On 19 April the veteran Sea Profiler (1,082gt) slipped away from William Wright Dock in Hull to sail the short voyage across the Humber to the shipbreakers yard at New Holland. Few realised the historic nature of this vessel, which was built by Solvesborg of Solvesborg in 1955 as the passenger/cargo vessel Arendal.
The same year she was converted to become the research vessel Shackleton owned by the British Antarctic Survey and she worked in the South Atlantic until 1983, when she became the Geotek Beta for a year. Gardline of Great Yarmouth purchased her in 1984 and she was renamed Profiler.
In 1992 she went into dry dock in her red livery and came out painted blue and renamed Sea Profiler. In 2007, still with Gardline, she worked on seismic survey work off the north-west coast of the UK on the development of the Tristan NW well. In recent times she had been laid up in Hull, but with her blue hull still looking very smart, and at 56 years of age, she made her last voyage, which took her to the breakers yard.
