All posts by Peter McCracken

This Week in Maritime History: April 13-20

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Maritime History, Ships

Of course we are back this week with the loss of the Titanic, in 1912, but it was not, by any means, the largest loss of life in this particular week in maritime history.

14: The most famous shipwreck, that of RMS Titanic (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) on its maiden voyage, occurred on the night of April 14-15, 1912. The “RMS” in the ship’s name refers to the fact that Titanic was designated a “Royal Mail Ship,’ providing specific service in delivering British mail to and from North America. Titanic, of course, did not have enough lifeboats for all of the passengers who were on board. The disaster did lead to significant safety changes associated with travel at sea, particularly around carrying sufficient lifeboats, and the required use of radios on passenger ships. 

For more on Titanic, see the following websites:

April 16: The German troop transport ship MV Goya (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was sunk in 1945 by the Soviet submarine L-3 (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), leading to one of the greatest losses of life at sea. Goya was built in Norway in 1940 and seized by the German government and incorporated into the Kriegsmarine. In 1945, as part of Operation Hannibal, Goya sailed from Poland to Germany, to evacuate over 7000 citizens, soldiers, and sailors. The ship was attacked from the air by Soviet bombers, suffering only minimal damage, but then was spotted by a minelayer submarine. Goya was slowed by engine problems on one of its convoy vessels, giving L-3 an opportunity to fire four torpedoes at the ship, two of which hit. Goya sank immediately, and only 183 on board survived.

April 18: In 1990, the wreck of the five-masted schooner Cora F. Cressey (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Cora F. Cressey was launched in 1902, at the Percy and Small Shipyard in Bath, Maine, and was one of the largest wooden ships ever built. After retiring from service in 1928, the ship spent ten years as a floating nightclub in Massachusetts and Maine. Eventually, Cressey was intentionally sunk to act as a breakwater near Bremen, Maine. Portions of the vessel are on display at the Maine Maritime Museum, which is at the original Percy & Small Shipyard, where Cressey was originally built.

April 20: The 1657 Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife took place during the Anglo-Spanish War of 1654-60, in the Canary Islands, in an attempt to take the Spanish treasure fleet from the Americas. The fleet had already arrived in Tenerife and was safe from the English navy, but Admiral Robert Blake succeeded in destroying most Spanish ships in the harbor, without taking on any serious damage to his fleet.

Here are some other interesting bits in the maritime world this week:

48° North, a newsletter of maritime happenings in the Pacific Northwest, has a great story about the reuse of the 115-year-old mast of 1907 schooner Martha. When Martha needed a new mast, they turned to Northwest Maritime’s boat shop, where manager there suggested that the mast be used to build a new boat. There’s much more to it, and you should read the whole story.

At the Hudson River Maritime Museum, in Kingston, NY, their solar-powered tour boat, Solaris, will begin its 2025 season on May 2. Tickets are now on sale/sail — if you’re in the area, be sure to book a trip. (I think I’ll book a ticket for May 3, so if you’re around, let me know!)

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

This Week in Maritime History: April 6-12

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Maritime History, Ships

We look at a number of ship losses this week, including the most famous one.

April 7: Japanese battleship Yamato (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was sunk in 1945, during Operation Ten-Go, in World War II. Yamato was launched in 1940, and at the time was the most powerfully built battleship ever, along with its sister-ship, Musashi (Wikipedia, ShipIndex). Yamato served as the flagship of Japan’s combined fleet, and in 1942 Admiral Yamamoto directed the Battle of Midway from Yamato’s bridge. Operation Ten-Go was a Japanese plan to attack Allied forces that had invaded Okinawa. Yamato was to be beached near Okinawa to attack Allied forces until it was destroyed. But through codebreaking, the Allies knew of the plans for Operation Ten-Go, and Allied forces attacked Yamato before it could approach Okinawa. Allied forces battered the ship throughout the day, and in the afternoon the ship finally sank after an incredible explosion of Yamato’s magazines, creating a mushroom cloud that was visible 100 miles away. Of 3,332 crewmembers, about 3,055 were lost. Yamato has remained a significant symbolic touchstone in Japanese culture.

April 10: USS Thresher (Wikipedia, Shipindex), a nuclear-powered attack submarine, was lost off the US eastern seaboard in 1963, while doing deep-diving tests. All on board were lost. 

