Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Ships

Endurance, which sank over 100 years ago, hosts filter-feeders like anemones.

Shackleton’s ‘Endurance’ Shipwreck Is Teeming With Bizarre Ocean Life

Undersea footage reveals the ship’s diverse collection of sea stars, sponges, anemones, and even a rare deep-sea squat lobster

Researchers discovered the wreck of Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, the team announced this week. The ship was last seen by Shackleton's crew in 1915 before it slipped under the icy surface. 

Cool Finds

Wreck of Shackleton’s ‘Endurance’ Discovered in Icy Antarctic Depths

Researchers captured stunning photographs of the century-old wreck, still intact almost two miles beneath the waters of the Weddell Sea

The Carnegie under full sail.  Cruise VII, Pacific Ocean.  November 14, 1928.

Inside the Last Journey of the ‘Carnegie’

The groundbreaking ship and its dedicated captain shaped our understanding of the Earth’s magnetic field

Crew members of the Endurance enjoy a quick game of soccer while on a three-year Imperial Trans-Antarctica Expedition in 1915. The 144-foot ship sank in the Anarctic Ocean that same year.

Track Marine Archaeologists Searching Icy Antarctic Seas for Ernest Shackleton’s ‘Endurance’

A team aboard a modern icebreaker will survey the site with state-of-the-art underwater drones in hopes of finding the historic vessel

Archaeologist pulled 12 Revolutionary War era cannons from the Savannah River in January. 

Cool Finds

How Did So Many Revolutionary War Cannons End Up in the Savannah River?

Archaeologists pull another dozen sediment-encrusted artillery pieces after finding three last year

A replica of Lt. James Cook's H.M.B. Endeavour docked in Sydney. Australian reserachers say they have identified the real shipwreck off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. 

New Research

Why Researchers Are Clashing Over Proposed Identification of Captain Cook’s ‘Endeavour’

Australian archaeologists say they’ve found the wreck of the British explorer’s research vessel. American scholars called the announcement “premature”

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) undergoes sea trials in April 2021. In 2022, the MAS will sail the same path that the original Mayflower charted in 1620, collecting data along the way.

Captained by A.I., This New ‘Mayflower’ Will Cross the Atlantic This Spring

The autonomous ship will embark on the same journey the Pilgrims took more than 400 years ago, collecting scientific data along the way

Billie Farrell is saluted by crewmembers during the change-of-command ceremony aboard the Constitution.

First Woman Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Oldest Ship Takes the Helm

Billie Farrell is the new captain of the U.S.S. “Constitution,” a 1797 frigate that now serves as a floating museum

The ring bears an image of a shepherd boy with a sheep or ram on his shoulders, symbolizing Jesus as the "Good Shepherd."

Cool Finds

Early Christian Ring Found in Third-Century Shipwreck Off of Israel

Researchers discovered jewelry and other artifacts from two sunken ships off the ancient port city of Caesarea

The capsized hull of the U.S.S. Oklahoma (right) is visible next to the U.S.S. Maryland.

The Story Behind Pearl Harbor’s Most Successful Rescue Mission

Eighty years ago, civilian Julio DeCastro and his colleagues at the Hawaii base’s naval yard saved 32 sailors trapped inside the U.S.S. “Oklahoma”

Art dealer Helen Fioratti and her husband, Nereo, purchased the mosaic from an aristocratic Italian family in the 1960s and used it as a coffee table in their Manhattan apartment for some 45 years.

Cool Finds

A Mosaic From Caligula’s ‘Pleasure Boat’ Spent 45 Years as a Coffee Table in NYC

Authorities returned the ancient artwork, now on view at a museum near Rome, to Italy following a multi-year investigation

Bound for Chicago with a hold full of Christmas trees, the Rouse Simmons was lost with all hands in a November gale in 1912.

The Newest National Marine Sanctuary Is in Lake Michigan. Here’s How to Explore It

Covering 962 square miles, the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary includes 36 known shipwrecks

The boat most likely survived intact because it was constantly wet and shielded from sunlight at a depth of about 27 feet.

Cool Finds

Intact, 1,200-Year-Old Canoe Recovered From Wisconsin Lake

The remarkably well-preserved wooden vessel was probably made by the Effigy Moundbuilders, ancestors of the modern Ho-Chunk Nation

Metal sulfides left behind by anaerobic bacteria and the breakdown of iron artifacts were sopped by the wood while the ship was submerged.

‘Bacteria Poop’ Is Breaking Down Henry VIII’s Favorite Ship

When the ship sunk in 1545, marine bacteria started eating away at the hull

Researchers have tentatively dated the canoe to between 830 and 950 C.E.

Cool Finds

Well-Preserved Maya Canoe Found in Mexico May Be 1,000 Years Old

Researchers discovered the boat and other artifacts linked to the pre-Hispanic civilization near the ruins of Chichén Itzá

A view of the schooner-barge Michigan, which sank in Lake Superior on October 2, 1902, alongside the M.M. Drake

Cool Finds

Three 19th-Century Shipwrecks Discovered in Lake Superior

”[W]e have never located so many new wrecks in one season,” says the director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society

The timbers of a 500-year-old ship rest on the floor of the Baltic Sea. Scholars and divers are studying the legendary wreck.

An Extraordinary 500-Year-Old Shipwreck Is Rewriting the History of the Age of Discovery

In the frigid Baltic Sea, archaeologists probing the surprisingly well-preserved remains of a revolutionary warship are seeing the era in a new way

Divers can explore the wrecks of 14 warships, including the HMS Majestic and HMS Triumph.

Underwater Museum Allows Divers to Explore Shipwrecks From the Battle of Gallipoli

A new undersea park in Turkey preserves boats sunk during the 1915–16 World War I campaign

The 39-foot-long violin is made out of around 12 different kinds of wood.

Why a String Quartet Set Sail on a Giant Violin in Venice’s Grand Canal

Local artist Livio De Marchi views the wooden replica as a symbol of the Italian city’s rebirth following Covid-19

Moai statues at the Rano Raraku site on Easter Island

Genetic Study Maps When and How Polynesians Settled the Pacific Islands

Mysterious stone figures on far-flung islands may have been erected by descendants of seafaring explorers from the same archipelago

Page 14 of 28