Nimrod was a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing ship with auxiliary steam engine that was built in Scotland in 1867 as a whaler.

After the expedition she returned to commercial service, and in 1919 she was wrecked in the North Sea with the loss of ten members of her crew.

[citation needed] She had a single screw, driven by a 50 hp steam engine[3] built by Gourlay Brothers of Dundee.

[citation needed] In 1907 the shipbuilder William Beardmore bought Nimrod and re-registered her in London as a yacht[11] to serve as Shackleton's expedition ship.

King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited the ship, and on 11 August she left for Antarctica,[14] captained by Rupert England.

To conserve coal in Nimrod's limited bunkers, the Union Steam Ship Company cargo steamship Koonya towed her as far as the Antarctic Circle, a distance of about 1,400 nautical miles (2,600 km).

The Union Company Chairman Sir James Mills and the New Zealand Government each paid half the cost of the tow.

Shackleton became dissatisfied with Captain England, who often moved Nimrod away from shore when he feared the sea ice was unsafe.

In January 1909 Evans brought Nimrod back to Antarctica to rendezvous with the returning expedition team, which Shackleton had split into parties, each with its own objective.

[25][26] In January 1919 Nimrod, commanded by a Captain Duncan, left Blyth, Northumberland with a cargo of coal for Calais.