The Hero was a tiny sloop, just 44 tons and 47 feet long, captained by 21-year-old Nathaniel Palmer of Stonington, Connecticut, and manned by a crew of four additional men ranging in age from 16 to 31.
It was in the Hero that Palmer, in search of as-yet-unknown seal-hunting prospects, stumbled upon Deception Island (in November 1820) and, soon afterward, first sighted the snow-clad mountains of the Antarctic coastline to the south-southeast.
Palmer would soon afterward relay his signal discovery to a Russian exploration fleet, which had been sent to the distant southern waters by Alexander I of Russia.
The new Hero was a diesel-driven, 125-foot ship, equipped with sails also, which was built for doing research in the waters of the Antarctic Peninsula, from her port at Palmer Station.
[3] She was launched from Harvey F. Gamage shipyard in South Bristol, Maine, on March 28, 1968,[4] and sank in 2017.