'Once-in-a-generation' expedition sets sail to survey famed polar expedition ships

A significant expedition, described as a 'once-in-a-generation' event, has set sail with the ambitious goal of surveying the shipwrecks of two iconic vessels from Antarctic exploration history: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Quest and Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova.

This collaborative effort, led by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), aims to conduct the first comprehensive visual survey of the wrecks. Using high-definition video cameras and photogrammetric technology, researchers intend to digitally recreate both ships for further study. The expedition leader, John Geiger, recently discovered the wreckage of Quest in the Labrador Sea.

While the Terra Nova sank in 1943 off the coast of Greenland, its wreck was rediscovered in 2012. Quest, which carried Shackleton on his final voyage where he died onboard, outlived Terra Nova by two decades before sinking in 1962 off the coast of Labrador. The expedition will document these historic wrecks and their surrounding debris fields, offering new insights into the final resting places of these storied vessels.