Famous Ships
Explore the great ships of history, deck by deck.
77 ships, each recorded as she was in her prime: how she was built, what she carried, where she fought and what became of her. Every one is drawn from a surviving plan or a photographic record of the ship herself.
The ten best known.
Ship · BritainTitanicWreck · prime 1912
Ship · EnglandMayflowerBroken up · prime 1620
Ship · BritainHMS VictoryPreserved · prime 1805
Ship · BritainRMS LusitaniaWreck · prime 1907
Ship · BritainRMS Queen MaryPreserved · prime 1936
Ship · BritainHMHS BritannicWreck, largely intact · prime 1916
Ship · BritainRMS OlympicBroken up · prime 1911
Ship · SwedenVasaPreserved · prime 1628
Ship · BritainHMS HoodWreck · prime 1941
Ship · BritainRMS CarpathiaWreck, largely intact · prime 1912Ten more worth boarding.
County-class heavy cruiser · BritainHMS NorfolkBroken up · prime 1941
Moltke-class battlecruiser · GermanySMS MoltkeBroken up · prime 1916
Ship · BritainRMS BalticBroken up · prime 1909
Admiral Hipper-class cruiser · GermanyBlücherWreck, largely intact · prime 1940
Ship · GermanyTirpitzBroken up · prime 1944
Littorio-class battleship · ItalyVittorio VenetoBroken up · prime 1941
Warrior-class ironclad · BritainHMS WarriorPreserved · prime 1863
Ship · GermanyGerman cruiser NürnbergBroken up · prime 1939
Ship · GermanySS BremenBroken up · prime 1929
Ship · BritainHMS EndeavourWreck · prime 1770Ships by the navy that sailed them.
A ship belongs to the flag she flew, not the seabed she rests on — the High Seas Fleet stays together whether a hull lies at Scapa Flow or was broken up on the Tyne.
The rest of Europe: France · Russia · England · Greece · Netherlands · Norway · Sweden
The ones you can still walk aboard.
12 of these ships survive, preserved in dock or still afloat.
HMS Victory (Portsmouth Historic Dockyard) · RMS Queen Mary (Long Beach, California) · Vasa (Vasa Museum, Stockholm) · Cutty Sark (Greenwich, London) · HMS Belfast (Pool of London, River Thames, London) · HMS Warrior (Portsmouth Historic Dockyard) · SS Great Britain (Great Western Dockyard, Bristol Harbour) · Aurora (Saint Petersburg) · Greek cruiser Georgios Averof (Palaio Faliro, Athens) · U-995 (Laboe Naval Memorial, near Kiel) · RRS Discovery (Discovery Point, Dundee) · Fram (Fram Museum, Oslo)