Name and
Claim to Fame |
Image |
Type of Vessel
(Service Dates) |
Note |
Achille Lauro
—Hijacked in 1985 by four Palestinians; one passenger killed and thrown overboard. |

|
Dutch built passenger liner
—
(December 2, 1947 - Sank on December 2, 1994 due to fire) |
Originally named the Willem Ruys. |
Admiral, SS
—Was the largest river cruise ship in the world, sailing the Mississippi from
St. Louis; in 1979 converted to a land-based casino. |

|
American river steamboat (converted to diesel in 1974)
—
(1907 - currently not in service; may be scrapped) |
Started out as the side-wheeled steel hulled steamboat, the
Albatross; became the Admiral in the 1940s. |
Adventure Galley
—Captain Kidd’s flag ship. |

|
English galley
—
(1695 - 1698) |
Because she had become worm-eaten and leaky, Kidd ordered her to be burnt. |
America
—Won the Royal Yacht Squadron's 53 mile regatta around the Isle of Wight, August 22, 1851. |

|
American 19th century racing yacht (schooner)
—
(May 3, 1851 - Berthed at Annapolis, remnants removed and burned in 1945) |
Gave its name to the international sailing trophy, America’s Cup. |
Andrea Doria, SS
—Collided with the Stockholm in the Atlantic and sank. |

|
Italian luxury ocean liner
—
(January 14, 1953 - July 25, 1956) |
Named after Genoese admiral, 1466-1560. |
Arizona, USS
(BB-39)
—The sunken ship lies in Pearl Harbor with a memorial above it honoring the crew lost. |

|
American battleship
—
(October 17, 1916 - Sunk during the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack) |
The sunken ship continues to leak about a quart of oil per day into the harbor. |
Beagle, HMS
—Its second voyage carried Charles Darwin on his historic expedition. |

|
English two-masted sloop
—
(May 11, 1820 - Sold for scrap in 1870) |
Its captain was by Robert FitzRoy. |
Belle of Louisville
—Oldest continually operating steamboat in the United States. |

|
American river steamboat
—
(1914 - Still in use) |
Originally named the Idlewild. |
Bismarck
—At the Battle of Denmark Straits in May, 1941, fired upon the British battlecruiser
HMS Hood which sank within minutes. |

|
German battleship
—
(August 24, 1940 - Sunk by British forces May 27, 1941 in the North Atlantic) |
Relentlessly pursued and sunk by the Royal Navy following Winston Churchill’s
order “Sink the Bismarck”. |
Bluebird K7
—Set seven world water speed records between 1955 and 1964, reaching 276.33 mph (444.71 km/h). |

|
British jet powered hydroplane
—
(Early 1955 - Flipped and disintegrated at high speed January 4, 1967, killing Campbell |
Developed and piloted by Donald Campbell. |
Bonhomme Richard, USS
—Warship commanded by John Paul Jones. |

|
American frigate
—
(February 4, 1779 - Sank in battle September 25, 1779) |
Defeated HMS Serapis in the Battle of Flamborough Head. |
Bounty, HMS
—Mutiny aboard ship, April 28, 1789, led by Fletcher Christian against Captain William Bligh. |

|
English three-mast collier
—
(1784 - Was burned by the mutineers on January 23, 1790) |
Its mission to pick up breadfruit plants from Tahiti and transport them
to the West Indies. |
Calypso
—Oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau sailed her as a mobile laboratory for field research. |

|
American minesweeper, ferry; refitted for research
—
(March 21, 1941 - Struck from the Naval Register in 1947) |
Carried advanced equipment, including mini submarines. |
Central America, SS
—Sank in a hurricane in 1857, along with 400 passengers and crew and 30,000 pounds of gold. |

|
American three-masted sidewheel steamer
—
(October 28, 1852 - Sank September 12, 1857 about 160 miles east of Cape Hattera) |
Originally named SS George Law; came to be known
as “the ship of gold”. |
Clermont
(North River Steamboat)
—The first enduring and financially successful steamboat, running from New York to Albany. |

|
American steamboat
—
(August, 1807 - Retired in 1814, scrapped) |
Never known as Clermont at the time, but
North River Steamboat; after it was lengthened and refitted in 1808 at
Clermont, NY, it was named the North River. |
Cole, USS
—Suicide attack against it on October 12 2000 |

|
Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer
—
(February 10, 1995 - Still in service) |
Seventeen American sailors were killed in the incident whil harbored
in the Yemeni port of Aden. |
Constitution, USS
(Old Ironsides)
—Oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world. |

|
American three-masted heavy frigate
—
(October 21, 1797 - Now on display) |
Larger and more heavily armed than the standard frigates of the period. |
Cutty Sark
—Lost China-to-London race to ship called Thermopylae. |

|
British clipper ship
—
(February 16, 1870 - Put on display December, 1954) |
Preserved as a museum ship located at Greenwich, England. |
Deutschland
—A blockade-breaking German merchant submarine used during World War I. |

|
German submarine
—
(February 19, 1917 - Broken up at Morecambe in 1922) |
First submarine to cross the Atlantic Ocean. |
Discovery
—The ship that carried Scott and Shackleton on their first successful journey to the Antarctic. |

