First Images of Shackleton's Quest Shipwreck Released

The Royal Canadian Geographic Society (RCGS) has released the first images of the Quest shipwreck, the polar exploration vessel that served Arctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton on his last voyage. The ship sank in 1962, more than 60 years ago, and the images were published in Canadian Geographic magazine. Shackleton, renowned for his ill-fated Endurance expedition where his crew survived after the ship sank in 1914, died before reaching his destination on the Quest voyage.

Shackleton's final expedition aimed to explore the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska. He secured funding from John Quillier Rowett and purchased a Norwegian whaler, which his wife Emily renamed Quest. The Canadian government initially withdrew support, leading the mission to shift focus back to the Antarctic. The Quest underwent extensive retrofitting to prepare for the expedition.

These retrofits included a new deckhouse, a heated crow’s nest, a wireless set, and an odograph for automatic route tracing and charting. The vessel was also equipped with a Lucas deep-sea sounding machine, a substantial collection of cameras and photographic equipment, and even a small airplane, indicating the ambitious nature of Shackleton's final planned exploration.