Ships and Boats

This page includes merchant ships, liners, cruise ships and pleasure craft.

See also Warships, and Nautical Terms.

Some of the ships described here belong (or belonged) to the Royal Navy (or equivalent); but the purposes for which they were being used as and when referred to here are non–military (for example, exploration – Captain Cook's ships being a case in point).

Captain Cook

First voyage, 1768 (launched in 1764 as the merchant collier, or Whitby Cat, Earl of Pembroke)		Endeavour
Ship commanded by Cook on his second and third voyages (1772–5 and 1776)		Resolution
Escort ship on Cook's second voyage		Adventure
Escort ship on Cook's third voyage		Discovery

The Titanic (and its sister ships)

Date of the loss of the Titanic		14–15 April 1912
First ship to use the SOS distress signal		Titanic
Lives lost on the Titanic		1,496
Number of survivors		712
Belfast yard at which the Titanic was built		Harland & Wolff
Number of funnels on the Titanic		Four
More familiar name for the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, which operated the Titanic		White Star Line
Captain of the Titanic		Edward J. Smith
The Titanic sailed on her maiden voyage from		Southampton
The Titanic's first port of call, after leaving Southampton		Cherbourg
The Titanic's second and last port of call (in Co. Cork, Ireland)		Queenstown
First ship to come to the aid of the Titanic – rescued 705 survivors		Carpathia
Captain of the Carpathia		Arthur Rostron

Sister Ships

Used in World War I as a troopship; sliced through a U–boat in May 1918; rammed the Nantucket Lightship in 1934 (7 crew killed); made its last Atlantic crossing in 1935		Olympic
Used in World War I as a hospital ship; sunk by a mine in the Aegean, 21 November 1916		Britannic

Note: if asked "What was the Titanic's sister ship?", answer "Olympic". It lasted longer and is the better known of the two; most quiz question setters seem to have forgotten about the Britannic.

Christopher Columbus

His flagship (on his 1492 voyage)		Santa Maria
The other two ships in his 1492 fleet		Niña
		Pinto

The Mayflower

Year in which the Mayflower sailed (left Plymouth on 6 September; made landfall on Cape Cod on 11 November)			1620
Captain of the Mayflower, on its 1620 voyage (born around 1570 in Harwich, Essex, where the family home is now a visitor attraction)			Christopher Jones
Ship that left Southampton with the Mayflower, but was left in Plymouth because unseaworthy			Speedwell
People on board the Mayflower	Passengers		101
	Crew (approx)		30
Town at the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts: site of the Mayflower pilgrims' first landfall in America (they were trying to get to Virginia Colony, but were driven back by stong winds)			Provincetown
Site (in Massachusetts) of the colony founded in 1620 by passengers from the Mayflower (there is no contemporary evidence that they actually used the famous Rock, named after the colony, to step ashore)			Plymouth

Miscellaneous

US engineer, developed the first successful steamship and the first successful submarine, around 1800		Robert Fulton
Fulton's first successful submarine (Paris, 1797)		Nautilus
Fulton's first successful steamship (sailed from New York to Albany on the Hudson, 1807)		Clermont

Masts on a sloop		1
Masts on a yawl		2
Three short blasts		Full steam ahead
Clydebank yard at which the Queen Mary and QE2 were built		John Brown's
Letter that used to identify British sailing boats (now GBR)		K
California: Queen Mary was berthed from 1969 at		Long Beach
Rearmost mast on a three–masted ship		Mizzenmast
Officer in charge of finance and passenger welfare, on a cruise ship		Purser
Ann McKim, Thermopylae, Flying Cloud, Cutty Sark, James Baines, Ariel, Taeping		Tea clippers
NS Savannah (US, 1962–72), Mutsu (Japan, 1990–95), Otto Hahn (Germany, 1964–), Sevmorput (Soviet Union / Russia, 1988–): the only four merchant ships that are or were		Nuclear powered

Brunel

The first steamship built purposely for the Atlantic crossing; designed by Brunel; built in Bristol, launched July 1837; then the world's largest steamship (length 236ft); engines fitted in London; maiden voyage from Bristol to New York March 1838; served as a troop carrier in the Crimean War; broken up on the Thames 1856		SS Great Western
The first iron ship; the first propeller–driven ship to cross the Atlantic; designed by Brunel; built in Bristol, launched July 1843; at the time the world's largest ship (length 322ft); grounded off Ireland in 1846, salvage bankrupted its owners (the Great Western Steamship Company); carried 630 emigrants to Melbourne, 1852; served as a troop carrier in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny; sold to the Falkland Islands Co. in 1886 after a fire, and used as a storage hulk; scuttled 1930; returned to Bristol from Port Stanley in 1970 and restored as a museum		SS Great Britain
Brunel's final great project: built at Millwall, launched Jan 1858; then the world's largest ship (length 690ft); nicknamed "the Great Babe" by Brunel; he died less than 2 years after her launch, and only 4 days after her first sea trials; originally named SS Leviathan; the first ship with a double hull (now compulsory); maiden voyage from Southampton to New York July 1860; struck a rock off Long Island, New York (subsequently named after her), August 1862; later used to lay submarine cables, including the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866; broken up on the Mersey, 1889–90; topmast bought by Liverpool FC as a flagpole, which still stands outside Anfield		SS Great Eastern