April 10: RMS Titanic began its maiden voyage from Southampton, in 1912. The next day, Titanic arrived at Cork, Ireland, then set sail for New York, and movie history.   

April 11: SMS Blücher (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), the last German armored cruiser, was launched in 1908. Blücher was lost at the Battle of Dogger Bank, in 1915, during World War I, with the loss of perhaps as many as 1000 sailors. 

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

This Week in Maritime History: March 30-April 5

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Maritime History, Ships

Storms play an important part this week, from the nearly-always-stormy Cape Horn, in 1840, to the sinking of a Newfoundlander sealing ship in 1915.

March 30: In 1881, SS Aberdeen (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) sailed on her first voyage, from London to Melbourne, via Cape Town, then to Shanghai, and back to London via the Suez Canal. Aberdeen was special because it was the first ship to be successfully powered by a triple expansion steam engine, a major improvement on the two-cylinder compound engines. In 1906 Aberdeen was sold to the Ottoman government and renamed Halep, then was sunk by a British submarine in World War I, while serving as a Turkish troopship. 

March 31: A storm off the coast of Newfoundland in 1914 caused the sinking of the SS Southern Cross (Wikipedia, ShipIndex). Southern Cross was launched in 1896 and served with the Southern Cross Expedition to Antarctica in 1898 to 1900, and was the first expedition to spend the winter on the Antarctic mainland. After that voyage, Southern Cross served in sealing hunts from 1901 until its loss with all hands in 1914. 

April 1: The Battle of Okinawa began in 1945, as the end of World War II approached. USS West Virginia (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) had been bombed and seriously damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Navy mess attendant Doris Miller was on board West Virginia at the time; he was sent to man an anti-aircraft gun despite having no training, and eventually was awarded a Navy Cross for his actions. In 1945, at the start of the Battle of Okinawa, West Virginia sat just off the island for several days, supporting the invasion through ground bombardment and illuminating the invasion space. One kamikaze aircraft managed to evade West Virginia’s defences and crash into the ship, causing the deaths of four sailors.

April 3: Sailing to San Francisco around Cape Horn in 1849, on board Croton (ShipIndex), Hiram Chittenden drew a picture of the landscapes he saw in Le Maire Strait, at the eastern edge of Cape Horn. The San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park has an image of this drawing, plus some description of it, in a blog post from 2012. As a born- and bred-Seattleite, I of course recognize the name of Hiram Chittenden – as you might, if you’ve ever visited the Ballard Locks, more accurately known as the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, reflecting his important work in Seattle for the Army Corps of Engineers from 1906 to 1908.

April 4: In 1865, President Lincoln visited Richmond, Virginia, aboard a converted sidewheel steamship, USS Malvern (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), after Richmond was taken by Union troops. Malvern served as a Confederate blockade runner under the name William G. Hewes, then Ella and Annie. As Ella and Annie, the ship was captured by USS Niphon in 1863, was renamed Malvern, and added to the Union Navy. After the end of the Civil War, Malvern ended up back with its original owner, and original name, William G. Hewes.

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

Ship Models Available for Donation

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Ships, Uncategorized
Tags:

A friend of ShipIndex.org contacted us to see if we know on anyone who might be interested in acquiring several excellent ship models, made by a professional modeler but for his own enjoyment. These models have been appraised and are in attractive display cases. They’re also in Tennessee, and transporting a ship model is no easy task, so keep that in mind.

Here’s an example of some of this artist’s models on display in a public library:

If you’d like to learn more, don’t hesitate to contact us at comments@shipindex.org, and we’ll connect you with the current owner of these models.

This Week in Maritime History: March 23-29

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Maritime History

This week’s list of maritime events covers 200 years of maritime and naval history, from wars to shipping, and one of the longest continuously-published resources.

March 23: The US Navy has had eight different ships named “Hornet” in its history. In 1815, a brigantine named Hornet (DANFS history, ShipIndex) captured the British sloop Penguin (ShipIndex),  off the island of Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlantic. Neither vessel had yet heard that the war they were fighting, the War of 1812, had ended a month earlier. “Hornet” and “Wasp” are among the most common names for US Naval ship.  [[HT: see pic of battle at https://www.shipindex.org/vessels/Q5633735]] 

March 24: In 1970, the 1914 tug Eppleton Hall (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) arrived in San Francisco, after a six-month voyage from Newcastle, England. The tug is now an integral part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. 

