The M??duse
[ranking: 1]
The M??duse (Medusa, in English) was a French Navy frigate that was tasked with carrying a group of French officials to their colony in Senegal in 1816. The inexperienced captain ran the ship aground on a shallow bank, wrecking the ship. All 400 people onboard abandoned ship, including 151 who set sail on a hastily constructed raft. Their harrowing journey in the open ocean, including madness, suicide, and cannibalism, became the ghastly stuff of legend. When the raft members were finally rescued two weeks later, only 15 of the original 151 men were still alive.
In 1980, the wreck was discovered by French marine archaeologists off the coast of Mauritania and some of its artifacts were recovered and brought back to a museum.
The Hydrus
[ranking: 2]
In 2015 divers discovered the Hydrus in Lake Huron, a ship that had been lost since the Great Storm of 1913. The Hydrus, a 436-foot steam ship, was overturned by a blizzard while carrying a large load of iron ore, dragging it's entire crew to their deaths along with it. During this storm, over 250 sailors died in Lake Huron. The Great Lakes have been home to more than 6,000 shipwrecks.
The Mary Celeste
[ranking: 3]
On November 7, 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs set sail on the Mary Celeste from New York to Genoa, Italy, with his wife and infant daughter, as well as a cargo of 1,701 barrels of denatured alcohol. On December 5, 1872, the ship was discovered entirely abandoned and empty, floating adrift in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The cargo was all intact, and all the captain and crew's personal belongings were totally untouched, though a lifeboat was missing. Everyone on board had simply disappeared. Over the years, theories have ranged from mutiny to submarine earthquakes to attack by a giant squid - and of course, aliens - but the mystery has never been solved.
In 1885, the ship's new captain intentionally wrecked the Mary Celeste as part of an insurance scam.
In August 2001, remains of a ship matching the description of the Mary Celeste were found, but further investigation suggested it might not be the same ship after all.
The HMS Terror
[ranking: 4]
In the fall of 2016, scientists found an old British explorer ship, the HMS Terror, that had been missing for nearly 170 years. The ship, which set off in 1845 to find a shortcut to Asia through the arctic with another ship, the HMS Erebus, was found perfectly preserved. Neither ship reached its destination, and the crews of both ships, 129 men all told, died. The ship was also found, rather coincidentally, in Terror Bay.
The Mystery Shipwreck Buried In Sand
[ranking: 5]
Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on New Jersey, but it also uncovered a few massive, if old, shipwrecks. One was a massive 100-200 foot wooden ship in the Barnegat Inlet, which had been hidden under the sand for nearly 100 years. It was uncovered during a construction project, almost perfectly preserved. Historians think it was a coal carrying schooner in the late 1800s.
The Governoren
[ranking: 6]
In Foyn Harbor, Enterprise Island, Antarctica, lies the wreck of the Governoren, a massive ship that sank at the turn of the 20th century. In 1915, this large whaling factory ship ?C capable of rendering a whale into whale oil on board ?C ran into trouble one night when a crew member knocked a lamp off a table during a party.
Considering the Governoren was full of thousands of gallons of whale oil meant to be taken back to Norway, the whole ship quickly caught fire. While all 85 crew members were able to escape unharmed, the burned remains of the ship still drift aimlessly through frigid Antarctic waters.
The Dunedin Star
[ranking: 7]
Shipwrecked on Namibia's treacherous Skeleton Coast, this ship ran aground during World War II, stranding a crew of 85 with 21 passengers attempting to escape war torn London. All rescue attempts failed, and the plane sent to drop supplies for the poor survivors crashed into the sea. Today, the wreck of the Dunedin Star is one of the thousands of eerie shipwrecks half-buried in the sands of the Skeleton Coast.
Nanhai One
[ranking: 8]
China's largest ever marine archeological discovery, Nanhai One, sank in the southern province of Guangdong during the Southern Song dynasty of 1127-1279. The almost 1000-year-old wreck was raised from the sea bed in 2007, to reveal over 60,000 historical and valuable items. The treasures ranged from pottery to precious metals, and there were enough to fill a museum dedicated to the discovery.
Nanhai One was accidentally discovered by a British-Chinese expedition trying to find a completely different shipwreck. During its heyday, the ship is believed to have taken part in the "Marine Silk Road" which allowed trade between China, India, the Middle East, and Africa in ancient times.
The Ghost Ship That Lived A Full Life
[ranking: 9]
In 2013, kayakers discovered a 110-year-old ghost ship in a tributary off the Ohio River. While it had vegetation growing through the bottom, it was still structurally sound enough to explore. This ship was a converted yacht called the USS Phenakite by the US navy, but ended its life as the Circle Line V. And what a life it had.
It was originally an NYC sightseeing boat, converted for use in both WWI and WWII. It was then used as a research vessel by Thomas Edison, and even had a cameo in Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" music video. In the late 1980s, the ship was decommissioned and left in the Ohio River, where the kayakers found it. It remains there to this day, and anyone can take a look at it, but be warned. Local landowners are known to chase explorers away with shotguns.
The Salem Express
[ranking: 10]
Egypt's Red Sea is scattered with shipwrecks, and perhaps the most tragic of these is the Salem Express. In December 1991, the ship was carrying pilgrims on their way back from Haj in Mecca to Safaga, it's rumored that the boat was overloaded with passengers. Regardless of the passenger load, the boat went down when it hit a reef.
The hull was ripped apart and the entire ship sunk in under 10 minutes. You can still see the suitcases of the dead passengers strewn around this partially intact wreck.
The SS Ayrfield
[ranking: 11]
Homebush Bay in Australia is home to a number of historic and mysterious shipwrecks, as it was a ship breaking yard for many years. A number of pieces of ships are still clearly visible in the bay, including the remarkable SS Ayrfield. The SS Ayrfield is often referred to as Sydney's Floating Forest, because lush plant life has sprouted all over the remains of its floating hull.
The Ghost Fleet Of Mallows Bay
[ranking: 12]
On the Maryland side of the Potomac River, west of the Chesapeake Bay, there lies a massive ship graveyard. The largest shipwrecked fleet in the entire Western world has been sitting, rotting beneath the water for decades. In the beginning of the 20th century, hundreds of US vessels were sent to Mallows Bay to scrapped, destroyed, and abandoned.
Constructed in a mad rush to be used in World War I, many of these ships were never used at all, as they were obsolete almost as soon as they were completed. To this day, you can see the remains of dozens and dozens of old ships directly beneath the waves, poking through the water.
The Sea Venture
[ranking: 13]
The Sea Venture carried Bermuda's first settlers in 1609. Interestingly, these people actually had no intention of settling in Bermuda. Had a severe storm not caused the Sea Venture to crash in the rocks on the eastern end of Bermuda and forced those on the boat to go ashore, the island may not have been settled at all (or at least not until years later). This particular shipwreck is a key part of Bermuda history. The remains were found in 1958, in only about 30 feet of water.
New Random Display Show all by ranking(14 items)