Following the end of World War I Shackleton was restless. He told his wife Emily, “I am no good at anything but being away in the wilds with just men. I feel of no use to anyone unless I am outfacing the storm in wild lands.”
He started planning another polar expedition. The endeavour was underwritten by his friend John Quiller Rowett and so was named the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition. The expedition plan was ambitious but some of its aims were somewhat vague. They included charting the missing gaps in the coastline of the Antarctic continent and surveying forgotten or little-known islands in the Southern Hemisphere, in particular the South Pacific. Further aims were planned which would bring economic benefit, such as geological investigations and a search for whaling and sealing grounds.
On 17 September 1921, Quest sailed from St Katharine Docks, London. The departure drew large crowds, who waved from the banks and bridges of the River Thames.