(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/W.Strickling)
The remains of the explorer Ernest Shackleton's last ship -- Quest -- were found on the seafloor off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, on Sunday.
Quest Remains Found on Canada Coast's Seafloor
The vessel that renowned arctic explorer Ernest Shackleton embarked on his last expedition has been located by wreck hunters. It was found six decades after it sank.
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS)- led team found the 38-meter-long schooner-rigged steamer's wreckage at the bottom of the Labrador Sea on Sunday.
It was located in 390 meters (1,280 feet) of water with sonar technology. The wreck is nearly vertical on a seafloor worn smooth by icebergs that had passed there at some point. The ship looks mostly intact, albeit the main mast is damaged and hanging over the port side.
Renowned shipwreck hunter David Mearns, who oversaw the fruitful search operation, remarked that Shackleton's final journey "kind of ended that Heroic Age of Exploration, of polar exploration, certainly in the south." This period would later be referred to as the scientific age. Quest is unquestionably a legend among Arctic ships.
In its final days, Norwegian sealers utilized Quest. Thick sea ice punctured the hull, sending it plunging to the bottom and sinking.
On Jan. 5, 1922, Shackleton had a fatal heart attack while attempting to reach the Antarctic on board. However, Quest continued its mission until it sank in 1962.
Quest has significant historical significance due to its former connection to the explorer. It was also involved in other significant ventures like the 1930-1931 British Arctic Air Route Expedition, headed by British explorer Gino Watkins, who unfortunately passed away at age 25 while investigating Greenland.
Before being given to the sealers, Quest had also been used in Arctic rescue operations and had served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II.
The irony lies in that Shackleton's Endurance, the vessel he utilized throughout his disastrous Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914-1917, suffered the same damage. Luckily, the crews of Quest in 1962 and Endurance in 1915 made it out alive.
In fact, many of the men who managed to escape the Endurance disaster enlisted using Quest for Shackleton's final polar expedition in 1921-1922.
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Who Is Ernest Shackleton?
Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish explorer who attempted to reach the South Pole. In 1890, he joined the merchant marines, and in 1901, he was promoted to sublieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve.
As third lieutenant, he enlisted in Capt. Robert Falcon Scott's British National Antarctic (Discovery) Expedition (1901-04) and participated in the sled ride across the Ross Ice Shelf alongside Scott and Edward Wilson upon reaching latitude 82°16′33′′ S. Due to deteriorating health, he was relieved of his duties and went home in March 1903 on the supply ship Morning.
He made a return trip to Antarctica in January 1908 (1907-09) as the head of the British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition, . The expedition overwintered on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound after being blocked by ice from reaching the planned base location in Edward VII Peninsula.
Under Shackleton's direction, the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-16) departed England in August 1914. The expedition ship Endeavour was stuck in ice off the coast of Caird and drifted for ten months before being crushed in the pack ice. He had intended to cross Antarctica from a station on the Weddell Sea to McMurdo Sound via the South Pole.
During World War I, Shackleton was a member of the British army. Later, in the Russian Civil War, he advised the multinational North Russia Expeditionary Force on military matters. To circumnavigate the continent, he embarked on the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic voyage, his fourth Antarctic voyage, onboard the Quest in 1921. But Shackleton passed away at the beginning of the expedition in Grytviken, South Georgia.
It was thought that his efforts to raise money for his travels and the extreme strain of the expeditions had depleted his strength.
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