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United Fruit Company's new SS ANTIGUA at Los Angeles in 1932. One of six sister ships in this class, three were in service San Francisco to Balboa and three were in service New York to Cristobal. For "banana boats" these ships offered many big ... -
The steamship SS Koombana sunk off Port Hedland during a cyclone with the loss of all 150 people aboard. SS Koombana was a passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1908 for the Adelaide Steamship Company, for coastal liner services between ... -
Originally built as the Famaka for the Khedivial Mail Steamship & Graving Dock Co. From 1927 she was chartered by the AUSN Co and renamed Ormiston. Ownership changed in 1933 to Eastern Traders of Hong Kong and then to St Mary Axe Securities Ltd, but ... -
The mystery ship: København was a Danish, British-built five-masted barque used as a naval training vessel until its disappearance after December 22, 1928. Built for the Danish East Asiatic Company in 1921, it was the world's largest sailing ship ... -
On 16 June 1897 HMS Foudroyant is forced on to Blackpool beach by a storm. At nearly 100 years she had launched straight into the French Revolutionary Wars in 1798. The 80 gun warship soon saw action at the Battle of Tory Island, which marked the ... -
In May of 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed America to landing an astronaut on the moon by 1970. Preparations to accomplish this amazing feat began soon thereafter. In addition to the actual rocket and space capsule, worldwide communication ... -
On November 18, 1914, three ships transporting lumber across Lake Superior encountered a fierce storm. Amid heavy snowfall, strong winds and massive waves, the vessels—the steamship C.F. Curtis, which was towing the schooner barges Selden E. ... -
DNA analysis has revealed that a woman was among the 30 who died when the ‘Vasa’ sank on its maiden voyage. Scientists are still making new discoveries about the Vasa, the world’s best preserved 17th-century ship. In 1628, the Swedish warship ... -
At the present time her Majesty's gunboat Paluma is aground in the Botanic Gardens. A Courier reporter had a conversation with Captain Pirie on Monday morning in the Colonial Secretary's office, whither the commander had gone to report the mishap. ... -
The modern car carrier could not have evolved without the period of dual-purpose and converted ships. Today, a car carrier is referred to as a pure car carrier (PCC) or a pure car and truck carrier (PCTC). Looking like a floating garage, the ... -
"Lieutenant David Collins wrote in his journal in 1793 that the introduction of the first private ferries, the Passage Boats, was "amongst the conveniences now enjoyed in the colony". They were, he said, "allowed to go between Sydney and Parramatta" ... -
The Polynesian peoples have long been known as incredibly skilled sailors, and have navigated the vast and seemingly empty expanse of ocean - in search of new islands to settle. This they did with amazing success: Polynesians now inhabit a number of ... -
On the night of 28 February 1890 the ship's master was Captain Sanders, with Captain Keatinge aboard piloting the ship through the Torres Strait. Destined for Thursday Island, the ship turned into the Adolphus Channel to round the Cape York ... -
Sanko Harvest was a 32,502 DWT dry bulk carrier that sank off Esperance, Western Australia after striking a charted reef on 14 February 1991. The Korean-crewed Japanese-owned ship was 174 metres (571 ft) long and was carrying a cargo of 32,790 ... -
SS Warilda built in 1912 for the Adelaide Steamship Company...designed for the East-West Australian coastal service...due to the start of WW1, she served as troop transport, renamed HMAT Warilda, then converted into a hospital ship...1918 she was ... -
She was sailing to the UK from Australia, and disappeared off the coast of South Africa with 211 passengers and crew. SS Waratah was a passenger and cargo steamship built in 1908 for the Blue Anchor Line to operate between Europe and Australia. In ... -
MV Tatsuta Maru launched in 1929 for Nippon Yusen KK, Tokyo, and delivered in 1930, sister ship to MV Asama Maru completed the year before...maiden voyage Yokohama-San Francisco...1938 transliteration of name changed to Tatuta Maru...1941 taken over ... -
The British clipper ship Thermopylae arrived in Melbourne on 9 January 1868, having sailed from London in the record time of 63 days. She left left Gravesend, Kent, on November 7 1868, on her maiden voyage for Melbourne, under the command of ... -
