1. Jan 2, 1945
   December 6, 1941
2. December 7, 1941
   June 13, 1916

On December 8, 1941, FDR made his immortal statement, "Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." The USS Arizona was one of the Pacific Fleet sunk in the Pearl Harbor attack, beginning the US engagement with World War 2.

1. April 20, 1858
   February 21, 1933
2. June 9, 1829
   January 14, 2018

The Island Lady was a short range vessel ferrying 36 passengers to an offshore casino near Florida. A fire broke out in transit, causing the ship to sink. One passenger died and many were hospitalized.

1. September 12, 1988
   March 24, 1989
2. July 21, 1966
   May 19, 2005

The Exxon Valdez is best known for running aground in 1989 and spilling a terrific amount of oil off the coast of Alaska, resulting in a long and expensive cleanup lasting years. The vessel has since gone through many iterations, most recently being named the Dong Fang Ocean, a name it took to its grave in India, where it was deliberately beached in order to be dismantled.

1. June 9, 1967
   March 20, 1882
2. December 2, 1942
   July 9, 1956

Lake Erie consumed the Admiral on December 2, 1942, almost exactly a year after Pearl Harbor. Admiral was towing a barge when powerful winds overcame the ship. Lake Erie is home to many shipwrecks, since, as a great lake, it has weather phenomena similar to that found on the ocean.

1. November 29, 1627
   January 14, 2018
2. August 20, 1852
   December 2, 1942

The paddle steamer Atlantic (hence the PS) went down following a collision, killing somewhere between 150 and 300 passengers. While other incidents on the Great Lakes have resulted in more deaths, this one constitutes the single greatest disaster in terms of loss of life in the history of the Great Lakes.

1. April 27, 1850
   January 9, 1972
2. June 1, 1955
   April 20, 1878

PS Anthony Wayne was a steamship with two paddle wheels, one on each side. As a steamship, she had boilers. Those boilers were, tragically, the cause of the disaster. Two exploded, causing the ship to take on water rapidly off the coast of Ohio.

1. February 21, 1933
   July 1, 1990
2. October 6, 1977
   June 17, 1850

While the name may sound like something from Hollywood, the SS G. P. Griffith is a ship that sank in Lake Erie, killing as many as 289 people; though, of course, in the mid-1800s, that sort of record-keeping wasn't very good. It wasn't a small ship at 193 feet long, and being a steamer, its destruction was very likely spectacular.

1. June 6, 1864
   November 9, 1913
2. December 13, 1799
   January 14, 1912

What does 7,862 tons of steel and cargo look like when it sinks in Lake Huron? Ask anyone who was around for the November 9, 1913 sinking of the SS James Carruthers, a huge freighter that went down in a then-much-talked-about "Great Lakes Storm of 1913."

1. October 20, 1905
   December 2, 1942
2. August 29, 1874
   January 29, 1941

Minnedosa was a schooner, which is a kind of four masted sailboat. Sailboats are an interesting departure from, say, steamboats in that while many steamboat disasters tend to result from mechanical failure, sailboats can run into trouble because their method of propulsion requires they maneuver a certain way, exposing them to greater risks of running aground or falling prey to the weather.

1. August 8, 1813
   October 12, 1843
2. June 17, 1950
   February 21, 1933

The USS Hamilton wasn't named for Alexander, but Paul Hamilton, a Secretary of The Navy — today we call it Secretary of Defense — which happened after the US Navy acquired it in 1912 for use on Lake Ontario. Before it was a Naval vessel, it was a private ship used for transporting private goods. In the early morning of August 8, 1813, the ship was in a squall (a small, fierce storm) and sank, killing more than 40 men.

1. April 6, 1824
   May 11, 1862
2. April 20, 1858
   September 11, 1972

King Kamehameha II of Hawaii loved his ship, Cleopatra's Barge, but when he decided to visit the King of England, he said goodbye to it for the final time. While he was in England having transported himself with a better royal vessel, his beloved Cleopatra's Barge was used to scout a potential rebellion in one of the Hawaiian islands, rumored to be in the planning stage by the son of an exiled king. The ship ran aground, and all efforts to right the ship and salvage it failed, until much later when some canon and hull fragments were found.

1. February 11, 1902
   June 15, 1904
2. December 2, 1942
   October 20, 1905

The General Slocum is a name carved into the skin of New York. A paddle steamer used to ferry people from Manhattan to Long Island, it caught fire shortly after leaving Manhattan on June 15, 1904, but the captain refused to dock for fear of being blamed if the fire spread. The life preservers were rotten and useless. The captain tried to get close to North Brother Island, where the ship ran aground, and burned in waters with a dangerous undertow. The 1,021 dead accounted for most of the women and children of the German immigrant community in New York.

