Wreck of the Speke

The three masted square rigged sailing ship Speke went on the rocks to its destruction on Phillip Island on February 22, 1096, while sailing from Sydney to Melbourne, Australia. The Speke was a steel vessel measuring 310 feet from stem to stern. It was built in Carnarvon, Wales, in 1891 so had been at sea for 15 years before it was lost. In its day, the Speke and her sister-ship, the Bragdo, were believed to be among the largest three-masted ships on the high seas. Click For Story

The Wreck Of The Ulysses

The 310-foot iron hulled British steamship Ulysses was destroyed after it went on a coral reef at the island of Gobal Segeira, Egypt, on the Red Sea, on August 18, 1887. The vessel’s hull was slowly ripped open as it rolled in the seas over the coral before tugs could get to the scene and pull the vessel free. Click For Story

The American Sloop of War Albany

When the 11-year-old sloop-of-war Albany went missing with all hands somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic in the fall of 1854, a writer for the Albany Atlas quipped that “it’s a wonder that she kept afloat this long.” The ship appeared to have been so poorly designed it had a history of being unusually slow and difficult to manage at sea. Her commander, Captain Samuel Breese, complained that the 22-gun fighting ship “rolls and squats dreadfully and requires low sail.” Click For More

Wasaga Burned Off Copper Harbor

A November gale on Lake Superior forced the package freighter Wasaga, under the command of Captain W. A. Glass, to seek shelter behind the Keweenaw Peninsula in 1910. The 233-foot wooden hulled steamer joined a fleet of other vessels anchored there on the evening of November 6. At 6 a.m. the next day a fire was discovered in the ship's number one hold. Efforts to battle the fire were hampered by the still raging storm and the 18 crew members soon were forced to escape in the life boats. Click For Story

Achilles: Found Abandoned At Sea

We have all heard the classic story of the abandoned brigantine Mary Celeste, found adrift with sails set and no crew on board off the coast of Portugal in 1872. It has remained one of the classic mysteries of the sea to this day. Yet the Mary Celeste is not the only ship found abandoned and adrift. Yet another sailing ship, the English barque Achillies was found in the same condition, a drifting derelict with no crew to be found, in March, 1886. Click For Story

Wreck Of The Steamship General Winfield Scott

The loss of the steamship General Winfield Scott on Anacapa Island along the Pacific Coast of North America, is perhaps the most famous of the shipwrecks in that part of the world. It wasn't noted because of a loss of life, since over 300 passengers and crew got away safely. The ship is remembered because it was carrying an estimated $1 million in gold bullion from San Francisco, bound for Panama and then on to New York. Click For Story

Wreck Of Schooner A. F. Davison

A fierce Atlantic coast blizzard was blamed for the wreck of the four-mast schooner A. F. Davison on White Head Island, Grand Manan, New Brunswick on December 6, 1926. Miraculously the entire crew escaped alive in the midst of what was described as one of the worst winter storms to ravage the area in many years. Click For Story

The Titanic Conspiracy Story

Most people know about the Titanic disaster of April 14, 1912 that claimed 1,503 lives after the ship . . . that largest liner in the world in its day . . . struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. What few people know, however, is that there is a strange alternative conspiracy theory about this disaster outlined by researcher Robin Gardiner in his book “Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank.” Click For Story

A. A. Raven Sunk By U-Boat In 1918

The steamship A. A. Raven was one of a long list of American freight carriers lost in the onslaught of German U-boats during World War I. The Raven also was one of 21 ships sunk by U-boat-55, commanded by Ralph Wenninger in the nine months it operated off the European coast. Click For Story