The Swedish American Line ocean liner Gripsholm photographed in Copenhagen (prob.) on her first visit in 1957. My restoration and colorization of a Hansen & Pedersen image in the Maritime Museum of Sweden. "MS Gripsholm was a combined ocean ... -
Few archaeological discoveries grab headlines like the discovery of a long-lost shipwreck. 2022 was the year that the long-lost ship of the legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton, the Endurance, was discovered. The ship first sank off the coast of ... -
MS Monte Rosa built in 1931 for the Hamburg-South America Line...maiden voyage Hamburg-La Plata ports and cruising... 1940 used as naval accommodation ship at Stettin... 1942 served as troop transport Denmark-Norway... 1943-1944 served as ... -
Ample archaeological and geological evidence has now been uncovered that suggests archaic humans were building boats and crossing the Aegean Sea as long as 450,000 years ago, the authors of a new article in Quaternary International report. This is ... -
Beach erosion caused by Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole has revealed the remains of a 19th-century shipping vessel in Florida. When a mysterious structure made of wood and metal began to emerge from the sand in Daytona Beach Shores in Volusia ... -
On 20th July 1939 the Dutch freighter ALGENIB arrived in Sydney. On board were about 300 tons of onions originally shipped from Egypt. Delays at Bombay meant the voyage took longer than expected and bad weather had limited the opportunity of ... -
The Cunard White Star liner AQUITANIA as a troopship at Woolloomooloo, Sydney in December 1945. She had arrived on 28th November with over 4,000 servicemen onboard including Australians returning from Britain and left on the 10th December with a ... -
A good view of the Burns Philp passenger ship S.S. MARELLA at the Circular Quay West wharves in Sydney around 1930 with the still to be completed Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background. She was built in 1916 in Germany for the Woermann Line. After ... -
The Australian Hospital Ship HMAHS KANOWNA in Farm Cove during World War One. Built in 1903 for the Australian United Steam Navigation Co. KANOWNA was a popular passenger ship on the Australian coastal routes until requisitioned by the Government ... -
The vessel is located 1,350 feet below the surface of Lake Mjøsa Archaeologists surveying the bottom of Norway’s largest lake believe they’ve discovered the remains of a 700-year-old ship, the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment announced in ... -
Under the command of Captain Henry Down RNR, Chusan was the first P. and O. steamship to operate a regular mail ship service between the United Kingdom and Australia, via Singapore. She was also only the second steamship to trade in Australian ... -
On November 21, 1927, Maton Line's SS Malolo (the Hawaiian word for "Flying Fish") was welcomed on her maiden arrival in Honolulu, Hawaii, by 20,000 spectators and 16 war canoes. The paint scoured off of her bow was a common in sign of a maiden ... -
The US Transport MOUNT VERNON (AP-22) aground at Balmain, Sydney during her arrival from Auckland on 12 October 1942. She was pulled clear by tugs the same day with no apparent damage. Built as the luxury liner SS WASHINGTON she entered service ... -
On November 28, 1946, the wreck of the capsized USS Lafayette (formerly CGT's Normandie) was towed to Newark, New Jersey, for demolition. The huge, grey, water-logged, but still-sleek hull had been righted by the U.S. Navy at an estimated cost of ... -
It is 1913 and the 4 masted barque Pekingputs to sea with 60000 bags of sodium nitrate in her belly, heading towards Hamburg, her home Port which she will reach in 84 days. Peking was built by Blohm & Voss for the firm of F. Laeisz; a German ... -
MV City of Rayville hit a mine in Bass Strait. She was the first American vessel sunk during World War II, sunk by a German mine off the coast of southern Australia. Over three nights in November 1940, the German minelaying ship Passat, a captured ... -
On 3 November 1927 the Sydney ferry Greycliffe was cut in half by the liner RMS Tahiti, killing 40 persons. The Greycliffe disaster occurred in Sydney Harbour on 3 November 1927 when the harbour ferry Greycliffe and the Union Steamship Company ... -
SS Conte Rosso launched in 1921 but stuck after a few yards, delaying the launch by a couple of weeks, completed in 1922 for Lloyd Sabaudo, Genoa...maiden voyage Genoa-Buenos Aires...1932 to newly formed Italia Line...first voyage ... -
This photo was taken from Tuckurimba on the North Arm of the Richmond River (now Wilson River). The boat is the Captain T Fenwick and the young lads have just enlisted at Lismore and are on their way to Ballina to get a steamer to Sydney and head ... -
