Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Ships

Norway’s latest ships, including the passenger vessel Future of the Fjords, may portend the end of carbon-belching vessels. Of the 60 or so fully electric or hybrid vessels in operation globally, 40 percent are Norwegian.

Norway’s Newest Ships Give a Glimpse Into the Future of Sustainable Seafaring

The country is using oil and gas riches to engineer emission-free vessels

This 1812 American Frigate Could Take a Direct Cannon Hit

A British frigate fires on the USS Constitution - but its shots either miss or rebound off its tough oak hull

The precious piece sold for $57,500.

Sold: A Pocket Watch From the Titanic, Adorned with Hebrew Letters

The watch belonged to Sinai Kantor, a Russian immigrant who died when the ship went down

Why Depth Charges Don’t Have to Touch a Submarine to Sink It

It’s 1942 and the USS Silversides, a U.S. submarine submerged in the Pacific, is frantically trying to dodge depth charges dropped by a Japanese warship

Upturned under mysterious circumstances, the flagship vessel sank to its undersea grave with roughly 500 innocents—and one ship dog, a mutt dubbed Hatch—trapped within

New Nanotech Returns Henry VIII’s Favorite Warship to Its Former Glory

Researchers used tiny magnetic particles to remove the iron ions responsible for the wooden vessel’s decay

Trending Today

After 100 Years, Roald Amundsen’s Polar Ship Returns to Norway

Maud, which sunk in Arctic Canada in 1930, was floated across the Atlantic to its new home in a museum in Vollen

Conservators working on the H.L. Hunley

Cool Finds

New Clues About Why the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley Sank

An emergency keel-block release suggests the crew did not panic, meaning they may have been incapacitated when the sub went down

This is said to be the ship's wheel of the sunken Dmitrii Donskoi, which is rumored to have been carrying a treasure trove of gold when ti sank.

Doubts Swirl Over Claims of Gold-Filled Russian Shipwreck

It is far from certain that the Dmitrii Donskoi would have—or could have— carried such a huge hoard of gold

Marc Fries examines a magnetic board looking for iron particles recovered from the sea floor.

Trending Today

A Research Ship Is Hunting Meteorite Fragments Off the Coast of Washington

The research ship E/V Nautilus is combing through samples and sediment hoping to recover the first space rock from the ocean floor

Cool Finds

Now That the Smog Has Lifted, Astronomy Returns to London’s Royal Observatory

A new telescope that filters out light pollution and interference will watch the stars from the site constructed in 1675

This Aircraft Carrier Cannon Fires 4,500 Rounds a Minute

The Sea Wiz is the affectionate nickname given to a 20mm Vulcan Cannon on board the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier. It fires 4,500 rounds a minute

The San Jose's decorated cannons

Cool Finds

“Holy Grail” of Spanish Treasure Galleons Found Off Colombia

The San José went down in 1708 filled with gold, silver and gems now worth billions of dollars

Ceramic box base with a Chinese inscription that mentions a place, Jianning Fu, which dates from AD 1162 to 1278. From the Java Sea Shipwreck.

New Research

An 800-Year-Old Shipwreck Helps Archaeologists Piece Together Asia’s Maritime Trade

A new date for the Java Sea shipwreck could shed light on the politics of Chinese trade routes

Shipwrecks discovered off the coast of Western Australia.

Two 19th-Century Shipwrecks Discovered During Search for Flight MH370

The Western Australian Museum has put forth several suggestions for the identities of the sunken vessels

A diver brings up a sealed glass bottle from the shipwreck of the Sydney Cove

Cool Finds

Australian Brewers Are Making Beer From Yeast Found on a Shipwreck

A new porter-style ale gets its funk from a 220-year old specimen

Using the encyclopedia as a guide, a group of Islay villagers worked through the night stitching together a Stars and Stripes.

A Hundred-Year-Old Handmade American Flag Flies Home… to Scotland

When WWI soldiers died off the coast of Islay Island, a group of villagers brought honor to their memory with this flag

Cool Finds

Wreck of Nazi Germany’s Most Advanced U-Boat Discovered

Sunk in 1945, U-3523, a Type XXI sub, may have been attempting to smuggle high-ranking Nazis to Argentina

The group of Muuscoctopus found on the Dorado Outcrop.

Cool Finds

Colony of Beautiful, Doomed Purple Octopuses Found Off Costa Rica

Hundreds of unidentified cephalopods were found nursing their eggs near a deep-sea vent

The Endurance sinking in 1915

Trending Today

Antarctic Research Ship to Search for Wreck of Shackleton’s ‘Endurance’

The ship sunk in pack ice in 1915, setting off one of exploration’s most epic survival tales

Leif Erikson pointing toward North America. Did he use a sunstone to navigate the open seas?

New Research

Simulation Suggests Viking Sunstones of Legend Could Have Worked

If they existed, the crystals—used to locate the sun’s position on cloudy days—could have helped Vikings sail to far away places

Page 20 of 28