The Titanic
The Titanic is one of the most famous ships in the world. She was the largest ship worldwide at the time of her maiden (first), and last voyage.
She entered service on April 10, 1912, but tragically sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the early hours of April 15. The Titanic departed from Southampton, England.
After five days at sea, the Titanic encountered the fatal iceberg which resulted in the deadliest maritime disaster of the time.
The wreck of the Titanic was found in 1985, about 740 kilometres from Newfoundland.
Sometime, while she was sinking, the ship had broken into two. The seabed around the wreck contains hundreds of thousands of items, such as furniture and personal possessions.
The Mayflower
The Mayflower is a ship of much cultural importance especially in America. In 1620, she transported a group of English families to the Americas, then known as the New World. Its passengers, known as the pilgrims were motivated to make this journey as they were subjected to discrimination in England due to their religious beliefs.
Her 102 passengers and 30-odd crew faced many hardships on their journey, with low resources and rapidly worsening weather. But with only one fatality during the journey, the pilgrims made it to the New World after a punishing 10 weeks of travel.
Even though many historians thought the Mayflower to be poorly built, especially as she was sold for scrap four years after her voyage to the New World, the passengers somehow managed to arrive at Cape Cod, Massachusetts in America.
Santa Maria
The Santa Maria was one of three ships used by Christopher Colombus on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492.
It is mainly renowned for playing the main role on one of the most important historical events: the discovery of America, an encounter between two worlds that changed the future of universal history.
The Santa Maria ran aground on Christmas Day, 1492, on the shores of Haiti. She was partially dismantled to obtain timber for Fort Navidad, ‘Christmas Fort,’ placed in a native Taíno village.
The Fort was the first Spanish settlement in the New World, which Columbus had claimed for Spain.
Queen Anne’s Revenge
The Queen Anne’s Revenge was a pirate ship used by Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach, an English pirate, as his flagship. She was previously a French slave ship known as La Concorde, until Teach captured her in 1717. He used her for less than a year, when he ran Queen Anne’s Revenge aground in North Carolina, America.
However, he captured numerous prizes using her as his flagship.
Its gross volume was 200 tons and she was believed to have been built in 1710. Blackbeard made numerous upgrades to Queen Anne’s Revenge after he obtained her, including the addition of more heavy cannons to make her more suitable for his pirate ventures.
Blackbeard sailed Queen Anne’s Revenge from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean, attacking British, Dutch, and Portuguese merchant ships along the way.
The Endurance
The Endurance was the ship in which Ernest Shackleton and his crew set sail for the Antarctic.
She was built and launched in 1912 in Norway; her designer Christian Jacobsen had planned every detail of the Endurance for maximum durability.
Ernest Shackleton bought the Endurance in 1913, and had her specially modified for his expedition. She left South Georgia for the Antarctic on December 5,1914.
Two days after leaving South Georgia, the Endurance encountered pack ice, which drastically slowed her progress. The crew of the ship realised that the Endurance, and the mass of pack ice it was stuck in, was slowly drifting to the west.
This continued until October 1915, when pressure waves started to hit the Endurance. On October 25, the pressure of the ice increased, eventually resulting in the destruction of the ship’s rudder.
Her crew had to camp on ice since the Endurance was slowly sinking into the ice. Almost a month later, on November 21, 1915, the Endurance sank below the ice of the Antarctic.
USS Constitution
The USS Constitution is one of the first frigates (a type of warship) of the US Navy, and the world’s oldest ship still afloat. She was launched in 1797, the third of six frigates originally planned to be constructed for the use of the American Navy.
She served in the First Barbary War against North African navies, as well as in the War of 1812, in which she earned the nickname ‘Old Ironsides.’
In a battle against the HMS Guerriere (a British warship), an American soldier exclaimed “Huzzah! her sides are made of iron!” after shots fired from the Guerriere ‘bounced harmlessly’ off the sides of the Constitution.
Her victory in this battle significantly improved American morale.
The Constitution is still in active service today after being restored in 1921 and reconstructed in 1995. She is berthed at the former Charleston Navy Yard, Massachusetts.
‘Old Ironsides’ is open year-round to tourists and her crewmen, 75 US Navy sailors, provide free tours.
Dinara Hettiarachchi
Grade 8
Ananda College
Colombo 10.