19/08/2026
Charting the Unknown: One Reservist's Journey to Antarctica 🇦🇶⚓️
Most people dream of visiting Antarctica. ❄️ For Lieutenant Commander Kate Retallick, it became part of the job. ⚓️ These days Kate Retallick serves in the Royal Naval Reserve with HMS Pegasus. Over her career she’s helped chart some of the most remote and least-mapped waters on the planet, building 3D models of the seabed 🌊 and guiding ships safely through polar ice. 🧊🚢
That work eventually took her somewhere she’d wanted to go her whole life. 🌍
Kate's military career actually started in the Royal Air Force. ✈️ She transferred to the Royal Navy fairly early on, mainly because it promised more time on deployment around the world. 🌎
And the one place she’d always hoped to end up: Antarctica. 🇦🇶
"It took about ten years in the Royal Navy before I actually got to live my dream of working in Antarctica," Kate says, "but eventually it became reality." ❄️
For most of her time in the regular Royal Navy, Kate worked as a Hydrographic Surveyor. 🌊 It’s a small, specialist branch of technically trained people whose job is to map the world's oceans and seas so that ships can navigate safely. 🗺️🚢
Hydrographers are trained in science and maths, 🔬 and they use precision equipment like multibeam acoustic echosounders to build detailed 3D models of the seabed and measure water depths. Very precise GNSS (GPS) 🛰️ keeps everything accurate enough to navigate by. Most of the work happens at sea, on large ships or small boats, 🚢 but it also involves mapping beaches and coastlines, checking navigational marks like buoys and lights, and taking environmental and geodetic observations that help both the military and civilian shipping.
It's a mix of science, technology and adventure, 🔬💻🌍 and the variety is a big part of the appeal.
After 23 years in the Armed Forces, Kate wasn't quite ready to walk away from the Navy. ⚓️ Three years ago she joined the Royal Navy Reserve, which lets her carry on doing the work she enjoys in a more part-time, advisory capacity.
Joining the Royal Navy Reserve allowed her to continue doing the work she loves while building a civilian career. 💼⚓️
These days she supports the Hydrographic Exploitation Group (HXG) at HMNB Devonport, putting in around 24 days a year either at the unit or on deployment in the UK and overseas. 🌍 She gives specialist hydrographic advice, covers when people are away, adds capacity to exercises and helps train up the next generation of surveyors in hydrography and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). 🗺️
One of the defining moments of Kate's career came when she joined HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship. 🚢🧊
Leading the ship's survey department, she helped map a continent that still has huge stretches of uncharted water. 🇦🇶🌊 The team worked inshore from the vessel’s small survey boat, James Caird IV, and used larger equipment aboard the ship itself. As well as mapping the seabed, they took magnetic observations for the British Geological Survey, ran environmental, meteorological and wildlife surveys, 🐧 and inspected research stations and other vessels to check they were complying with the Antarctic Treaty. They even looked at how tourism was impacting Antarctica’s Specially Protected Areas and Historic Monuments.
Working in Antarctica, however, is never straightforward. ❄️🌨️
"The weather could change in a matter of hours," Kate explains. "A sunny morning could quickly become strong winds and heavy snow, so we constantly had to adapt our plans." 🌬️❄️
The cold was hard on the crew, but it was hard on the ship too, 🥶🚢 since equipment fails more easily or gets iced up, there are no port facilities in Antarctica for repairs so the Ship’s engineers would have to ensure they could complete any repairs at sea. Sometimes think sea ice would block the route to their destination, 🧊 so they always needed a few options up their sleeve and had to keep reviewing the plan.
One deployment stands out above all the others. 🌍
Not long after joining HMS Protector, Kate took part in a circumnavigation of Antarctica. 🇦🇶 She spent a couple of months in the Ross Sea inspecting fishing vessels under the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). It made Protector the first Royal Navy ship to work in that part of Antarctica in over 80 years. ⚓️
While they were there, the team surveyed the waters around Cape Evans and Cape Royds, where Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton based their expeditions in the early 1900s. 🧭 The survey data was shared internationally and will help keep tourist vessels safe as they approach the historic Terra Nova and Nimrod huts. 🚢
"It was a real privilege to work in such a historic location," says Kate. "Standing where Scott and Shackleton once battled the harsh environment in the name of exploration is something I'll never forget." ❄️🧭
Kate joined the Armed Forces at 19 with just a couple of GCSEs. The Navy let her keep studying while she worked, 🎓 and she came out with several undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, proper technical training and experience in everything from leadership and teamwork to surveying, IT, procurement and health and safety. She’s now working part time as a researcher at Bangor University school of Ocean Sciences. 🌊🎓
Looking back, she says she could never have imagined where military service would take her. 🌍
"If someone had told me when I joined where my career would lead, I wouldn't have believed them.
"I've travelled the world, 🌎 picked up skills I never expected, become a mountain leader, 🏔️ learned to kayak 🛶 and climb, 🧗 and even represented the Royal Navy at Telemark skiing. 🎿 If you’d told my younger self where this career would take me, I’d have laughed. Joining the Royal Navy, and later the Reserve, has genuinely been an adventure." ⚓️
Kate's story is a good reminder that the Royal Navy Reserve isn't only about continuing to serve. It’s also a way to keep challenging yourself, pick up new skills and be part of something out of the ordinary. 🌍⚓️
👏 Bravo Zulu, Kate, and thank you for your continued service with HMS Pegasus! 🇬🇧
Fleet Air Arm Officers' Association, F A A O A Royal Navy
