Five Famous Shipwrecks That Are Still Underwater

The United Nations estimates there are some three million sunken ships along the ocean floor.  Here are five famous ships that are still underwater

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1. Santa Maria

Sunk in 1492, the Santa Maria was the flagship of the three vessels Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World.  After making it safely to the Americas, the story goes that Columbus set out on the Santa Maria to search for gold and other valuables. On Christmas Eve 1492, Columbus went to bed and left a cabin boy to steer the ship.  After running aground in Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti), Columbus deemed it too expensive to repair  An archeological explorer claimed to have found the Santa Maria in 2014, but experts concluded it was not the famous ship.  And the Santa Maria remains undiscovered to this day.

Check out more information on the NPR site about the Santa Maria.

2. USS Indianapolis

The USS Indianapolis is considered the worst American naval disaster of World War II.  In 1945 the heavy cruiser was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Pacific Ocean’s Northern Mariana Islands.  Approximately 900 of the crew survived the attack but were stranded in shark-infested waters – by the time US Navy ships found and rescued the crew several days later, only 317 survivors remained.

You can learn more about this ship and its roles in delivering the first atomic bomb, here.

3. The Merchant Royal

Sunk during the late 1630s, this English merchant ship traded between England and the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. It was reputed to be carrying 100,000 pounds of gold and other valuables when it took its final voyage. On its way back to London, the rundown vessel began to leak – the poor condition of the craft combined with a spate of bad weather led its pumps to break down, and the Merchant Royal sunk off of Land’s End in Cornwall County, England. In 2019, the anchor was found off the coast of the U.K., but the shipwreck and its $1.5 billion in gold remain undiscovered.

The anchor had people very hopeful of a full recovery, recall that story right now.

4. The Endurance

The Endurance was a three-masted barquentine captained by famous explorer Ernest Shackleton.  In 1915 Shackleton attempt at an overland crossing of Antarctica, but the ship became trapped by ice in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica, rendering it immobile.  It was ultimately crushed by ice and sunk in November 1915. The ship’s crew was able to escape to safety by floating on ice packs. A 2019 attempt to find The Endurance was called off due to extreme weather.

The BBC is reporting that the ship was found. That is exciting!

5. HMS Endeavor

This British Royal Navy research vessel was commanded by James Cook during his first voyage of discovery between 1768 and 1771. It was deliberately sunk by the British along with more than a dozen other ships in 1778 to serve as a blockade against the French during the American Revolution. Attempts have been made to recover the Endeavor’s remnants, and while a team has narrowed its search to sites Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, the exact location remains unknown.

After a 22 year search, new clues have been found about the boat.

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