WBritannia was a 301 burthen ton full-rigged whaler built in 1783 in Bridport, England, and owned by the whaling firm Samuel Enderby & Sons. She also performed two voyages transporting convicts to Port Jackson. She was wrecked in 1806 off the coast of New South Wales.
WHMS Conway was a Royal Navy sixth-rate post ship launched in 1814 as the lead ship of her class. The Royal Navy sold her in 1825 and she became the merchantman Toward Castle, and then a whaler. She was lost in 1838 off Baja California while well into her third whaling voyage.
WJane was an American vessel launched in 1810 or 1812 and taken in prize, first appearing in British registers in 1818. She then became a whaler. Under the command of Captain James Weddell she explored the area around the South Shetland Islands and in 1823 reached the southernmost point ever reached until then. From about 1825 on she traded generally as a merchantman until she was condemned in 1829.
WHMS Lynx was a 16-gun ship-rigged sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Gravesend. In 1795 she was the cause of an international incident when she fired on USRC Eagle. She was at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars took numerous prizes, mostly merchant vessels but also including some privateers. She was also at the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was sold in April 1813. She then became the whaler Recovery. She made 12 whaling voyages, the last one ending in 1843, at which time her owner had her broken up.
WThe MS Polstjerna is Norway's best-preserved sealing ship. The Polstjerna is owned by the Tromsø University Museum, and since 2004 it been exhibited in a dry dock in a conservation building near Polaria in Tromsø.
WThe SS Newfoundland was a sealing ship involved in a disaster known as the "1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster". Between March 31 and April 2, 1914, 132 sealers were stranded on the ice floes. During their two days and nights on the ice, 77 men died; another man later died from his injuries in a hospital in St. John's.
WMV Norsel was a Norwegian sealing ship home ported in Tromsø. Launched during the final weeks of the Second World War as Lyngdalsfjord and only completed in late 1949, the ship sailed in both Arctic and Antarctic waters for more than 53 years until shipwrecking off the coast of Norway in 1992.
WArctic Sunrise is an ice-strengthened vessel operated by Greenpeace. The vessel was built in Norway in 1975 and has a gross tonnage of 949, a length of 50.5 metres (166 ft) and a maximum speed of 13 knots. She is classified by Det Norske Veritas as a "1A1 icebreaker". The ship is powered by a single MaK marine diesel engine.
WQuest, a low-powered, schooner-rigged steamship that sailed from 1917 until sinking in 1962, is best known as the polar exploration vessel of the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922. It was aboard this vessel that Sir Ernest Shackleton died on 5 January 1922 while the vessel was in harbour in South Georgia. Prior to and after the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition, Quest operated in commercial service as a seal-hunting vessel or sealer. Quest was also the primary expedition vessel of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition to the east coast of the island of Greenland in 1930–1931.
WRose was launched in 1786 as an East Indiaman. She made six voyages between 1787 and 1800 for the British East India Company (EIC). She also participated as a transport for a military expedition to the West Indies. She then made one more voyage for the EIC, bringing rice back to England from Bengal. Next she sailed as a general trader, but also made one voyage seal hunting. She was last listed in 1820.
WTerra Nova was a whaler and polar expedition ship. She is best known for carrying the 1910 British Antarctic Expedition, Robert Falcon Scott's last expedition.
WSS Vega was a Swedish barque, built in Bremerhaven, Germany in 1872. The Vega was the first ship to complete a voyage through the Northeast Passage, and the first vessel to circumnavigate the Eurasian continent, during the Vega expedition. Initially a troubled enterprise, the successful expedition is considered to be among the highest achievements in the history of Swedish science.