FATE plays a major part in the lives of the adventurous. Iain Bennett had no idea his life would take such a turn as he taught biology in the science labs of a North-East school.

He thought he had made a brave move two years ago when, at the age of 35, he turned his back on industry for a career in teaching.

Last month he had no inkling that environmentalists were looking for volunteers to go to the Antarctic as he set off for work at Ormesby Comprehensive, Middlesbrough. He'd missed the article in The Northern Echo which highlighted an appeal for teachers by Mission Antarctica, which was a shame because it'd be just the sort of thing he would have liked to do.

But fate has a way of stepping in, as it had done with his great grandfather 100 years ago.

Iain's mother Jean Bennett did read the story, at her home in Guisborough, and got straight on the phone. She realised her son was the man for the voyage - she knew it because the spirit of adventure ran deep in her family.

Exactly 100 years earlier, her grandfather, Dundee carpenter James Farquharson, had been in charge of building a famous ship in the port. RRS Discovery was commissioned to take polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott on his historic journey to Antarctica the following year.

Farquharson was asked by Scott to go along, a vital member of the crew, a man with the skill to repair the ship should it become crushed by the ice pack.

But it wasn't meant to be, and perhaps it was just as well. "He couldn't go. His wife suffered from asthma and they didn't have the drugs in those days. He used to manage short journeys but the National Antarctic Expedition was expected to take two or three years, so he couldn't go," explains Iain.

Good fortune had smiled on him, as it turned out, as the expedition was beset by disaster, fell well short of the South Pole, and the ship was trapped in the ice for two years.

Ten years later, Scott's second expedition proved ill-fated and the great explorer froze to death just 12 miles short of a supply depot and having being beaten to the South Pole by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Farquharson had survived to sail again but his good luck ran out when he perished at sea under mysterious circumstances.

"He was a seaman on the Earlshall which set sail from the River Tyne in 1922 headed for Hamburg," Iain recalls. "Five days later it was spotted by a schooner but was caught in a storm. Two days after that it was found 200 miles east, near Heligoland, floating crewless, like the Marie Celeste. They never found his body. They tried to get the boat back but it sank en route to port.

"It was a mysterious death and it's rather spooky that next year it will be exactly 100 years since he built the Discovery and I will be sailing to Antarctica to complete his voyage."

Mountainous seas and freezing temperatures, piles of scrap and boundless beauty await him.

He will be an important part of Mission Antarctica, an ambitious multi-million pound scheme to clean-up a Russian scientific station, and raise awareness of global warming.

He will join teachers from Holland, Canada, America, Argentina, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa, manning 2041, an ex-BT Challenge yacht specially converted for the southern oceans.

He will have to negotiate one of the most feared stretches of sea in the world, Drake's Passage, and notorious Cape Horn.

But even with his fateful family background, Iain remains undaunted by the task. "It's not daunting, it's the sort of thing I love - the Roaring Forties and going round Cape Horn - it will be great," he says, even though it will be mean leaving behind his wife Helen and three children, David, 13, Katherine, nine, and eight-year-old Alistair.

"I can't wait to see Antarctica. You see images on television and in books, but seeing it first hand will bring it alive and make it so much more real," says Iain.

The 14-day voyage will take them from the most southern tip of the planet, Ushuaia in Argentina, to the Antarctic station at Bellinghausen. They leave Britain on December 15 and are due to return on January 10.

It will be a unique opportunity to visit the planet's last wilderness, a trip which it is hoped will motivate the teachers to pass on their experiences to future generations.

Mission Antarctica is the brainchild of Barnard Castle explorer Robert Swan, the only man in history to walk unaided to both the North and South Poles. Mission control is in Crown Street, Darlington, for a project which will remove 1,000 tons of scrap from the Russian station and, by doing so, raise global awareness of a host of environmental issues.

The yacht is named after the year the Antarctica Protocol is up for review. The protocol was signed by 44 nations in 1991, pledging to keep the continent for scientific and environmental study. Experts fear that, by 2041, the world's natural resources will be so depleted that corporate eyes will fall on the icy wilderness.

Mission Antarctica, therefore, directs its efforts at children, the people who will be running countries in 40 years time.

Ian says: "My main motivation is the environmental objectives and spreading the word to the young people of tomorrow. It's why I went into teaching in the first place. Being a scientist, global warming does worry me and I think we can make a difference. It's a wonderful idea to send teachers down there because they are in a position to make a difference.

"It's the only planet we have got to live on so we should look after it. You do wonder what the fate of the world is."

l The teachers' expedition is still desperately in need of sponsorship. Anyone wanting to help should contact Iain at school on (01642) 452191 or the Mission Antarctica office on (01325) 462329. Further details on Mission Antarctica, past expeditions and future objectives can be seen on the websites www.missionantarctica.com and www.takethenextstep.com. The Northern Echo will monitor Iain's progress with regular updates sent back to Darlington by satellite.