1. January 14, 2018
   February 21, 1933
2. June 17, 1850
   June 10, 1718

Queen Anne's Revenge was a pirate ship under the command of William Teach, AKA Blackbeard. At the height of his powers — with the British government hot to stop piracy by any means necessary, including pardoning Blackbeard should he surrender — he deliberately ran his flagship aground in order to disperse the cargo and make it easier to escape. He took the chance to maroon several unruly crewmen in the process.

1. May 9, 1911
   July 16, 2012
2. July 30, 1942
   December 14, 1882

The SS Robert E. Lee fell victim to U-166, a Nazi U-Boat prowling the mouth of the Mississippi in 1942. German submarines were a major trump card for the German navy, used to torpedo both military and civilian vessels without warning. It was later revealed that U-Boats even visited the harbor of New York during the war.

1. March 2, 1934
   July 26, 1813
2. June 21, 1921
   February 21, 1933

The USS G-1 was an older sub, once used as a training ship, and the US navy decided its best use was as target practice. So on June 21, 1921, the navy placed it in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. There, the navy used new kinds of depth charges on the sub to see how well they worked on a target in a real world test.

1. September 26, 1906
   October 20, 1905
2. December 2, 1942
   April 20, 1958

The Peter Iredale ship was named for Peter Iredale, its owner, a Liverpudlian shipping magnate. It was a steel-bodied sailing ship with mostly square sails resembling what most people would think of when they think of a wooden ship. It ran aground on a beach in Oregon thanks to a terrible storm and was never salvaged. It is visible to this day, with the very tip of its bow still standing on the beach.

1. February 9, 2000
   April 27, 1998
2. March 1, 1889
   February 4, 1999

New Carissa was a massive cargo ship waiting out a storm off the coast of Oregon when a storm hit. The crew's anchor chain was too short and the crew's navigational methods, watch attentiveness and response speed were all substandard. The result was the ship running aground, leaking oil and breaking in half. The bow section was towed out to sea and sunk deliberately. The stern was slowly dismantled, finishing in 2008.

1. January 14, 2018
   February 12, 1916
2. December 11, 1941
   June 12, 1990

It was the early days of World War 2 when the US Marines sank the Japanese Destroyer Kisaragi near Wake Island, in the South Pacific. Kisaragi, meaning February, was the second Japanese warship sunk in the war, following its companion in the same battle, Hayate, also a destroyer, which was the first.

1. April 9, 1998
   June 17, 1850
2. October 1, 1917
   February 21, 1933

USRC stands for United States Revenue Cutter in naval terminology. The USRC Mohawk was struck by SS Vennacher, a British naval vessel. The Mohawk's crew were rescued, but the ship could not be saved and was left to be consumed by the sea.

1. December 7, 1949
   October 2, 1988
2. January 6, 1611
   January 11, 1863

USS Hatteras was a Union warship during the American Civil War. She was a steamship, which had its advantages, but also meant that getting up to speed could take longer than a sailing ship, depending on the weather. In 1863, she encountered what she thought was a British vessel (it was flying the Union Flag) but upon trying to identify the ship, the response was "CSS Alabama" and the firefight commenced. The USS Hatteras was turned into kindling.

1. December 2, 1942
   August 26, 1914
2. November 12, 1999
   December 1, 1886

SS Admiral Sampson was a passenger ship, and on the morning of August 26, 1914, she was moving at an incredibly slow 3 knots due to the thick fog in Puget Sound. Despite taking every precaution, she was rammed by the steamship Princess Victoria. The captain of the Victoria kept the engines going, using his bow to plug the hole he had just smashed, T-boning the Sampson. As a result, many of the passengers and crew survived.

1. January 1, 1965
   February 21, 1933
2. April 12, 1912
   June 7, 1822

The SS Catala survived a terrible grounding in Canada — being used as a temporary hotel in Seattle — only to die on the beaches of Damon Point, Washington as a rusting hulk that sat, leaking fuel, for decades. When a beachcomber discovered the leaks in 2006, the ship was drained of fuel and scrapped.

1. January 9, 1972
   May 3, 1901
2. March 23, 1945
   October 7, 2002

The USS General M. C. Meigs was an important troop carrier in the second world war, and in several conflicts thereafter. But when it was being towed in 1972, her tow line broke. As a result, she ran aground off the Washington coast, where she was left, leaking fuel and slowly going to bits as the weather reduced the vessel to its essential elements.

