The shipwreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last journey is finally found

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The ship on which Sir Ernest Shackleton made his final voyage has finally been found.

Shackleton suffered a fatal heart attack on board Quest on January 5 1922, aged 47, while trying to reach the Antarctic. It has now been located in the Labrador Sea off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada.

After his death, Quest was acquired by a Norwegian company and it was involved in a series of expeditions until May 5 1962, when it was damaged by ice and sank. All of the crew survived.

The Shackleton Quest Expedition, led by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS), said on Wednesday that the schooner-rigged vessel was found “intact” lying at a depth of 390m (1,280ft).

Wreck searchers used sonar equipment to aid the discovery, which falls in the 150th year after Shackleton’s birth.

The main mast is broken and hanging over the port side, but otherwise the ship appears to be broadly intact.

The explorer’s grand-daughter Alexandra Shackleton told the BBC: “I was thrilled, really excited to hear the news; I have relief and happiness and a huge admiration for the members of the team”.

“For me, this represents the last discovery in the Shackleton story. It completes the circle.”

Expedition leader John Geiger, of the RCGS, said: “Finding Quest is one of the final chapters in the extraordinary story of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

“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.”

Martin Brooks, of British expedition and apparel company Shackleton, said: “The finding of Quest is an important new chapter in the story of Ernest Shackleton and polar history; an iconic vessel, she marked the end of the heroic age of polar exploration. It is an honour to have supported this historic discovery.”

Search director David Mearns said of the ship: “She is intact.

“Data from high resolution side scan sonar imagery corresponds exactly with the known dimensions and structural features of this special ship. It is also consistent with events at the time of the sinking.”

In 2022, a British-led expedition located his once-lost ship Endurance, which in 1915 became stuck in pack ice and sank in the Weddell Sea.