Check out the first images of Quest shipwreck

探索“探索号”（Quest）沉船的首批影像

Back in 2024, we reported on the discovery of the Quest shipwreck, the polar exploration vessel that served Arctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton on his last voyage. Shackleton died before reaching their destination, and the ship sank in 1962. The Royal Canadian Geographic Society (RCGS) has now released the first images of the wreck more than 60 years after it sank, published in Canadian Geographic magazine.

早在2024年，我们就报道了“探索号”（Quest）沉船的发现。这艘极地考察船曾服务于北极探险家欧内斯特·沙克尔顿爵士（Sir Ernest Shackleton）的最后一次航行。沙克尔顿在抵达目的地前去世，而该船则于1962年沉没。加拿大皇家地理学会（RCGS）现已发布了这艘沉船在沉没60多年后的首批影像，并刊登在《加拿大地理》杂志上。

Shackleton, of course, is most famous for his ill-fated voyage on the Endurance, which became trapped in sea ice in 1914 and sank. Shackleton and his crew defied the odds and survived. (The Endurance shipwreck was finally found in 2022.) By the time Shackleton returned to England, the country was embroiled in World War I, and many of his men enlisted. Shackleton was considered too old for active service. He was also deeply in debt from the Endurance expedition, earning a living on the lecture circuit. But he still dreamed of making another expedition to the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska to explore the Beaufort Sea. He got funding from an old school chum, John Quillier Rowett. Shackleton purchased a wooden Norwegian whaler, Foca I, which his wife Emily renamed Quest.

当然，沙克尔顿最出名的是他那次命运多舛的“坚忍号”（Endurance）航行，该船于1914年被海冰困住并沉没。沙克尔顿和他的船员们克服了重重困难幸存了下来。（“坚忍号”沉船最终于2022年被发现。）当沙克尔顿回到英国时，国家正卷入第一次世界大战，他手下的许多人都应征入伍了。沙克尔顿被认为年纪太大，不适合服现役。由于“坚忍号”探险，他背负了沉重的债务，只能靠巡回演讲维持生计。但他仍梦想着再次前往阿拉斯加以北的北冰洋，探索波弗特海。他从老同学约翰·奎利尔·罗威特（John Quillier Rowett）那里获得了资金。沙克尔顿购买了一艘挪威木制捕鲸船“Foca I”号，他的妻子艾米丽将其更名为“探索号”。

When the Canadian government withdrew its support, the mission shifted back to the Antarctic, and the Quest received an extensive retrofit. The improvements included a new deckhouse, a heated crow’s nest, a wireless set, and an odograph for tracing and charting the route automatically, as well as a Lucas deep-sea sounding machine, a large and pricey collection of cameras and photographic equipment, and even a small airplane. The Quest expedition to Antarctica set sail in 1921.

当加拿大政府撤回支持后，任务转回南极，而“探索号”也进行了大规模的改装。改进措施包括一个新的甲板室、一个带加热功能的瞭望塔、一套无线电设备、一个用于自动追踪和绘制航线的里程仪，以及一台卢卡斯深海测深仪、一套昂贵的摄影器材，甚至还有一架小型飞机。“探索号”南极探险队于1921年启航。

Shackleton never reached the planned destination, falling ill in late December just as the ship was about to leave Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had begun drinking heavily to “deaden the pain,” despite not usually allowing alcohol while at sea. The Quest reached south Georgia on January 4, 1922, and Shackleton made his final diary entry before retiring to bed. Ernest Shackleton died on board the Quest in 1922. Forty years later, the ship sank off Canada’s Atlantic Coast.

沙克尔顿最终没能到达预定目的地。就在船只即将离开巴西里约热内卢时，他在12月下旬病倒了。尽管他平时在海上不允许饮酒，但他开始酗酒以“减轻痛苦”。“探索号”于1922年1月4日抵达南乔治亚岛，沙克尔顿在就寝前写下了最后一篇日记。欧内斯特·沙克尔顿于1922年在“探索号”上去世。四十年后，这艘船在加拿大东海岸沉没。

By 2 am, he was complaining of back pain and requesting painkillers. Ship physician Alexander Macklin suggested Shackleton might try leading a more normal life. Shackleton asked what Macklin thought he should give up. “Chiefly alcohol, boss, I don’t think it agrees with you,” the physician replied. Then Shackleton “had a very severe paroxysm” and died. The official recorded cause of death was coronary thrombosis. His body was buried in a Norwegian cemetery in Grytviken, the grave marked by a rough cross (later replaced by a granite column).

