Constructed in Norway in 1990 as the MV Polar Circle, she was originally chartered by the Royal Navy in 1991 as HMS Polar Circle, to replace the former HMS Endurance, in 1992 she was bought and renamed HMS Endurance. She was a class 1 Icebreaker capable of travelling through ice a metre thick at 3 knots. She had a displacement of 6,000 tons, a length of 91 m (298ft 7in), a beam of 17.9 m (58ft 9in) and a draught of 8.5 m (27ft 11 in). She mainly operated in southern oceans supporting the British Antarctic Survey. In 1997 she was the first Royal Navy vessel to visit Buenos Aires in Argentina since before the Falklands War. During the International Fleet Review 2005, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, she embarked HM the Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh as they reviewed the assembled fleet at Spithead. A year later it was discovered her rudder was loose and she returned to Argentina, where she was docked at Port Belgrano Naval Base for urgent repairs before returning to Portsmouth dockyard for further work. She returned to her normal duties and in 2008, a major flooding incident left her without power or propulsion, and she was towed to Punta Arenas in Chile. A thorough survey was completed, the repair estimates being £30m. She was carried back to Portsmouth, on the semi-submersible transporter ship, arriving on the 8 April 2009. The decision was made to send her to the breakers in Turkey, on 1 June 2016. The painting shows the ship pre 2005.