The final ship sailed by famed explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton has been discovered, officials announced yesterday, located about a quarter-mile off Canada's eastern coast in the Labrador Sea. Shackleton suffered a fatal heart attack aboard the ship in 1922, with the vessel falling far short of its goal of reaching Antarctica and mapping thousands of miles of unexplored coastline.
One of the most famous explorers of the early 20th century, Shackleton became the first person to reach the magnetic South Pole. Among his adventures, he is best known for leading the “Endurance” expedition, where he carried out a months-long rescue effort after the ship became stuck in ice and sank.
The ship itself, named the "Quest," far outlived Shackleton. Following the ill-fated expedition—regarded by historians as the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration—the boat served as a seal-hunting vessel, sinking in 1962 after hitting ice.
See archival photos from the expedition here.
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