Name and

Claim to Fame

Image

Type of Vessel

(Service Dates)

Note

Achille Lauro

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Hijacked in 1985 by four Palestinians; one passenger killed and thrown overboard.

Dutch built passenger liner

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(December 2, 1947 - Sank on December 2, 1994 due to fire)

Originally named the Willem Ruys.

Admiral, SS

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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)

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(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

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Captain Kidd’s flag ship.

English galley

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(1695 - 1698)

Because she had become worm-eaten and leaky, Kidd ordered her to be burnt.

America

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Won the Royal Yacht Squadron's 53 mile regatta around the Isle of Wight, August 22, 1851.

American 19th century racing yacht (schooner)

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(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

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Collided with the Stockholm in the Atlantic and sank.

Italian luxury ocean liner

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(January 14, 1953 - July 25, 1956)

Named after Genoese admiral, 1466-1560.

Arizona, USS

(BB-39)

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The sunken ship lies in Pearl Harbor with a memorial above it honoring the crew lost.

American battleship

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(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

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Its second voyage carried Charles Darwin on his historic expedition.

English two-masted sloop

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(May 11, 1820 - Sold for scrap in 1870)

Its captain was by Robert FitzRoy.

Belle of Louisville

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Oldest continually operating steamboat in the United States.

American river steamboat

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(1914 - Still in use)

Originally named the Idlewild.

Bismarck

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At the Battle of Denmark Straits in May, 1941, fired upon the British battlecruiser HMS Hood which sank within minutes.

German battleship

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(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

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Set seven world water speed records between 1955 and 1964, reaching 276.33 mph (444.71 km/h).

British jet powered hydroplane

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(Early 1955 - Flipped and disintegrated at high speed January 4, 1967, killing Campbell

Developed and piloted by Donald Campbell.

Bonhomme Richard, USS

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Warship commanded by John Paul Jones.

American frigate

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(February 4, 1779 - Sank in battle September 25, 1779)

Defeated HMS Serapis in the Battle of Flamborough Head.

Bounty, HMS

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Mutiny aboard ship, April 28, 1789, led by Fletcher Christian against Captain William Bligh.

English three-mast collier

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(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

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Oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau sailed her as a mobile laboratory for field research.

American minesweeper, ferry; refitted for research

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(March 21, 1941 - Struck from the Naval Register in 1947)

Carried advanced equipment, including mini submarines.

Central America, SS

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Sank in a hurricane in 1857, along with 400 passengers and crew and 30,000 pounds of gold.

American three-masted sidewheel steamer

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(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)

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The first enduring and financially successful steamboat, running from New York to Albany.

American steamboat

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(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

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Suicide attack against it on October 12 2000

Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer

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(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)

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Oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world.

American three-masted heavy frigate

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(October 21, 1797 - Now on display)

Larger and more heavily armed than the standard frigates of the period.

Cutty Sark

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Lost China-to-London race to ship called Thermopylae.

British clipper ship

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(February 16, 1870 - Put on display December, 1954)

Preserved as a museum ship located at Greenwich, England.

Deutschland

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A blockade-breaking German merchant submarine used during World War I.

German submarine

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(February 19, 1917 - Broken up at Morecambe in 1922)

First submarine to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Discovery

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The ship that carried Scott and Shackleton on their first successful journey to the Antarctic.

British three-masted barque

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(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

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First “all-big-gun” armament and steam turbine propulsion.

British dreadnought battleship

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(February 10, 1906 - Sold for scrap 1923)

Revolutionized naval power; started naval arms race.

Edmund Fitzgerald, SS

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Sank suddenly during a gale storm on Lake Superior without a distress signal.

American lake freighter

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(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

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Sailed from New York to San Francisco in 89 days, more than 16,000 miles.

American clipper ship

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(1851 - Went aground June 19, 1874)

Its navigator was a woman, Eleanor Creesy.

Fram

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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