The Most Famous Sunken Ships and Shipwrecks Ever Discovered

The Most Famous Sunken Ships and Shipwrecks Ever Discovered

Famous shipwrecks have a mystique that is scary and forbidden. Each one describes what occurred and how it got there in a particular, frequently sad manner. Most are lost to memory, but some have caught people's attention.

Numerous shipwrecks that have been discovered on the ocean floor have evolved into historical landmarks, diving destinations of interest, and even ecosystems that provide new and viable habitats for marine plants and animals. Here is a list of the most well-known underwater shipwrecks in the entire world.

• The Mary Rose

Launched: 1511 | Sank: 1545 | Location: River Solent, UK

The Mary Rose, one of King Henry VIII's best ships and a very early example of a ship designed specifically for war, engaged in combat with the French and the Scots. On July 19, 1545, she sank in opposition to the latter, killing about 470 men.

In 1971, the wreck was found, and it was raised in 1982. One of the largest and most expensive maritime archaeological projects ever undertaken. One of the most well-known shipwrecks in history is currently on display in Portsmouth's Mary Rose Museum alongside some 26,000 artifacts that were found there.

• Vasa

Launched: 1628 | Sank: 1628 | Location: Stockholm, Sweden

The Vasa, at the time of its construction arguably the most sophisticated battleship ever constructed, sank in August 1628, twenty minutes into its first voyage, to the utter terror of hundreds of onlookers in Stockholm Harbour.

Windy conditions were the stated cause. In actuality, the wooden ship's gun deck was overstuffed with guns and considerably too heavy, making the ship incredibly unstable.

The Vasa was raised in April 1961 after spending 333 years underwater. The ship was in unusually good shape, partly because it was submerged in very cold water. Around a million tourists visit the sole intact ship from the seventeenth century each year because thousands of artifacts were discovered with the debris. Even though it was in the water for a very short time, it is one of the most well-known sunken ships ever.

• RMS Titanic

Launched: 1912 | Sank: 1912 | Location: North Atlantic Ocean

The RMS Titanic is undoubtedly the most well-known historical underwater shipwreck.

On April 10, 1912, the 'unsinkable' ship departed Southampton and ran aground on an iceberg four days later. More than 1,500 people perished when the 52,000 ton liner sank in less than three hours.

The wreck, which is 3,700 meters below the surface, is the most well-known prisoner of the Atlantic and is located about three miles off the coast of Newfoundland. In 1985, it was finally discovered, and artifacts have since been retrieved and put on display. However, it is far too delicate to be raised, therefore the RMS Titanic will likely stay under for some time.

• Endurance

Launched: 1914 | Sank: 1915 | Location: Weddell Sea

A three-masted barquentine named Endurance was launched in Norway in 1912. The daring explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton bought her two years later, and Endurance set off from Plymouth in August 1914 with 28 men on board. Her intended destination was Antarctica as one of the two sailing ships of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. But she would never succeed in her endeavor.

The 44-meter-long wooden ship was caught in sea ice and drifted north for ten months before being crushed by the ice and sinking in November 1915. Amazingly, her crew made it through the 128 days they were stuck on the ice.

A team of historians, scientists, and archaeologists set out to find the wreck 107 years later, and amazingly they were successful. The Endurance was located some 3,008 meters below and only four kilometers from Captain Worsley's last known position. The Endurance is one of the most well-known underwater wrecks in marine history since the incident was documented on television.

• MV Wilhelm Gustloff

Launched: 1938 | Sank: 1945 | Location: Baltic Sea | Deaths: Approx. 9,600

The German navy captured the Nazi cruise liner MV Wilhelm Gustloff during World War II. She functioned as a barracks during the war and then a floating hospital before being converted to a transport ship.

She was being evacuated around 10,600 German soldiers and civilians from the Eastern Front when the Soviet submarine S-13 detected her on January 30, 1945. It fired four torpedoes at the port side of the Gustloff. 'For the Motherland', 'for Leningrad', 'for the Soviet people', and 'for Stalin' were the names of each projectile, fired in that order. Later became stuck in the torpedo tubes.

The number of people that perished on board is estimated to be over 9,600, making this the highest single-ship sinking death toll in history. Torpedoes caused many deaths directly, but hundreds more people died in the icy Baltic Sea. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff sank bow first fifty minutes after being struck.

It is currently one of the biggest and most well-known shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea.

• MV Doña Paz

Launched: 1963 | Sank: 1987 | Location: Tablas Strait, Philippines

One of the most renowned sunken ships in the world is the wreck of the deadliest maritime accident to occur during a time of peace, which is situated in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines.

The Japanese-built, Philippine-registered ferry was traveling from the Philippine island of Leyte to the nation's capital, Manila. More than 2,000 of those were not listed on the ship's manifest, making this number around 2,500 over the safe limit.

Five days before Christmas in 1987, the MV Doa Paz crashed with the MT Vector, an oil tanker carrying more than a million liters of gasoline, in the middle of the night. Nearly 4,400 people were killed in the blasts and massive flames that followed.

It was later determined that the MV Doa Paz lacked a radio. After learning of the disaster, it took the Filipino authorities another eight hours to launch a search and rescue effort. There was hardly nobody remaining to be saved at that point. The MV Doa Paz is currently 500 meters under the water.

• MS Estonia

Launched: 1980 | Sank: 1994 | Location: Baltic Sea

One of the most contentious shipwreck sagas on Earth involves the sinking of the MS Estonia.

On September 27, 1994, the ship sailed from Talliin, Estonia, towards Stockholm, Sweden. There were 989 individuals on board, including 186 crew members and 803 passengers. She was moving at around 15 knots, or about 17 mph, and the weather would later be described as "normally bad."

A bow door coming loose from the ship was identified as the official cause of the sinking. The ship was already sinking from an uneven distribution of cargo when it let in thousands of gallons of very cold Baltic Sea water, flooding the decks and staterooms. The majority of the 852 fatalities perished from cold and drowning.

• Shipwrecks Found and Yet to be Found

Even if the locations of these well-known sunken ships have been well-documented, it's safe to conclude that the ocean still holds many other mysteries. There are countless shipwrecks at the bottom of the world's oceans, lakes, seas, and rivers that have yet to be discovered. And there will always be people who look for these submerged remnants of history in an effort to share the next big discovery with an enthralled world.