First Underwater Images Captured of 1962 Wreck of Shackleton’s Former Ship Quest

An expedition has captured the first underwater images of Quest, the ship that carried Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton on his final voyage. Cbc reported that a remotely operated vehicle reached the wreck at a depth of almost 400 metres in the Labrador Sea and showed the stern tangled in fishing nets.

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society discovered the location two years ago using side-scan sonar.

The current mission, its largest ever and costing millions of dollars, partnered with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to examine the site. John Geiger, the society's CEO, rode in the submersible Alvin on its first dive and described seeing the bow emerge from darkness.

David Mearns, co-chief scientist, said fishing nets obscure much of the starboard side and may have caused more damage than natural decay.

The wreck lies in the Hawke Channel, closed to fishing since 2002. Two portholes below the bridge match historical photographs and confirm the identity, according to research director Antoine Normandin. Quest sank in 1962 after ice crushed its hull off the south coast of Labrador.

All crew members survived, but the cargo of thousands of seal pelts was lost. Shackleton had bought the vessel to explore northern Canada, yet turned to Antarctica after the Canadian government declined funding. He died of a heart attack aboard the ship in January 1922 near South Georgia.

The ship served as a minesweeper during the Second World War and later hunted seals for a Norwegian company. The expedition plans to create a digital twin of the wreck using 3D imaging. It will next travel to the southern tip of Greenland to study the Terra Nova, discovered in 2024 and once used by Robert Falcon Scott.