More members of the British Graham Land Expedition: ship's party

The seven members of the crew of S.Y. Penola. Lieutenant R E D Ryder was Captain and Lieutenant-Commander H Millett the chief engineer.

John Rymill purchased a Brittany fishing schooner for his British Graham Land Expedition. To save money the ship was manned by an amateur crew under the command of Lieutenant R E D (Red) Ryder, RN. The vessel was renamed Penola after Rymill's home town in South Australia.

Penola was a heavily built vessel well adapted for sailing in polar seas. It also had a large carrying capacity for its size. Built in 1905, Penola was 103 feet at the waterline with a 24 foot beam and drew 14 feet. Her tonnage was 130 tons. She was rigged as a three-masted topsail schooner and equipped with two 50-horsepower Junker diesel engines. A slow sailer, Penola was also a warm, dry vessel in comparison to some vessels which took expeditons to the Antarctic. She had, however, developed a problem on the voyage from London which necessitated a change of plans: the engine was out-of-line with resultant damage to the gears. A quiet and safe wintering spot was required so the necessary work of re-alignment and setting the engines in concrete could be carried out.

Once the expedition's supplies had been off loaded this work could be carried out. With the Spring thaw the Penola was then to collect timber from Deception Island and bring it south for building a new base further south. She would then sail to the Falkland Islands taking a member of the shore party who needed to have his appendix removed. There she would undergo an extensive refit before going south again to collect the expedition for the homeward voyage. Throughout the expedition Penola and her crew remained in wireless communication with the shore party and explored, where possible, around the islands. In all the vessel sailed, or motored, 43,000 kilometres.

In 1985 Colin Bertram wrote that the name Penola caused some problems to the expedition members, as the small South Australian town was unheard of, and particularly in an era when exploration ships were usually named for a concept such as Endurance, Endeavour, or Discovery.

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