About This Quiz
Are you a student of the seas? Take this How Stuff Works quiz to find out how many of these 35 famous shipwrecks.
When you think of a famous shipwreck, what comes to mind first? We're thinking about the RMS Titanic. One of the most famous shipwrecks of all time, the Titanic sunk on April 15, 1912, during her maiden voyage from Southhampton, England to New York City.Â
The disaster left more than 1,500 passengers and crew dead, including the ship's captain and her architect, and spawned a host of Hollywood movies and documentaries about that fateful night. Until 1985, the wreck of the Titanic went undisturbed, and she will most likely never be raised from her watery grave.Â
Still, the discovery of this symbol of the colossal disaster has enabled researchers to understand better what happened to make the supposedly unsinkable ship sink. The discovery has also given treasure hunters a whole trove of artifacts to bring to the surface.
Lucky for you, we've also included 34 other famous shipwrecks in this quiz. So, if you think nautical accidents are cool enough to have read up on them, this quiz is for you.
Let's find out how many of these 35 ill-fated ships you can identify.
MV Doña Paz had a capacity of 1,518, but was carrying at least 2,000 additional passengers not listed on the manifest. More than 4,000 lives were lost that day!
Known as the Halifax Explosion, this accident resulted in approximately 2,000 confirmed deaths and about 9,000 more injured. The explosion occurred in the Narrows, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
MV Le Joola was on route from Zinguinchor in the Casamance region to the Senegalese capital of Dakar when it ran into a violent storm. 1,863 deaths were reported.
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With a capacity of only 376 passengers, more than 1,700 were killed when three of the boat's four boilers exploded near Memphis, Tennessee.
The RMS Titanic had a capacity of 2,435 passengers and 892 crew members. There were 20 lifeboats on board, which were only enough for 1,178 people.
The RMS Empress of Ireland had its maiden voyage on June 29, 1906. 1,012 people died on the day of the infamous collision.
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MS Estonia was a cruise ferry built between 1979 and 1980. 852 lives were lost on the day it capsized.
On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland rolled on its side while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. 844 lives were lost that day.
The HMS Birkenhead had only 193 survivors out of the estimated 634 lives on board. This disaster is said to have started the unofficial protocol of "women and children first."
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Portsmouth, England, was home port to the Mary Rose. The ship was in service from its launch in 1511 until it sank in 1545.
Despite the ferocity of this attack, Vampire's commanding officer and eight sailors were the only fatalities of the shipwreck.
The Andrea Doria was home ported in Genoa, Italy. The two ships collided off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. 51 people were killed as a result.
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No trace of any of the 1,000-plus sailors aboard Victory was found until the wreck was discovered in 2008. The wreck was then handed over to the Maritime Heritage Foundation.
The RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship that was torpedoed by German submarine U-55 on July 17, 1918. Five crew members perished.
The Vasa was salvaged more than 200 years later and is now a museum located in Stockholm, Sweden.
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The RMS Rhone is now a popular Caribbean wreck dive site. In total, 123 people were killed on October 29, 1867.
Owned by Juan de la Cosa, La Santa Maria launched in 1460. It was captained by Christopher Columbus! The Nina and Pinta made a safe return trip to Spain.
The sinking of this U.S. Navy ship led to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy. Of the 1,197 crewmen, only 317 survived.
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The HMS Endeavor was a British Royal Navy research vessel. In more recent years, the Space Shuttle Endeavour was named for the ill-fated ship, following a naming contest among U.S. schools.
Le Griffon was built by French explorer La Salle and launched in 1679. It is said to have vanished on the return trip of her maiden voyage, possibly during a violent storm!
Endurance was a three-masted barquentine sailed by Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1914. She launched from Sandefjord in Norway in 1912.
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The Bonhomme Richard was a warship in the Continental Navy. It was built for the French East India Company.
Now a diveable wreck site, the S.S. Republic was located in 2003. Artifacts and video stories about passengers and crew members are on display in select museums.
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was owned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. All 29 crew members were lost that day. A famous song by Gordon Lightfoot chronicles the disaster.
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The USS Monitor was an iron-hulled steamship - the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy. Its cost was a mere $275,000!
First used as a passenger ship, MV Wilhelm Gustloff launched on May 5, 1937. When it sank during service as a military ship, it is estimated that 9,400 people died - the largest loss of life from a single ship sinking in history.
The Battleship Maine spent three weeks in Havana Harbor before exploding, killing nearly three-quarters of the crew. The shipwreck was scuttled - deliberately submerged - in the Strait of Florida on March 16, 1912.
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After launching on February 14, 1939, Bismark had a fairly brief military career. It sustained incapacitating battle damage and was scuttled in the North Atlantic Ocean on May 27, 1941. The HMS Dorsetshire is credited with picking up survivors.
The German Embassy in the U.S. placed an advertisement in the newspaper warning people of the dangers of sailing on Lusitania, as Germany had declared the seas around the U.K. to be a war zone. More than 1,100 passengers perished on May 7, 1915.
The USS Arizona exploded and sank after the Japanese launched a bomb and attacked. The wreck lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial straddles the ship's hull.
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The call sign of the World Discoverer was ELDU3. To this day, she remains with a 46-degree list, though the ship has been ransacked by the locals for equipment and other valuables.
Captayannis was waiting at the Tail of the Bank to deliver sugar to the James Watt Dock when a severe storm hit and caused the vessel to drag her anchor.
Sweepstakes was a Canadian schooner built in Burlington, Ontario in 1867. The wreckage remains intact today, 50 yards from the shoreline and down 20 feet.
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LR Doty was a Great Lakes steamship launched in 1893 at West Bay City, Michigan. It was towing the four-masted schooner Olive Jeanette when the storm hit.
The Costa Concordia was captained by Francesco Schettino. He was convicted of manslaughter following the incident. 32 of 4,252 passengers and crew members perished during this tragedy.