Explore 65 Maritime history Collections - Atlas Obscura
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Isle of Wight, England

Longshoreman's Museum

An unusual seafront museum hides behind an unassuming Ventnor giftshop.
Remains of whalers' wooden coffins and gravestones at Smeerenburg, in the northwest region of the Svalbard Archipelago.
cemeteries

Svalbard's Lonely Whaler Graves Included Burial Kits With Pieces of Distant Homes

For centuries, the cruel industry decimated entire whale species—and claimed countless human lives. Whalers arrived prepared for their own deaths.
Nicky Nielsen April 17, 2024
Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver Maritime Museum

Step aboard the first ship to circumnavigate North America.
Morro Bay, California

Morro Bay Maritime Museum

A wealth of seafaring history displayed on the California coast.
Over time water has a way of turning wrecks into otherworldly archaeological sites.
ships

The Year in Wrecks, Lost Ships, and Underwater Discoveries

From unexpected treasure in Ukraine to a unique relic of the American Revolution, Captain Santa’s lost ship to digital dugouts.
Gemma Tarlach December 27, 2023
In late June, weeks after the catastrophic destruction of Ukraine's Kakhovka Dam, lowered water levels upriver revealed this ancient boat.
ships

The Kakhovka Dam Disaster Revealed an Archaeological 'Goldmine'

Destruction of the Ukrainian dam unleashed a catastrophic flood—and surfaced centuries of cultural heritage. Now there's a call not to rebuild it.
Roman Cherevko September 26, 2023
Brigadier General Benedict Arnold lost the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776—as well as several of the young navy's ships, including the gunboat <em>Spitfire</em>—but the skirmish bought the Continental Army much-needed time in the war.
ships

Benedict Arnold's Lake Champlain Gunboat Is the Last Shipwreck of Its Kind

Preserved in the lake's chilly waters for more than 200 years, the Spitfire now faces a new threat.
Hope Hodge Seck September 19, 2023
An artist's rendering of Black Caesar, Biscayne Bay's notorious pirate, who likely did not exist.
pirates

Chasing Black Caesar, Southern Florida's Notorious Pirate

Was the terror of Biscayne Bay a man who escaped slavery, an African chieftain, or a marketing ploy that went viral?
Karuna Eberl September 6, 2023
A rusty ship sits on a grassy riverbank.
Lorain, Ohio

Black River Ghost Ship

A former Canadian automobile ferry mysteriously appeared in the Black River 20 years ago, and now it quietly rusts away.
Mayflower on Rotherhithe
London, England

Rotherhithe Street

The arching stretch of London's longest street holds many reminders of the area's maritime past.
Salvador, Brazil

Forte de Santo Antônio da Barra

This 17th-century Portuguese fort now houses a nautical museum.
For decades, the nonprofit Diving With a Purpose has trained young Black men, women and teenagers in maritime archaeology methods.
ships

The Hunt for an Elusive Florida Shipwreck That Killed 41 Enslaved People

Searching for the slave ship Guerrero, the nonprofit Diving With a Purpose has also trained scores of young Black men and women to find and tell stories once lost to the waves.
Karuna Eberl February 27, 2023
The Tamil Bell, the broken crown of a ship's bell embossed with Tamil script, has fascinated and perplexed scholars for more than a century.
objects of intrigue

The Mystery of New Zealand's Tamil Bell, an Archaeological 'UFO'

The strange bronze artifact perplexed scholars for more than a century, including how it traveled so far from home.
Petrina Darrah February 8, 2023
Divers on the site of the <em>São José Paquete D'Africa</em> wreck off the northwestern coast of Cape Town, South Africa.
shipwrecks

Near Cape Town, the São José Shipwreck Is a Unique Symbol of A Painful Legacy

More than 200 enslaved people perished when the Portuguese ship sank in 1794.
Sam Jones February 6, 2023
Bedroom inside the House
Eyrarbakki, Iceland

Arnessyla Heritage Museum

This collection of several museums includes one of the oldest structures in Iceland.
Written by Elizabeth Z Pardue, Photos by Michele Zapf
islands

This Tiny Island Was Settled Thousands of Years Ago. It Hasn’t Really Changed.

Home to 4,600-acres of natural wonderland, mysterious ancient artifacts, and Gullah Geechee history.
London, England

Long John Silver Figurehead Collection

The world's largest collection of ship figureheads includes figures from legends and history alike, from Sir Lancelot to Abraham Lincoln.
The ship first known as the <em>Viking Sally</em> was once a floating pleasure palace, part of the Baltic's "cruiseferry culture."
disasters

The Curse of the Viking Sally, the Baltic’s Most Ill-Starred Ship

The one-time floating pleasure palace left a legacy of murder and maritime disaster in its wake.
Michael Hunt October 6, 2022