凌晨2点，他抱怨背痛并要求服用止痛药。随船医生亚历山大·麦克林（Alexander Macklin）建议沙克尔顿尝试过更正常的生活。沙克尔顿问麦克林他应该放弃什么。“主要是酒精，老板，我觉得它不适合你，”医生回答道。随后，沙克尔顿“突发剧烈痉挛”并去世。官方记录的死因是冠状动脉血栓。他的遗体被安葬在古利德维肯（Grytviken）的一个挪威墓地，墓碑是一个粗糙的十字架（后来被花岗岩柱取代）。

The expedition was cut short. There were a few scientific papers that came out of the journey and some useful geological and survey work, but on the whole, the expedition’s accomplishments were minor. The ship was retrofitted a couple more times over its existence. It was used in several other expeditions in the 1930s and on various rescue missions. Quest served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II as a minesweeper and light cargo vessel and returned to commercial sealing operations after the war. It was on one such seal-hunting expedition on May 5, 1962, when the plucky little ship was pierced by ice and sank—the same damage suffered by Endurance decades before. And like the Endurance, her entire crew survived.

这次探险被迫中断。虽然这次航行产出了一些科学论文以及一些有用的地质和测量工作，但总的来说，探险的成就微乎其微。这艘船在其服役期间又经过了几次改装。它在20世纪30年代被用于其他几次探险和各种救援任务。第二次世界大战期间，“探索号”在加拿大皇家海军服役，担任扫雷舰和轻型货船，战后又回到了商业海豹捕猎作业中。1962年5月5日，在一次海豹捕猎探险中，这艘勇敢的小船被冰层刺穿并沉没——这与几十年前“坚忍号”遭受的损坏如出一辙。和“坚忍号”一样，全体船员都幸存了下来。

The RCGS led the effort to locate the wreckage, investing some $365,000 in the project. CEO John Geiger spearheaded the search, which initially involved scouring through the ship’s logs, navigation records, and other documents. The 23 crew members fought through dense fog and dealt with equipment issues after leaving port on June 5. But their patience was rewarded after 17 hours of scanning the ocean floor with sonar: Geiger spotted an odd shape pop onto his screen that was unmistakably the Quest.

加拿大皇家地理学会（RCGS）领导了寻找残骸的工作，并为该项目投资了约36.5万美元。首席执行官约翰·盖格（John Geiger）带头进行了搜索，最初的工作包括仔细查阅船只日志、航行记录和其他文件。6月5日离港后，23名船员在浓雾中奋战，并处理了设备故障。但经过17小时的声纳扫描海底，他们的耐心得到了回报：盖格在屏幕上发现了一个奇怪的形状，那毫无疑问就是“探索号”。

This latest mission, with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) as a partner, relied on a Falcon remote-operated vehicle and an ALVIN deep submergence vehicle to explore the wreck site further, launching on July 2. These are just the first images; more will be forthcoming. The team ultimately plans to create a 3D digital twin of the wreck site using underwater photogrammetry technology.

这次最新的任务与伍兹霍尔海洋研究所（WHOI）合作，依靠“猎鹰”遥控潜水器（ROV）和“阿尔文”号（ALVIN）深潜器对沉船地点进行了进一步探索，任务于7月2日启动。这些只是首批影像，未来还会有更多。该团队最终计划利用水下摄影测量技术为沉船地点创建一个3D数字孪生模型。

Initial sonar images in 2024 gave the team hope about the ship’s overall condition. These new images, however, revealed that Quest is in worse condition than previously thought, with fishing nets, floats, and other bottom-trawling gear snagged on the stern and much of the starboard side. The bridge superstructure is missing entirely, although the aluminum bridge is still attached. Expedition research director Antoine Normandin was disappointed at first, but then realized that “Quest itself is now becoming a science experiment,” he told Canadian Geographic. WHOI biologist Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser told Canadian Geographic that the Quest shipwreck has been transformed into a thriving underwater ecosystem.

2024年的初步声纳图像让团队对船只的整体状况抱有希望。然而，这些新图像显示，“探索号”的状况比预想的要糟糕，船尾和大部分右舷挂满了渔网、浮标和其他底层拖网设备。舰桥上层建筑完全缺失，尽管铝制舰桥仍然连接着。探险研究主任安托万·诺曼丁（Antoine Normandin）起初感到失望，但随后意识到“‘探索号’本身现在正成为一个科学实验，”他告诉《加拿大地理》。WHOI生物学家克里斯汀·迈耶-凯撒（Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser）告诉《加拿大地理》，“探索号”沉船已经变成了一个繁荣的水下生态系统。