1923 Mongolia was delivered to P&O and laid up for sale in 1937 1938 Mongolia was transferred under long term charter to New Zealand Shipping Company and renamed Rimutaka 1950 the ship was renovated to become the Incres Nassau line’s SS ... -
On 1 November 1914, 36 transport ships carrying the first contingents of the Australian Imperial Force and New Zealand Expeditionary Force sailed out from King George Sound in Albany, Western Australia. The transport vessels were guarded by the ... -
On October 13, 1902, a steamship full of iron ore was towing a uniquely shaped barge across Lake Superior. The two ships encountered a powerful storm, which snapped the towline connecting them, leaving Barge 129 at the mercy of the winds. The crew ... -
Union Rotoiti of Union SS Co of New Zealand. One of a number of gas turbine merchant ships built in Australia in the mid-70s, nobody gave much thought to fuel costs. The folly was soon realised, with some ships sent to an early grave whilst others, ... -
As a species, humanity has always been shockingly gifted at finding new ways to kill one another. As wars have raged over the millennia, armaments have had to evolve. This has led to some genuinely brilliant ingenuity. Take for example the Korean ... -
One hundred and ten years ago, in April of 1912, the TITANIC hit an iceberg and two and a half hours later sank. Of the roughly 2,200 persons onboard, about 700 survived, 1,500 were lost. Within minutes of the fatal collision the Titanic sent out a ... -
The historical figure Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who remains famous for the first circumnavigation of the earth, proving that the earth is round. However, the voyage was dogged by misfortune, storms and mutinies, and Magellan ... -
21 September 1957 – Pamir, a four-masted barque, was shipwrecked and sank off the Azores during Hurricane Carrie. Pamir was a four-masted barque built for the German shipping company F. Laeisz. One of their famous Flying P-Liners, Laeisz sold her ... -
The “Nankin” was originally built as “Mount Holyoke Victory” at the Kaiser Richmond (former Permanente Metals Corporation) No. 2 shipyards at Richmond, California. Her keel was laid on 5th January 1945 and she was launched 6 weeks’ later on 17th ... -
5 August 1914 – Australia fired its first shot in World War I at Fort Nepean in Victoria. The German merchant ship Pfalz was leaving Port Phillip Bay at 12.10am when news of involvement in the war had just reached the fort. The battery fired shots ... -
A team of divers has found the wreckage of what is confirmed to be a US Navy warship that had sunk off the UK coast during World War I. Lying on the seabed some 34 nautical miles off the Isles of Scilly in south-western England is the wreck of USS ... -
Few things struck fear into the hearts of medieval people more than the sight of a fleet of Viking ships sailing up the coast of their homelands. The Viking ship is iconic for its unique style, allowing it to both sail across the treacherous seas of ... -
The Australasian Antarctic Expedition began with the departure of SY Aurora (pictured) from London. The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was a 1911–1914 expedition headed by Douglas Mawson that explored the largely uncharted Antarctic coast due ... -
The Sailor’s Hornpipe, also known as “The Jig of the Ship,” “Jack the Lad,” or “Deck Dancing,” is a traditional seafaring dance accompanied by music and it is a significant form of dance as it replicates and performs various ship-based sailor tasks ... -
Between 2019 and 2020, an explorer in the Bahamas scanned a 17th century shipwreck using over 8,000 underwater metal detectors. As a result, he literally struck gold, big time. This week a new museum exhibition opens featuring the lost treasures of ... -
Built for the Glasgow and Londonderry Steam Packet Company she was put into the water at Stephen's. On board were 200 men and boys who were to carry on fitting her out as soon as she was afloat. As was usual in the launching of ships two anchors ... -
Meat packer from Chicago credited with initiating the liquefaction of gas Today, shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a routine maritime event. There is a fleet of over 300 ships capable of carrying such cargoes, including many ships with the ... -
On 1 July 1942 the unmarked POW transport MONTEVIDEO MARU, was torpedoed and sunk by USS STURGEON, (submarine), off Luzon, Philippines. Onboard were 1035 Australian POW's, including 835 men from the 2/22 Infantry Battalion, who had been captured at ...
