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Ships

For several months, archaeologists carried fragments of the shipwreck to the surface.

Divers Recover Ancient Shipwreck That Sank 2,600 Years Ago Off the Coast of Spain

Piece by piece, experts carefully transported the Phoenician vessel to dry land, where it will be studied and preserved

The USS Cobia floats in the Manitowoc River outside the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

You Can Spend the Night on a Fully Restored World War II Submarine

The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is home to the USS “Cobia,” a 312-foot-long vessel that completed six war patrols during World War II

Fascinating finds unveiled in 2024 ranged from a jade Maya funerary mask to a Roman dodecahedron.

Cool Finds

Seventy-Seven Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2024, From a Mysterious ‘Anomaly’ Near the Great Pyramid of Giza to a Missing Portrait of Henry VIII

The year’s most exciting discoveries included musket balls fired in the early days of the American Revolution, a lost composition by Mozart and a medieval chess piece

HMS Beagle sails through the Straits of Magellan

On This Day in History

On This Day in 1831, Charles Darwin Embarked on a Journey That Led to His Groundbreaking Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

Darwin was just 22 when he set out on a voyage that would change the way humanity understands itself and the natural world

Over the centuries, mollusks have eaten away at the ship's hull, which was constructed using the "on the shell" technique.

Divers Discover 2,500-Year-Old Shipwreck Off the Coast of Sicily

Dating to the fifth or sixth century B.C.E., the vessel could provide new insights into the relationship between the ancient Greeks and Carthaginians

A 1583 portrait of Sir Francis Drake

On This Day in History

In 1577, an English Explorer Set Out to Circumnavigate the World. Here’s What His Groundbreaking Journey Accomplished

Francis Drake’s successful voyage included British sailors’ arrival in California and the plundering of a glut of Spanish riches that sustained Elizabeth I’s empire

While roughly three dozen of the stolen coins have been recovered, 13 are still at large.

A Trove of Gold Coins Stolen From 300-Year-Old Florida Shipwrecks Has Been Recovered by Investigators

Contracted divers found 101 gold coins from the wreckage of a Spanish fleet in 2015, but they only reported 51 to authorities. Now, 37 of the stolen coins have been found

An illustration of the Mary Celeste in 1861, when the ship was known as the Amazon

On This Day in History

An Abandoned Merchant Ship Was Discovered Floating in the Atlantic in 1872. The Mystery of Its Missing Crew Was Never Solved

Speculation about what happened to the “Mary Celeste,” found empty on this day in 1872, was so rife that even famed author Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a sensational short story about it

Archaeologists Caesar Bita and Filipe Castro dove to investigate the wreck.

New Research

A Mysterious Shipwreck Rests Just 20 Feet Below the Surface. It May Be Connected to Vasco da Gama’s Final Voyage

Researchers think a coral-covered vessel discovered off the Kenyan coast could be the “São Jorge,” a galleon that sank 500 years ago

A painting of the capture of Blackbeard on November 22, 1718

On This Day in History

How British Authorities Finally Caught Up to the Most Notorious Pirate in History

On this day in 1718, the Royal Navy attacked and killed Blackbeard, also known as Edward Teach, off the coast of North Carolina

A whale attacks a boat in Frank Goodrich's 1858 novel "Man upon the sea : or, a history of maritime adventure, exploration, and discovery, from the earliest ages to the present time".

On This Day in History

Inside the Terrifying True Story of the Sperm Whale That Sank the Whale-Ship ‘Essex’ and Inspired Herman Melville’s ‘Moby-Dick’

Survivors of the whale attack drifted at sea for months, succumbing to starvation, dehydration—and even cannibalism

The postcard is stamped April 11, 1912, just a few days before the Titanic sank.

Before the Titanic Sank, a Cheerful Passenger Wrote in a Postcard That He Was ‘Leaving for the Land of Stars and Stripes’

A handwritten note by Richard William Smith, a British businessman who perished in the disaster, is heading to the auction block, where it could sell for up to $12,600

Japanese forces sank the USS Edsall on March 1, 1942, in the Indian Ocean.

Wreck of World War II Ship Known as the ‘Dancing Mouse’ Discovered at the Bottom of the Indian Ocean

The USS “Edsall,” a 314-foot-long destroyer, fought off Japanese forces for more than an hour before sinking beneath the surface on March 1, 1942

Collectors can bid on 1.6 ounces of coal salvaged from the Titanic in 1994.

Coal Recovered From the Titanic and Thousands of Other Historic Shipwreck Artifacts Are Going to Auction

The Shipwreck Treasure Museum in Cornwall, England, is selling its collection, which includes items connected to nearly 150 shipwrecks

The Endurance was discovered resting on the seafloor east of the Antarctic Peninsula in 2022.

See the Wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ‘Endurance’ in Astonishing Detail With This New 3D Scan

Created from more than 25,000 high-resolution images, the digital model shows artifacts from the ill-fated expedition, including a boot, dishes and a flare gun

A high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar image of the USS Stewart, also known as the "Ghost Ship of the Pacific"

Cool Finds

This Newly Discovered Sunken Warship Served on Both Sides of World War II

The USS Stewart was purposefully sunk off the coast of California after the war

Underwater photos revealed the John Evenson's giant propeller.

This Shipwreck’s Location Was a Mystery for 129 Years. Then, Two Men Found It Just Minutes Into a Three-Day Search

The “John Evenson” tugboat was helping another ship enter the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal in Wisconsin when it sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan in 1895

James Fitzjames was a captain aboard the HMS Erebus. Now, researchers have identified his remains with DNA analysis.

DNA Reveals Identity of Officer on the Lost Franklin Expedition—and His Remains Show Signs of Cannibalism

Researchers recently identified James Fitzjames, a captain on the ill-fated HMS Erebus that went looking for the Northwest Passage in 1845

Visitors touring the Galeón Andalucía in the town of Ramsgate, England, earlier this year

You Can Climb Aboard a Massive Reproduction of a 17th-Century Spanish Galleon That’s Sailing Around the World

The Galeón Andalucía, which is now making its way to London, was designed to resemble the armed merchant vessels manufactured by Spain and Portugal between the 16th and 18th centuries

Survivors of the Indianapolis disaster en route to a hospital following their rescue in August 1945

The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis Triggered the Worst Shark Attack in History

In the final weeks of World War II, a Japanese torpedo sank an American heavy cruiser. Only 316 of the 900 sailors who survived the initial attack were ultimately rescued

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