Medals for Midhurst man who played pivotal role in discovery of Ernest Shackleton's last ship

David Mearns, who lives in Midhurst, received the Quest Medal – given to all members of the discovery team – and the Bernier Medal – which celebrates significant individual contributions to Royal Canadian Geographical Society – at a ceremony in Ottawa Canada on November 5.

It’s a career highlight for Mr Mearns, who has worked as a deep-sea shipwreck hunter since the 1980s, and has some 25 major discoveries already under his belt.

Discovered this summer, the Quest is best known as the vessel used in the Shackleton-Rowlett expedition of 1921-22, on which Shackleton himself would eventually die – stricken with a fatal heart attack in South Georgia, on January 4, 1922 while on route to the Antarctic.

It was a sad and abrupt end to the life of Britain’s most famous Arctic explorer, but the Quest itself would have a rich and varied career after him. It saw use as a minesweeper during the Second World War, played a role in a British expedition to Greenland, all before sinking on May 5 1962, while being used as a seal-hunting vessel off the north coast of Labrador.

Although they knew broadly where to look – thanks in part to David’s exhaustive research – locating a deep-sea wreck is a tough task at the best of times, and the team only had three days on location to lock-in and find Shackleton’s long-lost ship.

David says part of his job was leveraging his experience to make sure everyone stayed the course and stuck to the plan, no matter what issues came their way. “We had a lot of technical problems, and we lost the first two days. So the pressure was on to find it in literally a day – 24 hours. And that was the real challenge of this trip.

“So people were getting nervous on the ship, worried about getting back. But that’s why I was there. I’ve been through the wars, I know when you don’t lose your head, when you stick to the plan, and we did just that.”

David’s cool head paid off, and the team found the Quest some 85 kilometres off Labrador’s east coast; after some sixteen hours of hard work, several of which they spent making absolutely sure the shipwreck was indeed Shackleton’s old vessel.

It was a big moment for David, and a real achievement in a career already overflowing with them, but he says what’s most important is what the discovery will contribute to our understanding of Ernest Shackleton himself.

"I’ve known Alexandra Shackleton (Ernest Shackleton’s great granddaughter) for 20 years, she’s a great friend and I was doing it in a way for her,” David said. “This was a passion project. I wasn’t paid, it was pro-bono; we were all there because we believed in doing it, and we wanted to tell this final story of Shackleton’s life.”