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The wreck of the USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS, also known as the Sammy B, was found in two pieces on a slope off the Philippines last week at a depth of more than 22,600 feet, according to a statement by the American explorer Victor Vescovo and the British ... -
Divers discovered the H.M.S. “Gloucester” in 2007, but authorities kept the news buried for 15 years as they waited to secure the site Three years before he ascended the throne in 1685, the future James II of England narrowly survived a shipwreck ... -
HMS Bulolo was a 6,267 ton passenger and cargo ship of the Burns, Philp Shipping Company operating in the South Pacific. In 1939 she was converted into an Armed Merchant Cruiser, then a Landing Ship Headquarters (LSH) in 1942. She directed the ... -
The disappearance of the fastest iron-hulled wool-clipper in the world. On March 25th 1881 the 1657-ton wool clipper arrived from London. Commanded by Captain Alexander Scott the ship’s hold had been filled with thousands of bales of Australian ... -
For over 100 years, U.S.-flag ships carried lumber from the West Coast to the East and Gulf coasts. About 40 ships were regularly employed in this trade, making about 200 voyages annually. Additionally, more than 200 smaller ships — steam schooners ... -
Construction at Lootsi 8 near the Port of Tallinn began with the knowledge of a shipwreck on the property that wouldn't be affected by planned work, however an unexpected second wreck was unearthed as well, and it may be one of the best preserved in ... -
A nearly 160-year-old mystery just got closer to being solved. The remains of a centuries-old shipwreck stowed at a museum in Massachusetts, may be the remains of a vessel that ran aground nearly 400 years ago, researchers recently reported in ... -
When world’s largest wine ship nearly sunk outside the Golden Gate, the S.S. Angelo Petri, the world's largest wine tanker was in distress off the coast of San Francisco in 1960. Let it never be said that San Franciscans will sit idly by when 1.7 ... -
On a May morning in 1928, a crowd gathered on Washington, D.C.’s 7th Street dock to send off the scientific ship Carnegie on its final voyage in pursuit of mapping the Earth’s magnetic field. It was the only ship of its kind. The Carnegie was ... -
The steamer EMPIRE BARRIE was a standard type built by J L Thompson & Son Ltd, North Sands, Sunderland, to its own design. It was 7168 tons gross, 10,170 tons deadweight, length overall 441.5ft, breadth 57.25 ft, draught 27 ft and fitted with a ... -
17 January 1945 A fire broke out at No. 8 Berth, North Wharf, (Port of Fremantle), and engulfed the merchant ship MV PANAMANIAN, which was alongside loading flour. The fire took seven days to be totally extinguished. The submarine tender HMS ... -
Designed by the renowned Knud E Hansen (reputedly as one of four intended sisters) and built by the world-renowned Vickers-Armstrong Shipbuilders at Barrow-in-Furness in the 1970’s (making her the last passenger ship built in Barrow), she was ... -
Fifty years ago on 11th MAY 1972 the cargo passenger ship “Royston Grange” was heading from Buenos Aires back to London, on board were 61 crew, 12 passengers (including six women and a 5-year old child) and the Argentinian pilot. In dense fog as she ... -
Samuel Plimsoll was an English politician and social reformer, now best remembered for having devised the Plimsoll line (a line on a ship's hull indicating the maximum safe draught, and therefore the minimum freeboard for the vessel in various ... -
The problem was that for soldiers stationed in the Pacific, the beer was pretty terrible. This was true for two main reasons: the first was that our British and American beer didn't travel all that well. , meaning that by the time they finally ... -
In 1785, King Louis XVI of France, inspired by the voyages of Captain Cook, commissioned noteworthy naval officer, Jean François de Galaup de Lapérous to embark on an expedition of science and discovery into the Pacific. Earlier in his career, ... -
Flashback to the much-loved Australian coastal passenger ship, MV Moonta, built in 1931 in Denmark for the Adelaide Steamship Company. With comfortable accommodation for 150 passengers, Moonta was known for her excellent service, entertainment and ... -
Lost 52 Project" team discovered the WWII Submarine USS Grayback (SS-208) in Japanese waters. The US Navy officially verified the discovery of Grayback which was made on June 5th, 2019 at a depth of 435 meters (1427 feet). This is the first US ... -
By the time Henry Downes took command of the Black Joke, the ship had only been on the waters under that name for just a year. A former slave ship itself, the Black Joke was captured in 1827 by the British Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, its ... -
The P&O company purchased four ships from the Blue Anchor Line in February 1910, for a rock bottom £275,000, when the company went into liquidation after losing their flag ship Waratah with, all souls in July 1909 - she simply vanished without trace ... -
The Loch Lomond set sail from Greenock 2 days before Christmas 1907, straight into the teeth of a building storm. The Loch Lomond arrived in Adelaide on the 1st of April, she stayed in Port for a week to discharge the Adelaide portion of her cargo. ... -
Outer Harbor was established at the beginning of the 20th century, due to the increasing size of ships and the length of time it took to sail up the Port River to the inner harbour of Port Adelaide. The first ship to dock there was the RMS Oruba. ... -
