Quark Expeditions

Quark Expeditions first purpose built ship, 'Ultramarine'
Founded	1991
Headquarters	Seattle, United States
Key people	Andrew White, President
Services	Polar Expeditions Polar Cruises Adventure Travel North Pole Travel Passenger Transportation
Parent	Travelopia
Website	www.quarkexpeditions.com

Quark Expeditions is a travel company that offers polar region expeditions aboard expedition ships and icebreakers.

Quark Expeditions was founded in 1985 by Mike McDowell, initially specializing in small-ship dive expeditions. It then transitioned to polar expeditions, where McDowell had prior experience as the expedition leader of the MV Explorer.

In 1990–1991, McDowell chartered the MV Frontier Spirit during its inaugural season of operations for several voyages to Antarctica from Hobart, Australia and Bluff, New Zealand. After these voyages, Mike McDowell partnered with Lars Wikander.

In 1998, McDowell sold his interests to Lars Wikander, who then became the company's majority owner. Three years later, Wikander became chairman of the board when Patrick Shaw joined the company as president and CEO.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2007, the company became part of the UK-based TUI Travel group of companies; subsequently, in 2016, it became part of Travelopia, a division comprising some brands from the former TUI Specialist Group.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012, the company advertised that it was offering the first "carbon-neutral" polar expeditions with the Ocean Diamond. The former ro-ro ship uses Bunker C heavy-duty oil, and one voyage produces an estimated 5,682 tons of CO₂. The tour operator signed a contract with the certifier The CarbonNeutral Company.^[1]

In 2016, the company mounted an Arctic expedition involving internet personalities and YouTube creators including Ben Brown, Tim Kellner and Tom Scott led by retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.^[2]

The company's summer 2019 program in the Arctic included sailings to Greenland, Canada's High Arctic, the Northwest Passage and the North Pole.^[3]

In April 2021, Quark took delivery of its first solely owned ship Ultramarine from Brodosplit shipyard in Croatia.^[4]

In 1991, Quark Expeditions was the first consumer-led expedition to the North Pole.^[5] The company has the largest and most diverse fleet of passenger vessels in the Antarctic.^[6] Quark offers both cruises and land-based expeditions. Expeditions are held on the following ships:

Fleet

Icebreakers
	Name	Year Completed	Shipyard	Passenger Capacity	Ice-class	Notes
	50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of Victory)	1993	Baltic Shipyard	128	LL1 (the highest rating possible) [7]
	Kapitan Khlebnikov	1981	Hietalahti Shipyard, Finland	108	LL3[8]
Expedition Fleet
	Ocean Adventurer	1975	Brodogradilište, Kraljevica, Yugoslavia SFR Yugoslavia (now Croatia)	128	1A	To be retired from Quark expedition service in October 2024[9]
	World Explorer	2019	WestSEA Shipyard, Viana do Castelo, Portugal	172	1B	Chartered from Mystic Cruises, will be renamed STAR EXPLORER and will be handed over to Windstar Cruises in December 2026.[10]
	Ultramarine	2021[11]	Brodosplit shipyard, Croatia	199	1A+, PC6[12]	First ship fully owned by Quark Expeditions
	Ocean Explorer	2021	Haimen shipyard, Jiangsu, China	138	1A, PC6[13]	Chartered from Sunstone 2024/25 Antarctic season replacing Ocean Adventurer[14]

Quark Expeditions is a long-time, active member of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators and Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators, and promotes various sustainability initiatives.^[15][16] In 2012, the Ocean Diamond made a carbon-neutral voyage to Antarctica.^[17]

Quark has received several industry awards, including from Travel Weekly and National Geographic.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23]}