(GoRealNewsNow.com) – An international team of experts confirmed that they had located the famous Polar Expedition ship used by the renowned Anglo-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton during his final voyage.
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) announced that “The RCGS-led expedition has discovered the wreck of the famous exploration vessel Quest in the Labrador Sea.”
The discovery occurred in mid-June, nearly 18 hours after the search commenced. The ship was found approximately 1.55 miles from where it was last reported, following its sinking 62 years ago on May 5, 1962, due to a persistent leak and an accident involving icebergs in the Labrador Sea.
The search team faced mechanical issues aboard their vessel, the LeeWay Odyssey, reminiscent of Shackleton’s challenges aboard the Quest.
Expedition leader and CEO of RCGS, John Geiger, described the moment of discovery:
“Watching the sonar images scroll in from the virtually featureless sea floor, when suddenly a jarring anomaly, about the size of a grain of rice with a shadow like a spear, appeared at the very nadir of the image. ‘What’s that?’ he shouted. ‘That’s it!’”
Moreover, the wreck was found upright and intact on the seabed, lying in about 1279.5 feet of water northwest of St. John’s and east of Battle Harbour, Labrador. St. John’s serves as the capital of Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador province.
The team included David Mearns, a renowned shipwreck hunter and marine biologist, who had mapped the search area but was asleep at the time of the discovery.
Honorable Alexandra Shackleton, Shackleton’s granddaughter and a co-patron of the search, was among the first informed of the discovery.
She described the Quest’s discovery in the same year as she unveiled a memorial plaque at Westminster Abbey in honor of the 150th anniversary of Shackleton’s birth, expressing her excitement about the discovery.
Sir Ernest Shackleton died at the age of 47 from a severe heart attack on January 5, 1922, while aboard the Quest, which was anchored at Grytviken Harbour on South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic.
According to the RCGS, he died 110 days after embarking on September 17, 1921. He initially set out to explore the Canadian Arctic but, at the last moment, was redirected to Antarctica after the Canadian government withdrew its support under Prime Minister Arthur Meighen.
Shackleton had eerily predicted that this voyage would be his “swan song.”
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