Finally, on January 4, 1922, the QUEST came within view of South Georgia. “Like a pair of excitable kids”, said Worsley, he and Shackleton “were rushing around showing everyone where we first came over the mountains on our 1916 tramp across S.G. from King Haakon (Bay) to Stromness Bay after our boat journey from Elephant Id. Finally the ‘Boss’ called me when I was on the bridge to come & show some of the others a point he wasn’t quite sure of, but I couldn’t leave here at the time & came down later, but the dear old ‘Boss’ was quite prepared for me to let the ship wander along on her own”. The Quest anchored outside the whaling station of Grytviken; it had been eight years since Shackleton had sailed up the same fjord in ENDURANCE on his way to the Weddell Sea. Surprisingly, many of the same old faces were there. Fridthjof Jacobsen was still station manager. He came out in a boat and took Shackleton ashore. Macklin was not surprised when in the early hours he was called to Shackleton, and found him in the midst of another heart attack. Macklin, as many times before, told him he would have to change his style of life. Macklin said that Shackleton replied, “You’re always wanting me to give up things, what is it I ought to give up?” A few minutes later, in the wee hours of January 5, 1922, Shackleton was dead.

Shackleton’s body was to be sent back to England for burial. With it went Hussey, who had no heart for the expedition now that his leader was dead. When Emily heard what had happened, she decided that her husband should be buried on South Georgia. His spirit had no place in England…if he had a home on earth, it must be among the mystic crags and glaciers of the island in the Southern Ocean which had meant so much to him. So from Montevideo, Hussey turned around and brought the body back to South Georgia. There, on March 5, he was laid to rest in the Norwegian cemetery, along with the whalers amongst whom he had felt at home.