51 Items Tagged

Maritime History

New York, New York

Wavertree

After traveling the world, the last remaining fully-rigged three masted iron-hulled cargo ship in the world found its home in New York.

Port Glasgow, Scotland

Shipbuilders of Port Glasgow

A sculpture dedicated to this town’s rich shipbuilding heritage.

Candidates for the most dangerous seas in the world include the North Atlantic, the Southern Ocean, especially the Drake Passage, and the waters near the Cape of Good Hope.

Where Are the World's Most Dangerous Seas?

From the Drake Passage to the Bermuda Triangle, these waters have a reputation for death and destruction.

Laura Kiniry July 16, 2024

Antonio Pigafetta Memorial and Birthplace

A memorial to the Vicentine who survived and documented Magellan's circumnavigation of the world.

Isle of Wight, England

Longshoreman's Museum

An unusual seafront museum hides behind an unassuming Ventnor giftshop.

Remains of whalers' wooden coffins and gravestones at Smeerenburg, in the northwest region of the Svalbard Archipelago.

Svalbard's Lonely Whaler Graves Included Burial Kits With Pieces of Distant Homes

For centuries, the cruel industry decimated entire whale species—and claimed countless human lives. Whalers arrived prepared for their own deaths.

Nicky Nielsen April 17, 2024

Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver Maritime Museum

Step aboard the first ship to circumnavigate North America.

Morro Bay, California

Morro Bay Maritime Museum

A wealth of seafaring history displayed on the California coast.

Over time water has a way of turning wrecks into otherworldly archaeological sites.

The Year in Wrecks, Lost Ships, and Underwater Discoveries

From unexpected treasure in Ukraine to a unique relic of the American Revolution, Captain Santa’s lost ship to digital dugouts.

Gemma Tarlach December 27, 2023

In late June, weeks after the catastrophic destruction of Ukraine's Kakhovka Dam, lowered water levels upriver revealed this ancient boat.

The Kakhovka Dam Disaster Revealed an Archaeological 'Goldmine'

Destruction of the Ukrainian dam unleashed a catastrophic flood—and surfaced centuries of cultural heritage. Now there's a call not to rebuild it.

Roman Cherevko September 26, 2023

Brigadier General Benedict Arnold lost the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776—as well as several of the young navy's ships, including the gunboat <em>Spitfire</em>—but the skirmish bought the Continental Army much-needed time in the war.

Benedict Arnold's Lake Champlain Gunboat Is the Last Shipwreck of Its Kind

Preserved in the lake's chilly waters for more than 200 years, the Spitfire now faces a new threat.

Hope Hodge Seck September 19, 2023

An artist's rendering of Black Caesar, Biscayne Bay's notorious pirate, who likely did not exist.

Chasing Black Caesar, Southern Florida's Notorious Pirate

Was the terror of Biscayne Bay a man who escaped slavery, an African chieftain, or a marketing ploy that went viral?

Karuna Eberl September 6, 2023

A rusty ship sits on a grassy riverbank.

Black River Ghost Ship

A former Canadian automobile ferry mysteriously appeared in the Black River 20 years ago, and now it quietly rusts away.

Mayflower on Rotherhithe

London, England

Rotherhithe Street

The arching stretch of London's longest street holds many reminders of the area's maritime past.

Salvador, Brazil

Forte de Santo Antônio da Barra

This 17th-century Portuguese fort now houses a nautical museum.

For decades, the nonprofit Diving With a Purpose has trained young Black men, women and teenagers in maritime archaeology methods.

The Hunt for an Elusive Florida Shipwreck That Killed 41 Enslaved People

Searching for the slave ship Guerrero, the nonprofit Diving With a Purpose has also trained scores of young Black men and women to find and tell stories once lost to the waves.

Karuna Eberl February 27, 2023

The Tamil Bell, the broken crown of a ship's bell embossed with Tamil script, has fascinated and perplexed scholars for more than a century.

objects of intrigue

The Mystery of New Zealand's Tamil Bell, an Archaeological 'UFO'

The strange bronze artifact perplexed scholars for more than a century, including how it traveled so far from home.

Petrina Darrah February 8, 2023

Divers on the site of the <em>São José Paquete D'Africa</em> wreck off the northwestern coast of Cape Town, South Africa.

Near Cape Town, the São José Shipwreck Is a Unique Symbol of A Painful Legacy

More than 200 enslaved people perished when the Portuguese ship sank in 1794.

Sam Jones February 6, 2023