For the next season of work '' Discovery '' was joined by the British government 's brand new purpose-built research steamer , the RRS William Scoresby . She returned to South Georgia on December 15 , with her crew finding the alterations had greatly improved her seakeeping and reduced the pronounced roll . She carried out a plankton survey of the surrounding seas until February 1927 , when she headed to the South Shetland Islands , where she carried out a programme to ' tag ' whales in order to track their movements . In March '' Discovery '' visited Deception Island , which at the time served as a natural harbour to eight large factory ships for further studies . During the southern winter the ship travelled down the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula , carrying out surveys to draw and correct nautical charts . Discovery Sound was explored and surveyed for the first time and was named after the ship . She was at Cape Renard on March 24 , before working back north to Deception Island , still taking regular oceanographic surveys and biological samples . '' Discovery '' was the first ship to take oceanographic readings in the stormy and dangerous Drake Passage , including one survey station just a few miles off Cape Horn . This sequence provided the missing data to construct the first complete view of the Antarctic currents . After anchoring off the Hermite Islands and transiting the Le Maire Strait , '' Discovery '' anchored at Port Stanley on May 6 , 1927 . A final surveying trip was made back to Cape Town before the expedition 's work was concluded and '' Discovery '' sailed for Britain . She arrived at Falmouth on September 29 , 1927 . Sidney Frederic Harmer called the voyage " the most important scientific expedition that has left our shores since the time of the '' Challenger '' . " While '' Discovery '' was in the Southern Ocean , the 1926 Imperial Conference considered the question of British imperial sovereignty in Antarctica . At the time only two territories in the Antarctic were formally part of the British Empire - the Falkland Islands and the Ross Dependency . The conference identified seven other parts of the continent , totalling over 3 million square miles ( 8 million square kilometres ) which could be claimed by Britain on the grounds of first-discovery . With the increasing economic and strategic importance of Anartica and its waters , it was deemed vital that the British claim be formalised . An expedition would be sent with officers authorised to claim land in the government 's name while also carrying out further surveying , exploration and scientific work . The expedition would be the joint responsibility of Britain , Australia and New Zealand , thus becoming the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition , frequently abbreviated to BANZARE
1926 Imperial Conference
1926 Imperial Conference
RRS Discovery