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The celebrated British explorer died aboard Quest, a 110-foot schooner-rigged steamship, while preparing for one final expedition to Antarctica.
One of the great nautical tales of survival is that of the infamous 1914 Antarctic expedition led by British explorer Ernest Shackleton aboard the three-masted barquentine Endurance. Despite the ship being trapped (and later crushed) in pack ice, and the team stranded for nine months, Shackleton’s navigational expertise enabled the rescue and survival of all 27 crew.
Seven years later, Shackleton, a global celebrity, was preparing to launch his swan song expedition to Antarctica when he died of a heart attack aboard Quest. He was just 47.
Because Quest was built in Norway, after Shackleton’s death the ship reverted to Norwegian ownership and put into commercial service as a seal-hunting vessel. While on a seal-hunting expedition on May 5, 1962, Quest was holed by ice and sank off the north coast of Labrador. The crew was saved.
Highresolution side scan sonar imagery of Quest
More than 60 years later, The Shackleton Quest Expedition, led by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS), announced in June 2024 it has discovered the historic wreck of Quest, lying about 1,300 feet below the surface off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
“Finding Quest is one of the final chapters in the extraordinary story of Sir Ernest Shackleton,” says Expedition Leader John Geiger, CEO of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
TheQuest Expedition Team located their target just five days into the search.
“Shackleton was known for his courage and brilliance as a leader in crisis. The tragic irony is that his was the only death to take place on any of the ships under his direct command.”
Learn more in Geiger’s interview with Canada’s CBC News.