Ships and Boats

Italian cruise ship hi–jacked by Palestinians off Alexandria in 1985		Achille Lauro
Oil tanker that ran aground in 1978 on Portsall Rocks, near the north–western tip of Brittany (north–east of Ushant), spilling around 225,000 tonnes of oil		Amoco Cadiz
Greek merchant ship (originally built in Japan) that ran aground on Brighton beach in 1980		Athina B
British merchant ship, owned by Cunard, requisitioned during the Falklands War and sunk by an Exocet missile		Atlantic Conveyor
Trimaran in which Ellen MacArthur set a new record for a single–handed circumnavigation (2004–5) – named after two Kingfisher companies		B&Q/Castorama
Thames dredger involved in the Marchioness tragedy (1989)		Bow Belle
Oil tanker that ran aground off Shetland in 1993, leaking around 85,000 tonnes of oil		Braer
59–foot ketch in which Chay Blyth completed the first solo non–stop east–to–west circumnavigation (1971)		British Steel
Jacques Cousteau's famous research ship (featured in The Undersea World of …): a former minesweeper, built in Seattle and loaned to the Royal Navy under lend–lease		Calypso
The world's largest cruise ship (101,000 tonnes), launched in 1997		Carnival Destiny
Italian cruise ship that struck a rock and sank off the island of Giglio, January 2012 (on its launch in 2005, the champagne bottle, released by model Eva Herzigová, had inauspiciously failed to break first time)		Costa Concordia
Tea clipper preserved at Greenwich; name is a Scots phrase meaning a short undergarment, taken from Burns's Tam o'Shanter; a brand of whisky was named after the ship; badly damaged by fire in 2007, and re–opened in 2012 after restoration (less severely damaged by another fire in 2014)		Cutty Sark
Captain Scott's ship on his first Antarctic expedition (1901–4) – cf. Terra Nova; also the escort ship on Captain Cook's second and third expeditions		Discovery
Racing yacht owned by Simon le Bon of Duran Duran – capsized in the Fastnet race, 1985		Drum
Troopship used to carry one of the first large groups of Caribbean immigrants to Britain, in 1948 (492 passengers and one stowaway; built in Germany, acquired by the UK as a prize of war; often known by only the second word of its name)		Empire Windrush
Shackleton's ship on the Imperial Trans–Antarctic Expedition (1914–16); trapped and crushed in the ice in 1915		Endurance
Japanese–owned, Panamanian–registered container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal in March 2021, blocking it for six days		Ever Given
53–foot yacht in which Naomi James became the first woman to sail single–handed around the world		Express Crusader
Spilt over 40 million litres of oil on Bligh Reef, Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1989		Exxon Valdez
Legendary phantom ship, of evil omen, that haunts the Cape of Good Hope		Flying Dutchman
Crew rescued by Grace Darling (1838)		Forfarshire
Commissioned by Fridtjof Nansen for polar exploration; also used by Amundsen		Fram
US–based cruise liner, launched in 2006 – replaced the Queen Mary II as the world's largest passenger ship (but the latter was still the largest ocean liner; see also Oasis of the Seas)		Freedom of the Seas
Hull trawler, lost in the Barents Sea in mysterious circumstances in 1974, with all 36 crew – the worst disaster ever to befall the UK fishing fleet in peacetime		Gaul
Drake changed the name of the Pelican, during his circumnavigation, to		Golden Hind
Yacht in which Fidel Castro and his band of revolutionaries sailed from Mexico to Cuba, in 1956		Granma
54–foot ketch in which Francis Chichester circumnavigated the world, 1966–7		Gypsy Moth IV
Townsend Thoresen ferry that sank in 1987, shortly after leaving Zeebrugge with the bow doors open – 193 lives lost (Britain's worst peacetime maritime disaster since 1919)		Herald of Free Enterprise
Italian cargo ship, foundered in the English Channel in 2000		Levoli Sun
36–foot ketch in which Alec Rose circumnavigated the world, 1967–8		Lively Lady
P&O flagship, torpedoed off Ireland in 1915 – leading to a significant increase in US public support for entering the First World War		Lusitania
Pleasure boat that sank in the Thames near Southwark Bridge after being in collision with the sand carrier Bow Belle, August 1989; 51 people lost their lives, 61 were rescued		Marchioness
American merchant brigantine, built in Nova Scotia in 1861, and registered as the Amazon; renamed in 1868; found drifting off the Azores on 5 December 1872, 28 days after leaving New York under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, with his family as passengers, bound for Genoa		Mary Celeste
Ship on which John Cabot sailed from Bristol in 1497, when he discovered Cape Breton Island (Newfoundland); believed to have been the first European exploration of the North American mainland since the Vikings in the 11th century		Mathew
Built in 1906; held the Blue Riband for a record 20 years (1909–29)		Mauretania
