Shackleton wreck expedition donation from Eaton family revived century-old pledge to explorer

When renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton hatched a plan to explore the Canadian Arctic in 1921, he turned to his friend Sir John Craig Eaton and his wife Flora McCrea Eaton of the department store dynasty, for support.

They pledged $100,000 – the equivalent of around $1.5-million today – to help fund a voyage on his new ship Quest, to explore the icy Beaufort Sea, north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

But when the Canadian government suddenly pulled its funding for the expedition, Shackleton had to cancel his plans, heading south on Quest to Antarctica instead.

Shackleton died onboard Quest the next year en route to Antarctica of a sudden heart attack at age 47, and the Eaton family’s generous $100,000 pledge for a Canadian voyage drifted into abeyance with Shackleton’s dreams.

But a little more than a century later, that pledge has been honoured by the great-grandson of Sir Jack, as he was known, and Lady Eaton who agreed to donate $100,000 to an expedition to find the wreck of Quest, discovered by a Canadian-led team of explorers off the coast of Labrador this month.

Fred Eaton, an accomplished sailor and fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, said the donation was history coming full circle.

Shackleton was “sort of a hero in our household … my family grew up admiring Shackleton,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

So, when John Geiger, chief executive of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, who led the expedition, broached the possibility of making a donation to help find the wreck of Quest, Mr. Eaton enthusiastically agreed.

“I just thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could give the same amount to this expedition, and sort of round the story out,” he said. “It’s so important to us and important to the world. We talked about that, John and I, and we thought that was a nice arc to history.”

The donation, through a charitable family foundation, and those of other individual backers, meant the expedition to find Quest, which sank in the Labrador Sea during a sealing expedition in 1962, could go ahead.

Shackleton, who had talked about moving to Canada, struck up a firm friendship with the Eatons. He was a guest at Sir Jack and Lady Eaton’s grand Ontario residence, Eaton Hall, and socialized with them on a transatlantic crossing from New York to Europe on the Aquitania liner.

“He’s one of the world’s great men. Somehow, along the way, my great-grandfather met him,” Mr. Eaton said. “In Canada, my great-grandfather would have been an important man, but standing next to Shackleton, you’re with the stars. And so I think they sort of hit it off, and they became very friendly.”

“Shackleton sent a picture to my great-grandfather, an autographed photograph, which said ‘to Jack from Shack,’ which we’ve always kind of laughed at, and thought was pretty funny.”

When Quest was moored on the Thames in London, prior to embarking for the Antarctic, Lady Eaton was among those who came on board to wish them well, including King George V.

And when the wreck of Quest was found, Mr. Eaton was among the first to learn of its discovery, after Mr. Geiger sent him the news from the search vessel.

“It came up as a wonderful surprise in my e-mail the other day, and I’m, like, that is spectacular!” he said.

Mr. Geiger said the expedition to find Quest received no public money and relied on financial backing from generous individuals, including Mr. Eaton, Katherine Smalley, Derek Lee and Mark Pathy, as well as an anonymous donor. “I just can’t say enough about this small band of supporters who made it possible,” he said.

“I was hoping to get a number of people, philanthropists, to support us in this vision. I went to Fred, we had a meeting in his office in Toronto, and I basically told him that I thought that it was a matter of karma almost,” he said. “The family had been associated with Shackleton and had made a pledge. That pledge was later withdrawn and I wondered whether he might consider reinstituting it.”

Mr. Geiger suggested a smaller figure than the $100,000 Mr. Eaton’s great-grandfather had pledged for the aborted Quest expedition to the Canadian Arctic. But Mr. Eaton said he wanted to offer the same amount. “He came back and said, ‘Look, the proper thing to do is to honour the family commitment,’” Mr. Geiger recalled.

The Shackleton outdoor apparel brand, named after the explorer, also supported the search for Quest partly by providing warm clothing for the expedition team.

The CEO of the British company, Martin Brooks, who was onboard when the sonar revealed the wreck, said: “I will never forget that electric moment on the ship when the first blip of the wreck appeared on the sonar screen.”