouldn’t. The ship is built in such a way that there’s lots of contingencies for something happens. We wouldn’t replicate the Titanic, it’s OK.
Every day is different. It does depend on what the ship is doing. We’ve just come from Signy, one of the research bases. We took some scientists there and had a lot of cargo on board, like food and science equipment.
The next one we’re going to is Bird Island [off South Georgia]. On the way, we’re doing some atmospheric science. We’ve got 10 scientists on board measuring the content of the atmosphere so they can work out how clouds are formed in the Southern Ocean.
Image: Jamie Anderson
This morning I was on watch. We have a lookout on the bridge at all times. This week, it’s my turn. You do four hours on, eight hours off. It’s quite nice to be honest. You stand on the bridge, which is quite comfortable, and you look out the window at a very nice view for anything that might hamper navigation, which right now is icebergs.
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Ordinarily we see humpback whales, a few orcas, a lot of birds. When we get towards the South Sandwich Islands, we’ll start seeing albatross.
We may not have a lot of time off, but we get ashore whenever we can. At Signy, there were a lot of elephant seals on the beach. They are massive and very smelly. Penguins are very curious and they have absolutely no survival instincts. They’ll just walk up to anyone or anything, I think maybe to see if they’re a penguin or not. You have to keep backing away to make sure you’ve got the right amount of distance between you and them.
Yesterday, we were playing football on top of an iceberg. It was in the name of science, obviously. We had to go to collect snow samples and as we were there we thought, might as well. I say, play football – the snow was quite deep so we had 50-plus having a snowball fight, which was epic. It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.
Neets Buttle hard at work, with RSS David Attenborough in the background
The crew all get their own cabins, and they’re all ensuite. We are lucky. My cabin is nicer than my flat at home. The lower decks have the scientists’ cabins, and they have bunkbeds so we can get as many scientists on board as possible.
We have lots to keep us entertained. First of all, we spend a lot of time sitting in the bar – which is called the bar because the bar is there – but really, it’s just our lounge. We sit in there chatting to each other. We’ve got another room next door with a big TV in so we have movie nights. We’ve got a bit of a Mario Kart competition going too. Sunday pub quiz.
If there are a lot of scientists on board, they do evening talks to explain what they’re doing, which are great because you can understand more about what you’re helping with. We’ve got a gym, a sauna, some badminton nets in the heli hangar. If someone sees a whale, they’ll put a message on WhatsApp so you can all go outside and see if you can see it. Yes, it’s quite hard to get bored actually.
The food is excellent. We just had lamb kofta for lunch, and we’ve got pesto salmon for dinner. When the days are long, food is a real highlight and the chefs in the galley know that. Most people go home slightly larger than they arrived.
I’ve been on for two months, and I’ve got another two months to go. We’ve got two crews, and we just swap over. Each crew takes it in turn to do Christmas and New Year away. So it’s our turn this year.
We will always ring in the New Year. We all go up to the bridge, the oldest person on board will ring the bell to ring out the old year, and the youngest person on board will ring the bell to ring in the new year. It’s very unusual to get the entire crew in one place at one time because there’s always people working.
The RSS David Attenborough will be heading down to the English Coast of Antarctica, which is further south than our most southerly research base. We’ll be going down there to pick up some old equipment and put some new stuff ashore. I’m excited because that’s going to be a lot of ice breaking. You look out and all you can see from where you are to the horizon is just a huge sheet of ice. It’s still and quiet.
Range 19,000 nautical miles at 13 knots (24 km/h) cruising speed; more than enough for a return trip from England to Rothera Research Station, or to circle the entire Antarctic continent twice
Ice breaking capability – up to 1m thick at 3 knots (5.6 km/h)
Crew approx.. 30
Accommodation for up to 60 scientists and support staff
Cost £200m
Completed 2 December 2020
In the public poll to name the ship, David Attenborough received 2.95% of the votes, beaten by Boaty McBoatface scoring 33.16% – but that’s democracy for you
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