ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland (AP) — The wreckage of the last ship belonging to Sir Ernest Shackleton, a famous Irish-born British Antarctic explorer, has been found off the coast of Labrador, Canada, 62 years after he disappeared. The wreckage was found by an international team led by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
The Quest was found through sonar scans Sunday night resting on its keel under 390 meters (1,280 feet) of icy, choppy water, the society said. Its imposing mast lies broken beside it, likely cracked when the ship was sucked into the depths after hitting the ice on May 5, 1962.
Shackleton’s death aboard the ship in 1922 marked the end of what historians consider the “heroic era” of Antarctic exploration. The explorer led three British expeditions to Antarctica and was in the early stages of a fourth when he died. He was 47 years old.
Quest’s discovery was “deeply moving,” John Geiger, leader of the Shackleton Quest Expedition, said Wednesday. “It’s such a good story. It links Canada to the most famous of all polar explorers.”
Geiger called it a very historically important ship.
The Norwegian-built ship, used for research and sealing in the Arctic after Shackleton’s death, appears to be in “incredible condition” although it was damaged when it hit the seabed, Geiger said.
Now that he has been found, the next step will be to send remotely operated vehicles to capture images of his remains.
In 2022, researchers discovered another Shackleton wreck. The Endurance was found in 10,000 feet – about 3,000 meters – of icy water, a century after it was swallowed by Antarctic ice.
A team of marine archaeologists, engineers and other scientists used an icebreaker and underwater drones to locate the wreckage at the bottom of the Weddell Sea near the Antarctic Peninsula.
The Endurance22 expedition embarked in Cape Town, South Africa, in early February, on a ship capable of breaking through ice 1 meter thick.
The team, which included more than 100 researchers and crew, deployed underwater drones that searched the seabed for two weeks in the area where the ship was recorded sinking in 1915.
Shackleton never achieved his ambition of becoming the first person to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. In fact, he never set foot on the continent during the failed Endurance expedition, although he had visited Antarctica during previous voyages.
