Shipwrecks can be found either submerged to the bottom of a body of water or washed ashore on land. According to UNESCO, there are more than 3 million shipwrecks worldwide. Some date back countless years. Although the majority of ships that go down with the sea are eventually forgotten, some of them continue to be sought-after treasures.
There are still hundreds of famous ships lost at sea, despite the fact that modern technology and the coordinated efforts of treasure seekers have led to the discovery of many of them (including the Titanic!). Here are some of the most famous shipwrecks that have yet to be discovered.
1. The SS Waratah (Lost in 1909)
A passenger and cargo steamship named SS Waratah was constructed in 1908 for the Blue Anchor Line to travel between Europe and Australia. With 211 passengers and crew on board, the ship vanished in July 1909 while making her second voyage from Durban to Cape Town along the coast of the Colony of Natal.
The Waratah was expected to reach Cape Town on 29 July 1909, but never reached its destination. No trace of the ship has ever been found. At least six expeditions around the alleged wreck location have been attempted by research teams without success.
2. USS Cyclops (Lost in 1918)
In early March 1918, while returning from a voyage to Brazil, the vessel stopped in Barbados after indications that it was overloaded, the Cyclops mysteriously disappeared. Numerous ships sailed to locate this coal ship, as she was thought to have been sunk by a German submarine, or a storm. Her wreck has never been found. The loss of the ship and 306 crew and passengers without a trace sometime after 4 March 1918 remains the single largest loss of life in the history of the United States Navy not directly involving combat.
At the time the Cyclops went missing it was the biggest ship in the U.S Navy (measuring over 540 feet in length and weighing over 19,000 tons when fully loaded). Amazingly, this massive ship disappeared without a trace. Still to this day, its fate remains unknown.
The “Cyclops curse” came to be following the disappearance of the USS Cyclops when two of it’s sisters ships, the USS Proteus and the USS Nereus, also vanished without a trace in the North Atlantic during World War II.
3. The Merchant Royal (Lost in 1641)
Merchant Royal – the ‘ElDorado of the Sea’, also known as Royal Merchant, was a 17th-century English merchant ship that was lost at sea off Land’s End in rough weather on the 23rd of September 1641.The ship was loaded with gold and silver. On board were at least 100,000 pounds of gold (over US$1.5 billion in today’s money), 400 bars of Mexican silver (another 1 million) and nearly 500,000 pieces of eight and other coins, making it one of the most valuable wrecks of all time. In 2007, an American company found a large, valuable shipwreck in the northeast Atlantic. At the time it was rumored to be the Merchant Royal, but it is now thought to be an 18th or 19th-century Spanish ship. The wreck of the Merchant Royal has to this day never been located.
4.Flor de la Mar (Lost in 1511)
A 400-ton Portuguese carrack called the Flor de la Mar or Flor do Mar, which means “Flower of the Sea,” plied the seas in the early 1500s. On its way back to Portugal, this ship was carrying a substantial amount of treasure when it went down somewhere off the coast of Sumatra, likely at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca. Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to locate this ship, but none have been successful. While some have asserted that the ship has been located, these claims have not been backed by concrete proof. As a result, the Flor de la Mar wreck and the riches it was carrying are still regarded as lost.
The Flor de la Mar took part in several notable voyages and conquests during its career. It was involved in the Portuguese expeditions to India, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. In 1509, it played a crucial role in the Battle of Diu, where the Portuguese defeated the combined fleet of Egyptian, Ottoman, and Indian ships.
For the last 500-plus years, navigators, adventurers, and even states have been looking for the lost treasures of Flor de la Mar. The estimate value of the treasure has been estimated at 3 billion dollars!
5. Santa María (Lost in 1492)
The Santa María was one of three Spanish ships, together with the Nia and the Pinta, that Christopher Columbus utilized on his first transatlantic journey in 1492. On Christmas Day 1492, the Santa Maria ran aground on a reef off Hispaniola and was declared a total loss. The ship’s timbers were salvaged and used to build a small fort on shore. The Nao Santa María is one of the most famous ships of mankind. It played the main role on one of the most important historic landmarks: the discovery of America.
6.Le Griffon (Lost in 1679)
The Griffin, which disappeared on its maiden voyage in 1679. She was built by the French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, with a view to finding a route through the Great lakes to China and Japan. Researchers believed that the Griffin was caught in a four-day storm and the bowspirit, which was held in place only by wooden wedges, broke off before the rest of the ship sank. The cargo of furs , estimated at up to $12,000 in value – nearly $900,000 in today’s money – likely went down to the depths with her. Although numerous people have alleged to have located Le Griffon’s wreck, the vast majority of these claims have been conclusively dismissed.
7. SS Baychimo(Lost in 1931)
The SS Baychimo was constructed in Sweden in 1914, and up until the outbreak of World War I, it was owned by a German shipping company – it was Originally named the SS Ångermanelfven. The vessel weighed 1,322 tons and was steam-powered. The ship made voyages from Scotland across the North Atlantic to Alaska and British Columbia after being purchased by The Hudson Bay Company. In 1931, while sailing to Vancouver, the uncharted, icy waters of the North Pacific proved to be too difficult for Baychimo, forcing the crew to abandon the ship one it became iced in. After camping out on the ice, the ship broke free and drifted away. This had lead to numerous reports of ‘ghost sighting’ of the ship. Although she has not been located it is most likely that the Baychimo is laying at the bottom of the Beaufort Sea, since it has been over 70 years since it was last seen.
Updated on: December 05, 2023
