The Quest Chronicle blog and its origins
In early 2021, it was suggested that I set up a blog to document the “100-years-ago” story of the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition as an unfolding diary. The blog launched in March 2021 and ran though the year up to January 4 2022, the eve of the centenary of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s death at South Georgia. By this time, I had decided that the story should be presented in a book and so transferred efforts to that cause – resulting in The Quest Chronicle being published in September 2022. This part of our website contains just some of the posts from the original blog.
Blog posts are listed below in reverse chronological order.
Jan Chojecki
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28 November to 3 December 1921, Rio
Monday 28 November, 1921 Newspaper reports in England carry Shackleton’s announcement that the expedition plan has changed, abandoning the stop at Cape Town, and now heading directly from Rio to South Georgia arriving there at Christmas and then departing in the New Year for Enderby Land in the Antarctic. They expect to enter the ice…
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22-26 November 1921, Rio
Tuesday 22 November, 1921 After a beautiful sunrise, Quest arrives at Rio de Janeiro. Engineers from Messrs Wilson, Sons &Co come aboard to inspect the vessel. Most of the crew are billeted on shore. Wednesday 23 November, 1921 Sir John Tilley, British Ambassador, visits the Quest accompanied by the Brazil Minister for Marine and other…
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9-21 November, 1921
After the visit to St Paul’s Rocks on Tuesday 8 November, instead of heading to Cape Town as originally planned, Quest is now en route to Rio de Janeiro for further repairs. The engines are playing up again. Added to this, the top mast is giving concern, yielding excessively to the gaff rig. In his…