Famous Ships – Part 2 … The Stories They Tell … 1, The Lusitania … This British ocean liner was the world’s largest passenger ship for a brief time when it launched in 1906. She was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. That bold move precipitated The United States’ entry into the First World War … 2, The Santa Maria … The Santa María was the largest of the three Spanish ships used by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. … 3, The Missouri …Missouri is an Iowa-class battleship built for the United States Navy in the 1940s. She is the last battleship commissioned by the United States Navy. 4, The Beagle… She was a 2 masted English sloop. She carried Charles Darwin on his historic expedition beginning in 1831. 5, The Potemkin … She was a Russian battleship that was built for the Imperial Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet. She became famous when the crew rebelled against the officers in June of 1905. This is now viewed as a first step toward the Russian Revolution of 1917. 6, The Virginia … Previously named the Merrimac, she was the first Confederate ironclad warship, and fought valiantly against the Union’s Monitor. 7, The Carpathia … Despite the presence of icebergs, this ship traveled at top speed to reach the survivors of the Titanic by 3:30 am. Sadly, the Titanic had sunk more than an hour earlier, but the Carpathia and its Hungarian crew managed to rescue 705 people in lifeboats. 8, The Andrea Doria … The Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria sank off the coast of Nantucket in the Atlantic Ocean after colliding with the Swedish ship MS Stockholm in July of 1956. Of the 1,706 passengers and crew,1,660 were rescued, while 46 passengers and crew lost their lives. 9, The Wilhelm Gustloff … Launched in the presence of Adolf Hitler in 1937, the Wilhelm Gustloff, was a German ocean liner. It became a German military transport ship along with two other German ships, the Doña Paz, and the SS Kiangya. These three ships were sunk in 1945 by Soviet submarines in the Baltic Sea while evacuating civilians and military troops as the Red Army advanced. When the Doña Paz, and the SS Kiangya sank they each lost thousands more passengers and crew than the Titanic did. 10, The Great Britain … This is a museum ship and former passenger steamship that was advanced for her time. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1845 to 1854. … 11, The Dreadnaught … A British battleship design launched in 1906. It established the use of turbine-powered engines for all “big-gun” warships. This type of engine dominated the world’s navies for the next 35 years. 12, The Great Republic …This ship was a side-wheel steamship and the largest passenger liner on the US west coast at the time. It ran aground near the mouth of the Columbia River … Later she ran aground on Sand Island in Hawaii in April of 1879. 13, The Admiral Graf Spee … This ship was a 10,000-ton German battleship launched in 1936. This vessel was more heavily gunned than any other Battleship. She had a top speed of 25 knots with a range of 12,500 miles. After being damaged, the captain scuttled her off the coast of South America. 14, The Holland … The Holland was the United States Navy’s first modern submarine commissioned. However, it was not the first military submarine commissioned by the United States. The first submarine in the US was the Turtle. It was launched in 1775. 15, The Kon-Tiki Expedition … The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian Islands. It was led by the Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom “Kon-Tiki” was an old name … 16, The Mauretania … Built for the British Cunard Line, she was launched on the afternoon of September 20th, 1906. Once launched she became the world’s largest ship until the launch of the Olympic in 1910. The Mauretania quickly became a favorite among her passengers. 17, The Charlotte Dundas … This ship is regarded to be the world’s second most successful steamboat, the first towing steamboat, and the boat that demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships. 18, The Dono Paz … This ship was built in Japan and was registered as a passenger ferry. It sank after colliding with the oil tanker Vector on December 20, 1987. Built in the Philippines, the ship was launched on April 25, 1963. It was originally named the Himeyuri Maru … Her passenger capacity was 608. 19, The Endurance … is the lost vessel of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. It sank and was discovered years later on the bottom of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. This sea marks the northernmost northern part of Antarctica. The Endurance was crushed by sea ice and sank in 1915. This event resulted in forcing Shackleton and his men to make their astonishing escape on foot and in a small boat. They boarded a 22-foot lifeboat and navigated their way toward South Georgia Island located in the Southern Ocean. Sixteen days after setting out, the crew reached the island. From there, Shackleton trekked to a whaling station to organize a rescue effort. On August 25, 1916, Shackleton returned to Elephant Island to rescue the remaining crew members … The United States Abandoned Shipwrecks Act … In 1988 The United States passed this act into law. This protects historic shipwrecks in US waters. The act transfers the title of a wreck to the US State where the wreck lies. States make the claim that all shipwrecks that lie embedded in their waters are abandoned and under that State’s jurisdiction. Salvagers argue that the states need to prove to the public which wrecks are historical and are protected under the Act. States require salvagers to provide proof of ownership if they are to salvage any parts, sediment, artifacts, etc., of the wreck. Upon asserting title, the U.S. Government transferred its title to the majority of those shipwrecks to the respective States to manage. The United States retained its title to shipwrecks located in or on public lands while Indian tribes hold title to shipwrecks located in or on Indian lands. More than 3 million shipwrecks lie on the ocean floor…
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