“This is the last big Shackleton event” – New York Times

In June 2024, John Geiger led an international team that discovered the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last ship, Quest, off the coast of Labrador where it struck ice and sank in 1962. That event captured global attention and renewed interest in the legendary explorer’s fatal last voyage.

This sweeping narrative takes readers from Shackleton’s early polar expeditions, including the famous Endurance calamity that demonstrated his spectacularly resilient brand of leadership, through to his last journey to Antarctica in 1922, during which he died of a heart attack aboard the Quest.

Geiger re-examines Shackleton’s triumphs, his testy relationships with rivals like Vilhjalmur Stefansson, and the Quest’s extraordinary posthumous legacy as it sailed into history—and finally to its resting place. Rich in adventure and anchored by contemporary exploration, Quest blends historical drama with cutting-edge discovery to illuminate a polar epic for a new generation.