RV Ernest Holt
RV Ernest Holt during the 1950s | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | RV Ernest Holt (GY591) |
| Operator | |
| Ordered | 1946 |
| Builder | Cochrane & Sons, Selby, Yorkshire |
| Launched | 9 June 1948 |
| Commissioned | 4 January 1949 |
| Decommissioned | 1971 renamed Switha |
| Homeport | Grimsby |
| Identification | IMO number: 5105817 |
| Fate | Wrecked on 31 January 1980 off Inchkeith Island |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Research vessel |
| Tonnage | 573 tons |
| Displacement | 440 long tons (447 t) |
| Length | 175 ft (53.3 m) |
| Beam | 30 ft 6 in (9.3 m) |
| Draught | 17.5 ft 9 in (5.6 m) |
| Propulsion | Scotch-type boiler, triple expansion engine developed 900 B.H.P |
| Speed | 11 knots |
| Complement | 26 crew, 5 researchers |
RV Ernest Holt (GY591) was a fisheries research vessel that was operated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom) - Directorate of Fisheries, now known as the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas).
Research aboard the RV Ernest Holt around Bear Island (Norway) in the Arctic established an important link between fishable cod concentrations and water temperatures.
In her later years she carried out some of the first exploratory voyages to the deep water grounds of the continental slope to the west of Britain.
Being too deep in draught for convenient operation from Lowestoft and being crewed and operated primarily for the arctic fisheries based on Humberside, RV Ernest Holt worked from Grimsby, although managed and directed from the Fisheries Laboratory Lowestoft.
In 1971 she was renamed "SWITHA" and became a Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency vessel. She was wrecked on 31 January 1980 off Inchkeith Island in the Firth of Forth and subsequently blown up as a hazard to shipping.