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Ships

The Oseberg, a Viking ship built in 820 C.E., moved to its new home at the Museum of the Viking Age at the speed of ten inches per minute.

The Best-Preserved Viking Ship in the World Just Survived Its Treacherous Final Journey

For more than ten years, experts have been painstakingly planning to move three 1,000-year-old vessels—the “Oseberg,” “Gokstad” and “Tune”—about 115 yards to their new home in Oslo

Every page is stamped with the words "Pearl Harbor" at the top.

Cool Finds

She Found a Tattered Logbook in the Trash. It Turned Out to Be a Rare Record From the 1941 Pearl Harbor Attack

The National Archives has recovered the volume, which includes more than 500 pages of data from March 1941 to June 1942. It had been tucked away in storage for half a century

The James Carruthers was one of a dozen ships that sank during the "White Hurricane" that swept across the Great Lakes in November 1913.

Shipwreck Hunter Finds Large Freighter That Sank in Lake Huron During the ‘White Hurricane’ 112 Years Ago

The 529-foot-long vessel is submerged 190 feet deep, resting upside down on the American side of the lake

Maritime archaeologists confirmed the wreck was the long-lost Frank D. Barker.

A Man Noticed a Strange Shape on Satellite Images. It Turned Out to Be a 138-Year-Old Shipwreck in Lake Michigan

While sailing through a heavy blanket of fog, the “Frank D. Barker” went off course and ran into a limestone outcropping in October 1887

The vessel's timbers are shrinking and its iron fittings are disintegrating.

America's 250th Anniversary

Watch as Experts Preserve a 249-Year-Old Gunboat That Sank During the American Revolution

Badly damaged during the Battle of Valcour Island, the “Philadelphia” is now the focus of a new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

The letter sold at auction in April and is now on display at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver.

See Rare Letters From a Titanic Passenger, Who Called the Vessel a ‘Fine Ship’ Days Before It Sank

Archibald Gracie’s letter, which recently sold at auction, is part of a new exhibition at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver

The Edmund Fitzgerald was transporting iron ore when it sank in November 1975, killing all 29 crew members.

These Swimmers Are Finishing the Final Voyage of the ‘Edmund Fitzgerald,’ Which Sank in Lake Superior 50 Years Ago

Starting at the wreck site, 68 athletes are completing a 411-mile relay to honor the 29 men who died in the Great Lakes tragedy on November 10, 1975

The Earl of Chatham, previously a Royal Navy vessel called the HMS Hind, was discovered in February 2024 on the shores of Sanday.

America's 250th Anniversary

A Boy Found a Shipwreck on a Scottish Beach. It Turned Out to Be a 250-Year-Old Warship From the American Revolution

The HMS “Hind,” later renamed the “Earl of Chatham,” was a frigate in the British Royal Navy before it was repurposed as a whaling vessel

The destroyer was commissioned in 1942 and used in the Guadalcanal campaign.

Underwater Archaeologists Capture Photos of Japanese Warship That Hasn’t Been Seen Since It Sank During World War II

The “Teruzuki” was a Japanese Navy destroyer that sank near the Solomon Islands on December 12, 1942. Eight decades later, researchers have identified the wreckage in the Pacific

Brendon Baillod, president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association, and Kendra Kennedy, a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, used side-scan sonar to map a 2.5-mile stretch of the Fox River this spring.

Underwater Archaeologists Were Looking for a Lost Shipwreck in Wisconsin. They Stumbled Upon a Different Vessel Instead

Researchers think they have located the final resting place of the “L.W. Crane,” a wooden side-wheel steam ship that caught fire and sank in the Fox River in 1880

The structure and stamps on the base of the anchor helped researchers confirm the bow belonged to the USS New Orleans. The words "Navy Yard" are still visible through the marine growth.

Lost Bow of American Warship Found Eight Decades After It Was Blown Off by a Japanese Torpedo in World War II

After the attack, crews sailed the USS “New Orleans” backward for more than 1,000 miles across the Pacific. Since then, the location of the vessel’s bow has been a mystery

On June 10, state and tribal officials recovered the vessel from the water.

Cool Finds

This Dugout Canoe Made From a 12-Foot-Long Log Was Found Bobbing in a North Carolina River

The newly discovered vessel is one of 79 known dugout canoes that have been unearthed throughout the state

The team didn't use any maps throughout their 45-hour trip.

New Research

Scientists Built a Canoe Using Only Prehistoric Tools. Then They Sailed the Dangerous 140-Mile Route Early Humans Traveled 30,000 Years Ago

Five paddlers journeyed from Taiwan to Japan’s southern Yonaguni Island in 45 hours. Their efforts provide new insights into prehistoric mariners’ tools and techniques

The remains of what appears to be a Ford Model T truck have surfaced in Lake Lure.

Long-Lost Treasures Emerge From Lake During Hurricane Helene Recovery Efforts in North Carolina

Officials are draining the water from Lake Lure to remove sediment and debris, revealing historic objects embedded in the dry lakebed

I have an ancestor who was in Massachusetts in 1640. What is the best way to research ships that arrived before that time? 

How Do I Research Ancestors Who Sailed to America in the 1600s? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

The CSS Shenandoah surrendered to the British government in November 1865, after traveling 17,000 miles in just three months in hopes of evading capture by Union warships.

Untold Stories of American History

A Confederate Raider Fired the Final Shots of the Civil War in the Arctic, Two and a Half Months After Robert E. Lee Surrendered

The CSS “Shenandoah” only learned of the Confederacy’s defeat in the summer of 1865. That June, the cruiser’s crew sank 24 American merchant vessels, unaware that the conflict had already ended

These gold coins, known as cobs, date to 1707, the year before the San José sank.

Cool Finds

These Gold Coins May Solve the Mystery of the ‘World’s Richest Shipwreck,’ Confirming Its Identity as a Legendary 18th-Century Galleon

Minted in Peru in 1707, the money bolsters the evidence that the wreck is the Spanish ship “San José,” which sank off the Colombian coast in 1708 with treasure worth billions on board

The jugs and plates appear to have been made during the 16th century in Liguria, a seaside region in northwest Italy near the French border.

Rare 16th-Century Shipwreck Discovered at Record Depth in French Waters

The 98-foot-long vessel was transporting ceramic jugs, ceramic plates and metal bars when it sank off southeastern France nearly 500 years ago

The fading pages of the manuscript were sitting in a screened-in porch at a home in Barrington, Rhode Island, for years.

Untold Stories of American History

Tattered Pages Discovered in Storage Reveal an Enslaved Man’s Daring Bid for Freedom—and His Second Life at Sea

Historians are investigating the haunting handwritten manuscript, which chronicles Thomas White’s escape from slavery in Maryland and adventures around the world nearly 200 years ago

The wreck of the Joseph Cochrane, a 131-foot-long cargo schooner that sank in 1870, is located 563 feet from the Old Baileys Harbor Lighthouse in Lake Michigan.

Historians Set the Record Straight on This Misidentified 155-Year-Old Shipwreck in Lake Michigan

For years, experts thought a wreck near Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, was the “Christina Nilsson.” Recently, they realized it’s actually the “Joseph Cochrane,” which sank in 1870

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