The MV Quest is best known as a polar expedition vessel for Sir Earnest Shackleton. Shackleton was the second owner of the vessel when purchased in 1921 and she was refitted with a new deckhouse and rigging for the Shackleton-Rowett expedition from 1921 to 1923. It was Lady Emily Shackleton who renamed her Quest from the original SS Foca I. It was in his cabin aboard the Quest that Sir Earnest Shackleton died on 5 January 1922 while anchored in the harbour at South Georgia, Antarctica. He was 47 years old.
The Quest was sold back to Norwegian owners and operated as a sealing and Arctic research vessel until 1940. In 1930 she was chartered by the British Arctic Air Route Expedition to investigate possible air routes to Canada via Greenland. During the Second World War she was loaned to the Royal Navy and again returned to the owners in 1946 to continue as a sealer until 1962 when she became trapped in ice and sank off the coast of Southern Labrador.
