The ship Quest, on which Sir Ernest Shackleton embarked on his final voyage before his death in 1922, has been found intact at a depth of 390 meters in the Labrador Sea, marking a significant discovery in the Shackleton Quest Expedition by the RCGS.
The ship on which Sir Ernest Shackleton embarked on his final voyage has been discovered off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, in the Labrador Sea. Quest, the schooner-rigged vessel, was found lying intact at a depth of 390 meters (1,280 feet) by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) as part of the Shackleton Quest Expedition. The discovery used sonar equipment and occurred in the 150th year since Shackleton’s birth.
Shackleton suffered a fatal heart attack on Quest on January 5, 1922, at the age of 47, during an expedition to reach the Antarctic. After his death, the ship was acquired by a Norwegian company and continued on various expeditions until it sank due to ice damage on May 5, 1962. All crew members survived the sinking.
Expedition leader John Geiger highlighted the significance of the finding, noting that Shackleton’s death on Quest was the only one under his direct command. David Mearns, the search director, confirmed the ship’s intact condition using high-resolution side-scan sonar imagery, which matched the known dimensions and structural features of the vessel.
This discovery follows another significant find in 2022 when a British-led expedition located Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which sank in the Weddell Sea in 1915.