|
British three-masted barque
—
(March 21, 1901 - Museum ship in Dundee, Scotland) |
She was locked in the ice of the Antacrtic for two years. The ship was eventually freed in February, 1904 by the use of controlled explosives |
Dreadnought, HMS
—First “all-big-gun” armament and steam turbine propulsion. |

|
British dreadnought battleship
—
(February 10, 1906 - Sold for scrap 1923) |
Revolutionized naval power; started naval arms race. |
Edmund Fitzgerald, SS
—Sank suddenly during a gale storm on Lake Superior without a distress signal. |

|
American lake freighter
—
(June 8, 1958 - Lost in a storm on November 10, 1975) |
All 29 members were lost. |
Endurance
(Christened Polaris)
—Used by Sir Ernest Shackleton for the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. |

| Norweigen
three-masted barquentine (1)
—
(December 17, 1912 - Crushed by pack ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915) |
One of the strongest wooden ship ever built. |
Enterprise, USS
—World’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. |

|
American aircraft carrier
—
(September 24, 1960 - Still in use) |
As one of the oldest carriers in the fleet, she is scheduled for decommissioning in 2014-2015. |
Essex
—Was the inspiration for Herman Melville's 1851 classic novel Moby-Dick. |

|
American whaleship, a three-masted bark
—
(Around 1800 - November 20, 1820) |
Left Nantucket in 1819 on a whaling voyage in the South Pacific with 21 aboard.
It was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean. Only two men survived. |
Exxon Valdez
(later Sea River Mediterranean)
—Spilled millions of gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound. |

|
American oil tanker
—
(October 14, 1986 - Still in use) |
Ran aground trying to avoid ice. |
Flying Cloud
—Sailed from New York to San Francisco in 89 days, more than 16,000 miles. |

|
American clipper ship
—
(1851 - Went aground June 19, 1874) |
Its navigator was a woman, Eleanor Creesy. |
Fram
—Used in expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers. |

|
Norwegian schooner
—
(1892 - Currently on display at the Fram Museum, Oslo) |
Most likely the strongest ship ever built; sailed farthest north and south
than any other wooden ship. |
General Slocum
—Caught fire and burned to the water line in New York’s East River on
June 15, 1904 killing 1,021 people. |

|
American river steamboat; sidewheeler
—
(April 18, 1891 - The remains were recovered and converted into a barge, which sank
in a storm in 1911) |
Named after Major General Henry Warner Slocum (1827-94). |
Glomar Explorer
—Built for a secret operation by the CIA to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, K-129,
which was lost in April 1968. |

|
American deep sea exploration ship
—
(July 1, 1971 - currently operates as the GSF Explorer) |
Converted into a deep sea oil drilling ship in 1997. |
Golden Hind
—Circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. |

|
English galleon
—
(Probably 1576 - In dry dock for decades where it rotted away) |
Originally known as the Pelican,
but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage. |
Graf Spee, Admiral
—Though size was limited by the Treaty of Versailles, she was as heavily armed as a
battleship. Sank nine Allied merchant ships. |

|
German pocket battleship
—
(January 6, 1936 - Scuttled December 17, 1939) |
Afterwards, ships of this size were called heavy cruisers. |
Great Eastern, SS
—The world’s largest steamship; successfully laid cable across the Atlantic ocean cable. |

|
British iron sailing steamship
—
(January 31, 1858 - Broken up 1889) |
Completed 45 crossings in eight years; then used for carrying mail, then troops. |
Great Republic, SS
—The largest wooden clipper ship ever constructed, requiring 1,500,000 feet of pine,
336 1/2 tons of iron, and 56 tons of copper. |

|
American four-masted clipper
—
(October 4, 1853 - abandoned during a hurricane off Bermuda, March 5, 1872) |
In 1853, fire sank her; but she was salvaged and rebuilt as a three deck vessel and
went on to set trans-Atlantic speed records. |
Great Western, SS
—The first steamship built for crossing the Atlantic; completed the crossing in April, 1838. |

|
British two-paddle steamship
—
(July 19, 1837 - Taken out of service December, 1846) |
In later years, used as a showboat, a floating palace/concert hall and gymnasium. |
Half Moon
(De Halve Maen)
—Henry Hudson’s ship looking for Northwest Passage. |

|
Dutch square-rigged, three-masted wooden sailing vessel
—
(March 25, 1609 - In 1618 the ship was destroyed during an English attack on Jakarta) |
Englishman Henry Hudson was in the service of the Dutch East India Company. |
Hood, HMS
—Last battlecruiser built by Britain. |

|
British battlecruiser
—
(May 15, 1920 - Sunk by the German battleship Bismarck
at the Battle of the Denmark Straits, May, 1941) |
Of the 1,418 aboard, only three men survived. |
Hunley, H.L.
—During the American Civil War, the first submarine to sink a ship. |

|
Confederate submarine
—
(July 1863 - Sank after attacking and sinking USS Housatonic
in Charleston Harbor February 17, 1864) |
Attacked by embedding a barbed spar torpedo into the foe’s hull and detonating
t as she backed away. |
|
NOTES:
(1)
(Endurance) A sailing vessel with three or more masts, and with a square rigged foremast and only fore-and-aft
rigged sails on the main, mizzen and any other masts. —
|