A “once-in-a-generation” expedition led by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to survey ships belonging to two of the most important Antarctic explorers set sail earlier this week.
Quest, a schooner-rigged steamship captained by Sir Ernest Shackleton, and Terra Nova, Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s whaler and polar expedition vessel, are the targets of these new surveys.
While both Shackleton’s and Scott’s polar expeditions had set sail in the early half of the 1900s, the Terra Nova Expedition between 1910 and 1913 and the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition in 1921-1922, the ships sunk much later in the century.
Terra Nova, after returning from Scott’s expedition in 1913, was repurchased by her former owners to resume work as a whaling vessel.
Thirty years later, in 1942, she was chartered by Newfoundland Base Contractors to carry supplies to stations in Greenland.
Terra Nova, Quest sink years after their expeditions
A year later, on September 12 of 1943, Terra Nova issued an urgent SOS that her pumps were not working and she was beginning to take on water.
Rescue ships arrived a day later, saving her crew from the catastrophe. She was sunk by gunfire that same day.
Her wreckage was rediscovered off the coast of Greenland in 2012 by the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s flagship R/V Falkor during routine testing. The wreck was confirmed as Terra Nova over a decade later by maritime archaeologists aboard the MY Legend.
Quest, however, outlived Terra Nova by some 20 years.
A year after sailing from London in 1921, Shackleton died onboard as Quest and her crew prepared to enter Antarctic waters. The expedition was lost along with its captain. Instead, led by British Antarctic explorer Frank Wild, she carried out a desultory survey of the Weddell Sea before turning back.
Seven years later, having been refitted, Quest joined the rescue effort to save survivors of the Italia Arctic airship crash. She returned as a sealing vessel in the 1930s, and was used as a minesweeper by the British navy during World War II.
On May 5, 1962, while on a seal-hunting expedition Quest’s hull was pierced by ice. She sunk off the north coast of Labrador.
Her wreckage was discovered in 2024 at a depth of 390 meters in the Labrador Sea by RCGS’s Expedition Leader John Geiger.
First comprehensive survey of Quest, Terra Nova
The new expedition will be the first comprehensive visual survey of the two ships in order to the digitally produce recreations of them both for further study, RCGS announced in a statement last week.
Researchers will use high-definition 5.2K video cameras and Canadian VOYIS photogrammetric technology to document the wrecks and surrounding debris fields.
The vessels set to take part in the mission are the research vessel Atlantis, operated by WHOI, and will serve as the “mothership” to the human occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
Alvin was the first submersible to ever survey Titanic’s wreckage.
“The discovery of Quest in 2024 was only the beginning” said Geiger. “On Canada Day, we will gather to embark on the largest and most ambitious expedition in the 96-year history of the RCGS.”
“By combining Canadian and American technologies, and an international team of experts, we will document Quest and Terra Nova in unprecedented detail, creating an extraordinary record of two historic shipwrecks and sharing these important stories with the world.”
WHOI Director of Ocean Imaging Dwight Coleman and co-chief scientist on the mission said that by using the advanced imaging tools, researcchers will be able to “see and re-create two historically significant shipwrecks and bring the stories of two great explorers to life.”
“The bravery and leadership demonstrated by these two polar heroes have inspired generations of explorers over the years, and our hope is that by documenting their last ships with the latest technology we too can inspire the next generation of explorers worldwide,” said shipwreck expert and expedition co-chief scientist David Mearns, characterizing the expedition as an “once-in-a-generation” opportunity.
Updates on the mission and footage of the wrecks will be posted on Canadian Geographic’s website here.