Yacht in which Edward Heath won the Sydney to Hobart race in 1969 – also two later ones		Morning Cloud
UK–flagged merchant ship, beached off South Devon after being damaged in a storm, January 2007		MSC Napoli
The only French liner to hold the Blue Riband, vying with the Queen Mary for three years after her 1935 maiden voyage; the largest and fastest passenger ship of her day		SS Normandie
Seized by US authorities during World War II, for use as a troop ship, and renamed USS Lafayette; caught fire and capsised in 1942 while being converted; salvaged at great expense, but restoration was deemed too costly; scrapped in 1946
Launched in 2008, maiden voyage 2009: replaced Freedom of the Seas (and its two sister ships) as the world's largest passenger ship; first of a class of similar vessels – Allure, Harmony and Symphony of the Seas		Oasis of the Seas
Launched by Cunard in 1995, as its flagship		Oriana
Ship in which Sir Francis Drake set sail on his circumnavigation (cf. Golden Hind)		Pelican
Real–life ship whose wreck in 1941 off the island of Eriskay, in the Outer Hebrides, inspired the book and film Whisky Galore! (bound for Kingston, Jamaica and New Orleans, its cargo included 28,000 cases of malt whisky)		SS Politician
Bahamas–registered oil tanker that sank off the coast of Galicia, Spain, in November 2002, spilling 25,000 tonnes of oil		Prestige
Name given by the notorious 18th century pirate Edward Teach (Blackbeard) to his flagship – a captured French merchant vessel		Queen Anne's Revenge
Launched in 1938, entered service in 1940; then the largest passenger liner ever built (length 1,031ft), not surpassed in her lifetime; retired in 1968, destroyed by fire in 1972 (arson suspected) in Hong Kong harbour where plans were under way to use it as a university; the wreck was used in the Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun (1984) as covert headquarters for MI6		Queen Elizabeth
Cunard's flagship, 1969–2004; built in Clydebank, launched 1967, the last oil–fired liner (refitted as a diesel 1986); retired 2008		Queen Elizabeth 2
Queen Elizabeth's slightly smaller sister ship: launched 1934, entered service 1936, retired 1976, permanently berthed in Long Beach, California as a hotel and museum		Queen Mary
The only ocean liner still in service, since the QE2's retirement in 2008; built in St. Nazaire, France, and launched in 2004 by HM the Queen; then the world's largest passenger ship (but see Freedom of the Seas). Replaced the QE2 on the transatlantic route in 2004, and as Cunard's flagship. Note: an ocean liner differs from a cruise ship in that it uses regular trans–oceanic routes according to a schedule		Queen Mary 2
Greenpeace's 'flagship', blown up in Auckland harbour by French agents in 1985		Rainbow Warrior
Car ferry beached by a storm at Blackpool, 2008		Riverdance
The first nuclear–powered merchant ship – launched in 1962, decommissioned in 1972		NS Savannah
The first steamship to cross the Atlantic (1891)		SS Savannah
Supertanker that ran aground off Milford Haven, in 1996, spilling between 40,000 and 72,000 tonnes of oil		Sea Empress
Name eventually chosen in 2016 for the Antarctic research ship (due to enter service in 2019) for which the popular choice was Boaty McBoatface		Sir David Attenborough
Saudi supertanker, captured by Somali pirates 2008		Sirius Star
Penlee (Cornwall) lifeboat, lost with all hands 19 Dec 1981		Solomon Browne
Scottish trawler, lost off the Isle of Man in 1999		Solway Harvester
37–foot cutter in which Joshua Slocum became the first man to circumnavigate the world single–handedly (converted to a yawl in the Straits of Magellan)		Spray
32–foot ketch in which Robin Knox–Johnston completed the first non–stop solo navigation (1968–9) – built by himself in India		Suhaili
Donald Crowhurst's trimaran (in which he competed in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, 1968–9 – but committed suicide having cheated and failed to complete the circumnavigation		Teignmouth Electron
Captain Scott's ship on his second Antarctica expedition (1910–12) – cf. Discovery		Terra Nova
US–built and owned, Liberian–registered oil tanker, chartered to BP: ran aground off Cornwall in 1967, spilling around 100,000 tonnes of oil in what, according to Wikipedia, "was the world's worst oil spill"; the largest ship ever to be wrecked, at that time		Torrey Canyon
American liner, launched in 1951: set a new record for an Atlantic crossing by a liner in 1952, and has held the Blue Riband ever since; taken out of service in 1969, it is now a virtual wreck, berthed in Philadelphia		SS United States
The only ship of Magellan's fleet of five to complete the circumnavigation		Victoria
The world's last sea–going passenger–carrying paddle steamer: built in Glasgow and launched in 1946, operated between the Firth of Clyde and Arrochar (on Loch Long) until 1973; now (after restoration) operates passenger excursions around the British coast		PS Waverley

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24