Rotting planks are to be replaced as part of the latest phase of work to renovate Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship HMS Victory. The £35m project marks the 100th anniversary of the ship being brought into Portsmouth's dry dock. It has been ... -
Troopship Oronsay, 20,043grt, (Orient Line) having discharged troops in the Middle East the Oronsay had been sailing independently back to the UK via Cape Town and Freetown. Loaded with a cargo of oranges, copper slabs, fifty RAF personnel and ... -
These classes of ship were very similar in design based on the British “Sunderland Tramp” by J L Thompson and Sons, North Sands They were all nominally 7,174 GRT with a length of 416 ft (127 m) and a beam of 57 ft (17 m). The ships were powered by ... -
The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the Master, Captain John Phillips, the ... -
Merchant Aircraft Carrier EMPIRE MACANDREW launched from Denny's at Dumbarton on 3rd May 1943 and completed in July. In 1946 she was converted to a general cargo ship and became McCowen and Gross' DERRYHEEN. She then went to the Lyle Shipping ... -
The SS Taroona was an Australian transport ship, built in 1934 by Alexander Stephen & Sons of Glasgow for the Tasmanian Steamers Pty Ltd. She was a steam turbine ship capable of 18 knots. Taroona commenced service in Bass Strait in 1935 ... -
The wrecking of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia in 1629 is perhaps the best-known maritime disaster in Australian history. The subject of books, articles, plays, and even an opera, Batavia was wrecked on a chain of small islands off the ... -
Built by Caird & Co. and launched at Greenock in 1882, Parramatta combined both sail and steam, to produce a fine, elegant ship. Steam engines were still very much in their infancy, and trust in their performance over a long sea passage was ... -
A retired Russian admiral has alleged that the 2000 Kursk submarine disaster was caused by a collision with a NATO sub, an unproven claim that defies the official conclusion that the country's worst post-Soviet naval catastrophe was triggered by a ... -
American shipping magnate believed in efficiency and economies of scale in operating the world’s largest ships. While Malcom McLean, founder of Sea-Land, is regarded as the father of the containership, Daniel Keith Ludwig is recognized as the ... -
Linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the 51-mile Panama Canal transformed global trade routes when it opened in 1914. After a failed attempt by the French in the 1880s, the United States re-started construction in 1904. Chief engineer John ... -
An underwater archaeological mission in Egypt's Bay of Aboukir has uncovered an extremely rare ship, believed to be over 2200 years old.Archaeologists from the Hilti Foundation's Franck Goddio underwater team were exploring the ancient ... -
In 1854, American merchant Cyrus West Field secured a charter to lay a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean’s floor. After four failed attempts, American and British naval ships succeeded in laying a nearly 2,000-mile cable linking Ireland and ... -
Initially, unrestricted submarine warfare was a success; in March 1917, for example, twenty-five per cent of all British-bound shipping was sunk and the government was eventually forced to introduce rationing and marshall a Women’s Land Army to help ... -
On August 9, 1942, Navy Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples was aboard USS Astoria (off the coast of Guadalcanal) when the ship was attacked by Japanese cruisers. The attack provoked devastating explosions. Wounded, and surrounded by water coming ... -
The first thing you notice is that the watch is handsome: the gold case engraved with an elegant filigree, the fine script announcing it was made by the Elgin National Watch Company. It’s a watch befitting its respected owner, John Starr March of ... -
Last weekend, a 4,600-year-old ship once owned by the pharaoh Khufu traveled from its longtime home near the Pyramids of Giza to the Grand Egyptian Museum, a state-of-the-art venue slated to open outside of Cairo in late 2021. As Agence ... -
It was the British who suffered the most carnage at Jutland. Of their battleships, HMS Malaya suffered the most, with 63 men killed and 68 wounded; this was the most casualties of any battleship that survived the fight. Malaya, seen here in 1915, ... -
In the early hours of April 27th, 1865, mere days after the end of the Civil War, the Sultana burst into flames along the Mississippi River. The Sultana was a 260-foot-long wooden steamboat, built in Cincinnati in 1863, which regularly transported ... -
On 15th March 1912, P&O’s Oceana, under the command of Captain Thomas H. Hyde, RNR. completed loading in the Port of Tilbury, for her next trip to Bombay. Onboard were 41 passengers, a complement of 220 crew and a Straits of Dover pilot. She was ... -
The Gayundah is fitted with a fighting top and a gun can be seen protruding from the front section. The Paluma first arrived in Brisbane on 6 May 1885. The Queensland gunboats Paluma (left) and Gayundah (right) are lying at anchor in the ... -
Lost in heavy fog in May 1906, HMS Montagu calls to a small sailing boat nearby to confirm their location. The skipper of the tiny vessel warns them they are off course and headed for danger, the Montagu tell them they are wrong and carries on. The ... -
The sinking of the steamship Arctic in 1854 stunned the public on both sides of the Atlantic, as the loss of 350 lives was staggering for the time. And what made the disaster a shocking outrage was that not a single woman or child aboard the ship ...
