Aurora Expeditions · Polar Class 6 · 130 expeditioners
Douglas Mawson
Named for the Australian who mapped the East Antarctic coast on foot. Aurora’s newest ship, delivered in 2025, with eleven cabin types, a run of single staterooms and an X-Bow for the long crossings.
Aurora Expeditions
The newest ship in the fleet, named for the oldest story.
Sir Douglas Mawson led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911 to 1914 and walked back to Commonwealth Bay alone after losing both companions on the ice. Aurora Expeditions named their third purpose-built ship after him, and she sailed for the first time in December 2025. An inverted X-Bow, fifteen Zodiacs from four doors, a Citizen Science Centre and a lecture theatre. 130 expeditioners in the polar regions. Eleven cabin types, more than any Aurora ship before her, including single staterooms with no supplement.
Delivered in 2025
Ulstein X-Bow
Fifteen Zodiacs, four doors
The Citizen Science Centre
Douglas Mawson moments
A ship of 130 is a ship where the expedition team knows your name by the second landing. Douglas Mawson adds the newest interiors in the fleet and the widest choice of rooms.
Glass, facing the ice
The observation lounge sits forward with glass on three sides. In East Greenland it is the first place on the ship to see Scoresby Sund open up; in the evening it is where the recap happens.
Glass, facing the ice
The observation lounge sits forward with glass on three sides. In East Greenland it is the first place on the ship to see Scoresby Sund open up; in the evening it is where the recap happens.
Life on board
Aurora’s day is an expedition day: out after breakfast, back for lunch, out again, a recap at six. Douglas Mawson wraps it in the newest interiors in the fleet: Nordic, quiet, with a library, a lecture theatre, a gym and a sauna for the hours between.
A sauna with a window, two outdoor jacuzzis and a gym on the upper deck. Small, calm and rarely busy.
Eleven cabin types
Staterooms and suites
Eighty-six staterooms over four decks in eleven types, from single staterooms to the Captain’s Suite, most with a balcony. The newest Nordic interiors in the fleet, interconnecting rooms for families, and a window drawn for the sea.
Aurora Stateroom Single
Deck 3, close to the mudroom and the Zodiac doors One bed Window Private en suite No single supplement
Aurora Stateroom Single
Deck 3, close to the mudroom and the Zodiac doors One bed Window Private en suite No single supplement
Douglas Mawson
The last of the Infinity class, delivered in 2025
Douglas Mawson is the third of Aurora’s purpose-built ships and the last of SunStone’s Infinity class, designed by Ulstein in Norway and delivered in 2025. She is 104 metres long with Ice Class 1A and Polar Class 6 notation, the inverted X-Bow for the open crossings, and four sea-level Zodiac doors. In the polar regions she carries 130 expeditioners in 86 staterooms, with around 100 crew and an expedition team of fifteen or more.
In the Arctic she sails Svalbard Odyssey in August and Iceland and East Greenland under the northern lights in September. Aurora Expeditions is Australian owned and sails from Sydney.
- 130 expeditioners
- Polar Class 6 · 104 m
- 15 Zodiacs · 4 doors
The expedition
How a day off the ship is made
Aurora calls them activities. Zodiac cruising, landings and hikes are included; kayaking, paddling and the photography programme are booked before you sail. The expedition team decides each morning which the weather allows.
Up to three outings a day, launched from four doors at once. Included.
Her Arctic season
Voyages aboard Douglas Mawson
Svalbard in ten nights in August, or Iceland and East Greenland in September as the nights return. Tell us the month you have in mind and we will tell you which sailing suits it, which stateroom, and what we can do on the fare.
All expeditions
Good to know
Douglas Mawson, in practice
The questions we are asked most before guests choose this ship.
A maximum of 130 expeditioners in the polar regions, in 86 staterooms of eleven types, with around 100 crew and an expedition team of fifteen or more.
The inverted bow slices through a swell instead of riding over it, which reduces pitching and spray. On the Barents Sea and the Denmark Strait it is the difference between a crossing you notice and one you sleep through.
Her hull carries Ice Class 1A and Polar Class 6 notation, built for the summer pack of Svalbard and the fjords of Greenland.
All meals, wine and beer with dinner, the expedition programme, Zodiac cruising and landings, guided hikes, the photography programme, a polar jacket to keep, boots to borrow and the charter flights listed on each voyage. Kayaking is booked in advance.
Via Oslo for Svalbard, with the Aurora charter to Longyearbyen, and via Reykjavík for Iceland and East Greenland. We arrange the flights and the nights either side so the whole journey sits in one booking.
Made to measure
Tell us your Arctic, we build the rest
Every guest sails differently. Tell us what you are hoping for and who you are travelling with, and we shape the voyage aboard Douglas Mawson around it: the sailing, the stateroom, the flights from Australia, the nights either side, and the offers we hold for Arctic Cruise guests. One specialist, from the first conversation until you are home.
The fleet
Other ships we sail
Each ship we work with has her own character and her own Arctic. Sylvia Earle is Douglas Mawson’s sister for the Northwest Passage and Jewels of the Arctic; SH Diana and SH Vega are the Scandinavian ships.
Learn more
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