1. Thanksgiving, 1896
   Christmas, 1899
2. Arbor Day, 2012
   Martin Luther King Day, 1991

The Success was a simple ship for transporting lumber on the Great Lakes. During a storm, the captain decided to anchor well away from shore to avoid destruction. This strategy failed. The ship took on water and was smashed into solid ground as the weather pushed it to shore. Its crew survived, as did its cargo, but the ship was gone.

1. November 18, 1991
   April 2, 1924
2. August 9, 1610
   April 20, 1858

This ship served from World War 2 to 1970, after which it was made a "reserve" ship, and then turned into an artificial reef off the coast of New Jersey in 1991. Many old military ships are turned into artificial reefs, as are old train cars and retired New York subway cars. Just imagine: You can take the L train to a World War 2 battleship!

1. February 21, 1933
   October 31, 1927
2. June 7, 1850
   October 29, 1951

The tragically named Morania #130 was a motorized barge. She was being maneuvered by a tugboat in Buffalo, New York when a steamer hit her. Things were okay, but when the steamer backed off, there was a spark, and the 800K gallons of gasoline on the Morania caught fire. The explosion killed 11 crewmen on the steamer and burned for days, the worst single maritime disaster in the history of Buffalo.

1. January 14, 2018
   October 20, 1905
2. March 14, 2015
   December 2, 1942

The Sea Bear was a tugboat operating from Fire Island. The boat was headed to Connecticut for maintenance when the need for the maintenance became apparent. The Sea Bear took on water so fast, the crew of three could not even make a distress call. The skipper was not wearing a survival suit, so while his two crewmen lived, the skipper perished.

1. July 28, 1982
   April 2, 1960
2. November 23, 1780
   January 31, 1802

The Revolutionary War began to favor the Americans. Evacuating Manhattan, the captain of HMS Hussar made the fateful decision to escape via Long Island Sound, requiring passing through the infamous Hell Gate between Randall's Island and Queens County. The Hussar hit a rock formation called Pot Rock and sank. The crew survived, and everything valuable was removed, but legends of riches persist.

1. June 1, 1966
   February 21, 1933
2. September 26, 1903
   April 20, 1858

The barge Harold isn't as well known as its cargo. It left Manhattan loaded with lead and silver bound for New Jersey, much of it owned by the Guggenheim family. En route, the barge tipped, wrecking near its destination, and limping to its end in Perth Amboy. The crew thanked their lucky stars they didn't lose any cargo, only they did — all the silver. 85% was recovered, but the balance, worth $20 Million today, remains underwater near Staten Island.

1. September 25, 1966
   August 29, 1940
2. July 4, 1776
   October 3, 1827

The SS Tahoe was scuttled August 29, 1940. She was a steamship, and her time was up. More ships have operated in Lake Tahoe since then, but this one ship, the only wreck in the state, is a part of the National Register of Historic Places.

1. December 12, 1862
   Jan 1, 1888
2. October 20, 1905
   December 2, 1942

The USS Cairo struck a naval mine in the Yazoo River in 1862, sinking her. She was a cutting edge ironclad warship, one of the first of her kind. She was raised in the 1960s and put on display, which is great because she was a historical milemarker.

1. November 12, 1977
   February 28, 1924
2. June 2, 1891
   January 14, 2018

This Mayflower was built in 1887 and was a modern sort of ship: a scow schooner. This meant she could sail under her own power or be towed by a motorized vessel. It's unclear as to exactly why she capsized, but on a journey carrying sandstone for Duluth's Central High School, her cargo shifted in the hold, and the ship went down.

1. June 11, 1979
   August 3, 1973
2. June 17, 1850
   March 7, 1872

The USS Abeona was commissioned right after General Lee surrendered. The Abeona was a lightly armored gunboat, and when she retired from military service, she continued to work on the Mississippi River as a civilian transport until she caught fire and sank near Cincinnati.

1. April 17, 1978
   September 3, 2011
2. February 21, 1933
   April 20, 1858

The USS Moody was a retired naval vessel looking to begin a second career. It had its moment in the spotlight, but it was brief. The USS Moody had a walk-on part in "Hell Below," a film starring Robert Montgomery, a Hollywood star in the 1930s. The ship wasn't heroic, though. The script called for its destruction, just off the coast of California.

1. March 9, 1999
   June 1, 1830
2. April 20, 1858
   December 2, 1942

The Zenobia was a shipper, transporting ice from Alaska to San Francisco. But in 1858, with no pilot ship to guide it in heavy fog, she cruised into a rock just outside of San Francisco with tremendous force, shattering the ship. Ironically, this man-made iceberg's fate was to sink.