March 26: Nathaniel Bowditch, author of one of the most important works in navigation ever published, is born in 1773. Bowditch’s first “New American Practical Navigator” appeared in 1802, and is still published, now by the US Government. The 2024 edition is available to all, online, from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

March 28: The Battle of Valparaiso, part of the War of 1812, took place in 1814, off the coast of Valparaiso, Chile. USS Essex (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) and USS Essex Junior (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) battled – and lost – against the better-armed HMS Phoebe (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) and HMS Cherub (Wikipedia, ShipIndex). Essex was captained by David Porter, who captured a whaler called Atlantic, and renamed it Essex Junior. Essex served as HMS Essex until 1837.

March 29: The Ever Given (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), one of the largest container ships in the world, was released from being stuck in – and completely blocking – the Suez Canal, in 2021. The closure of the canal, due to the ship’s grounding, highlighted the critical role of maritime transport in moving goods all around the world. 

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

This Week in Maritime History: March 16-22

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Maritime History

In this installment of maritime history events, we look at oil spills, new technology, and Pacific exploration. If you’ve got an event that you think should be included, let us know in a comment below, or in an email to comments@shipindex.org.

March 16: In 1978, the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) ran aground off the coast of Brittany, France, causing the largest spill of its kind up to that point in time. The Amoco Cadiz was built in Spain, in 1973-75, so it was a fairly new ship when it was forced to put the rudder hard to port to avoid another ship during a gale, and the rudder got stuck. Despite attempts to be pulled to safety by a tug, and dropping anchors, Amoco Cadiz eventually ended up on rocks that pierced the hull and caused the release of all oil and fuel on board. Like the Torrey Canyon disaster almost exactly eleven years earlier, the wreck was bombed to sink the ship and limit additional damage. 

March 18: In 1967, the SS Torrey Canyon (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), a Suezmax oil tanker built at Newport News Shipyard in 1959 (then enlarged in Japan several years later), ran aground off the coast of Cornwall, England, spilling much of its cargo. The British government decided to attempt to burn off the spilt oil, to minimize its impact, and therefore bombed the spill site with large bombs, jet fuel, rockets, and napalm, with limited success.

March 20: The USS Langley (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was commissioned in 1922, as America’s first aircraft carrier, just 18 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first flight in North Carolina. Jupiter, a collier, or coal-carrying ship, was launched in 1912, decommissioned in 1920, and then recommissioned as Langley (CV-1) two years later, with a wooden deck for airplane movements. Langley also saw service in World War II, but was attacked by a group of Japanese bombers and was damaged so much that the ship needed to be scuttled. 

March 22: The Tonquin (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) arrived at the Columbia River on the US West Coast in 1811. While getting over the treacherous Columbia Bar led to the loss of eight sailors, the crew was able to make it to shore, and soon founded a trading post that would become Astoria, Oregon. Tonquin continued north to trade with native fur trappers. A battle in June 1811, between Tonquin sailors and native Tla-o-qui-aht traders in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, led to the deaths of all but four sailors. One of the four, who was badly wounded, remained on board ship while the other three escaped, and then lit a fuse that detonated the ship’s powder magazine, killing as many as 100 natives and destroying the ship. The other three sailors were eventually captured and killed; a native Quinalt man who had served as a translator was the only survivor, and the only one to make it back to Fort Astoria to tell the tale.

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

This Week in Maritime History: March 9-15

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Uncategorized

In this installment of maritime history events, we travel all around the world. If you’ve got an event that you think should be included, let us know in a comment below, or in an email to comments@shipindex.org.

March 9-10: The submarine USS Kete (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) engaged with three Japanese vessels while gathering weather data in preparation for the invasion of Okinawa, in 1945. Kete was built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and entered service in 1944. Kete was lost later in the month, but no information is known around what caused her loss. In 1995, deep-sea divers may have spotted Kete, but they were unable to confirm the identity of the submarine they found, and after their Remotely Operated Vessel was lost in 1997, they were unable to return to the site.

