The Discovery II left St Katharine Dock on October 7, 1937. She will be away for twenty months continuing her research on the distribution of whales, hydrology and plankton.

The first seven months (the southern summer) are to provide data for comparison with those obtained on the winter circumpolax cruise of 1932 and with those of the survey of the southern part of the Pacific Ocean in 1934. The work was to have been done in 1935-36, but it was not completed as it was necessary to revise the programme after a voyage had been made to the Ross Barrier to pick up the American airman, Mr Lincoln Ellsworth.