The small, 340-ton São José-Paquete de Africa set out from Mozambique in December 1794. Even though the ship was no more than no more than 130 feet long (and probably closer to 100), the crew had packed 543 captive people aboard. The crew shackled them in place to prevent them ...read more
Off the Bulgarian coast, just over a mile beneath the surface of the Black Sea, archaeologists have discovered what they believe is the world’s oldest intact shipwreck. Measuring some 75 feet (23 meters) long, the ship is thought to be an ancient Greek trading vessel. With its ...read more
The R.M.S. Titanic has gone down as one of the most famous ships in history for its lavish design and tragic fate. It was a massive 46,000-ton ship, measuring 882 feet long and 175 feet high. The "Ship of Dreams" included a swimming pool, gym, Turkish baths, a ...read more
In July 1931, the Danish freighter Pennsylvania wrecked on the coast of the island of Swona, in the North Sea of Scotland. The captain, wary for good reason, refused a local lifeboat’s assistance and waited to have his crew rescued by a Copenhagen boat. Once the crew left, ...read more
After 75 years, wrecked remains of a U.S. Navy destroyer, cleaved in two during World War II by an underwater explosion, has been located in frigid waters off the Aleutian island of Kiska. A NOAA-funded team of scientists discovered the stern of the USS Abner Read on the ...read more
How could the biggest ship in the U.S. Navy vanish without trace? This was the question on many people’s minds in March 1918, when an enormous collier, the USS Cyclops, disappeared on a voyage between the West Indies to Baltimore. A century on, it’s no closer to being ...read more
It was the first submarine in history to successfully sink an enemy ship. Made out of 40 feet of bulletproof iron, the H.L. Hunley was a Confederate submarine with a crew of eight. But despite its claim to fame, it was a dangerous vessel to be inside. In a career of just eight ...read more
When salvagers found a 300-year-old ship at the bottom of the Caribbean near the coast of Colombia three years ago, they claimed it was the “holy grail” of shipwrecks—the legendary San Jose galleon, a Spanish ship rumored to contain up to $17 billion in treasure. Now, the ...read more
As a last-ditch search effort for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 wraps up in the Indian Ocean, one of history’s greatest aviation mysteries endures. But in an unexpected twist, historians in Australia say the massive search effort for the missing Boeing 777 has uncovered the fate ...read more
From the surface, the water was dark green—the Royal Navy diver peering down from the little boat could see no more than a few feet. Slipping into the sea, he adjusted the air valves on his heavy diving helmet and allowed the weights affixed to his body to drag him down to the ...read more
More than 50 years after the international slave trade was outlawed in the United States, an Alabama plantation owner bet a friend that he could smuggle in a group of slaves from Africa aboard an 86-foot sailboat named the Clotilda.But in July 1860, on their way back to Alabama ...read more
Amazing discoveries came to light nearly every single month in 2017. Take a chronological journey back through 15 of the year’s most intriguing historical events, from archaeological finds and fascinating DNA evidence to newly uncovered documents that change our understanding of ...read more
You probably already knew that Jack and Rose, the main characters in the 1997 movie Titanic, weren’t real. Like all films “based on a true story,” the movie added its own fictional elements to historical events. But during the film, Jack and Rose do run into several characters ...read more
Twenty fathoms beneath the waters of Lough Swilly, a glacial fjord off the coast of Ireland’s County Donegal, lies more than $10 million worth of gold.That’s all that remains of a massive cache of sunken treasure lost during World War I on the HMS Laurentic, an armed British ...read more
In August 2017, researchers announced they had found one of history’s most significant—and sought-after—shipwrecks. More than 72 years after it sank in July 1945, the final resting place of USS Indianapolis has been discovered in the Pacific Ocean. But the heavy cruiser isn’t ...read more
Since the sinking of the Titanic on the fateful night of April 14, 1912 (in which more than 1,500 people lost their lives), it’s estimated that fewer than 200 people have visited its final resting place. The last crewed mission was in 2005, while a remote-operated vehicle ...read more
On August 31, the first day of the second expedition to the Antikythera shipwreck this season, the team of divers excavating the wreck made a stunning find about 165 feet (50 meters) below the surface. As Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic ...read more
Though not the largest or fastest ocean liner of its era, the 697-foot Andrea Doria was widely regarded as the most beautiful. Its decks were dotted with three outdoor swimming pools, and it was dubbed a “floating art gallery” for its dazzling array of paintings, tapestries and ...read more
Named in honor of Augustus Caesar, founder of the Roman Empire, the ancient port of Caesarea served as an important center of early Christianity in the Roman world. It is located off the coast of present-day Israel some 35 miles north of Tel Aviv and 27 miles south of Haifa, and ...read more
Just six days after the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring a naval blockade of the southern coast stretching from South Carolina to Texas (it was later extended north to North Carolina and Virginia). For the remainder of ...read more
Built in 1903 at the Belfast shipyards of Harland and Wolff, RMS Republic was originally christened Columbus and intended for service on the Dominion Line, a transatlantic route between Liverpool and Boston, among other ports on the eastern coast of the United States and Canada. ...read more
The whaling ships’ captains waited for a change in the winds, but it never came. Instead, some 33 vessels remained trapped in the conjoined mass of floating ice shards known as pack ice that had formed in the Arctic waters off the Alaskan coast. In similar incidents in previous ...read more
1. Santa MariaChristopher Columbus famously set sail on his first voyage to the New World with three ships—the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria—but only two returned to Spain. On Christmas Eve 1492, the sailor charged with steering the flagship Santa Maria handed the wheel ...read more
As sunlight waned over the coast of Colombia on June 8, 1708, José Fernández de Santillán cursed the listless wind. The Spanish admiral knew the safe refuge of Cartagena was only 16 miles away, but the absence of any breeze had turned his sprint for safety into an interminable ...read more