Aurora Expeditions is an Australian expedition cruise company founded in 1991 by the mountaineer Greg Mortimer, the first Australian to climb Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, and his wife Margaret. The company was named after Aurora, the ship of Sir Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, and it made its first Antarctic voyage in 1992, followed by its first Arctic expedition in 1997. For most of its history Aurora worked with small chartered ships, building a reputation as a pioneer of active polar travel: it introduced activities such as ice camping, climbing and diving in Antarctica that other operators later adopted. That changed in 2019 with the delivery of its first purpose-built ship, Greg Mortimer, the first passenger vessel built with the Ulstein X-BOW, a raked bow form designed to cross heavy seas more smoothly. Sylvia Earle, launched in 2021 and named for the marine biologist, followed to the same Infinity-class pattern, and Douglas Mawson, launched in 2025, completed the trio in this directory. All three are small, ice-capable expedition ships of under 9,000 GT.
The fleet — 3 ships in this directory
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Expeditions, https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/expedition-cruising/aurora-unveils-first-season-around-australia-plus-antarctica