Quest

We approached it about a meter off the seafloor, and then emerging out of this darkness, suddenly it was the bow of Quest.

Shackleton's ship, you could just see it, and it seemed enormous.

It wasn't a large ship, but from the perspective of the viewport on Elvin, it looked enormous to me.

And then Bruce, the pilot, lifted off the seafloor, up, up, and then perched Elvin on the bow.

That's John Geiger, author, expedition leader, and CEO of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

He's describing an extraordinary encounter with exploration history, nearly 400 meters beneath the Labrador Sea, coming face to face with Quest, the last ship of the legendary polar explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton.

John's new book is Quest, Shackleton's Last Ship and the End of the Heroic Age.

I'm thrilled to welcome John back to talk about all of that right here on Explore, a Canadian geographic podcast.