March 11: On board Balclutha (Wikipedia, ShipIndex, now at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park), in 1899, the Captain’s wife, Alice Durkee, gave birth to their daughter while at sea. The child was named Inda Frances, because she was born on the Indian Ocean, while headed for San Francisco. (source)

Black and white photo of the baby seated in a chair in a long white gown

March 13: In 1808, HMS Emerald, a 36-gun frigate (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) with a long history in the British navy, took a large French schooner, Apropos (ShipIndex) in Viveiro harbor (on the coast in the northwest corner of Spain, in Galicia). The crew on Apropos had run their ship on shore to escape the British, but they were unable to do so, and eventually set the ship on fire, after having run off her crew. Emerald lost nine men, plus had 16 wounded, in the action. 

March 14: On this day in 1790, William Bligh returned to Great Britain, after the mutiny against him on board HMS Bounty (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), the year before. Fletcher Christian, Bligh’s good friend and a master’s mate on Bounty, put Bligh and several other crew in a small boat, which Bligh successfully navigated on a 6700km open ocean voyage to Coupang, in Timor. Bligh eventually returned to Great Britain, and continued his naval career for another 25 years. Below is a photo I took of Capt Bligh’s grave and memorial, in what is now London’s Garden Museum, on Lambeth Palace Road, on a visit in 2023. 

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

This Week in Maritime History: March 2-9

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Maritime History

Today we are starting a new feature that we think will help highlight the importance of maritime history in World history: a list of several central and important events that happened this week, at some time in the past. Most posts will focus on an event or a ship or the ships involved in a specific event. If you have an event you think we should include, please let us know, in a comment below or in an email to comments@shipindex.org. Enjoy!

We’re kicking off this feature with one of the most important-but-inconsequential-at-the-moment events in maritime history: the Battle of Hampton Roads, between the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. While the battle between the two ships had little immediate impact, the importance of the first battle between two ironclads cannot be understated. Read more about it, and other events, below.

March 3: The first US Naval ship built on the West Coast, USS Saginaw (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was launched on this day in 1859. Given the name Toucey at launch, the ship was renamed Saginaw a few months later. Saginaw sailed from San Francisco Bay a year later, on March 8, 1860, and served in the western Pacific, primarily in China and Japan, before returning to the US West Coast during the Civil War. In the late 1860s, Saginaw charted and explored the Alaskan coast, after it was purchased from Russia. Saginaw was lost in 1870, while visiting Kure Atoll, near Midway, to see if any shipwrecked sailors were on the atoll. All of Saginaw’s crew got to the atoll, and a small group sailed in a small boat for Honolulu, but only one of the sailors survived. The remaining crew were rescued in January 1871. The Saginaw wreck was discovered in 2003. 

March 6: In 1987, the ro-ro ferry Herald of Free Enterprise (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) sank minutes after leaving its dock in Zeebrugge, in Belgium. Investigators determined that the car deck doors had been left open, causing the ferry to sink quickly. Of 539 on board, 193 passengers and crew died.

March 8-9: The Battle of Hampton Roads took place in 1862; it was one of the pivotal battles in naval history, as it was the first battle between two ironclad ships, and presaged the future of naval warfare.The hull of the former USS Merrimack (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), which the Union forces had burned to the waterline, was converted to an ironclad steamer, renamed CSS Virginia (Wikipedia, ShipIndex). On March 8, 1862, Virginia engaged and rammed the USS Cumberland (WP, ShipIndex), in the waters off Hampton Roads, Virginia. USS Congress (wp, ShipIndex), having seen the ramifications of the ramming, grounded in shallow water. After battling with Virginia, Congress eventually surrendered. Overnight, USS Monitor (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) arrived, and Monitor and Virginia battled each other the next morning, as the first naval battle between ironclads got underway. The battle was, however, not decisive, with neither vessel gaining the upper hand. 

After the battle Virginia remained blockaded in Hampton Roads by multiple US Navy vessels, eventually including several additional ironclads. In May 1862, Confederate forces reluctantly sank Virginia to avoid it being taken into Union hands. Six months later, Monitor was directed to join the blockade of Charleston, but sank in a late December storm, with the loss of sixteen sailors, off Cape Hatteras. Monitor’s wreck was discovered in 1973; since 1998 various portions of the ship, including Monitor’s gun turret have been recovered. Many parts of the vessel are now on display at the USS Monitor Center at the Mariners’ Museum, in Newport News, Virginia.

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

Most Popular Vessel Names in the US, 2025 edition

Written by:
Published:
Categories: New Content, Ships
Tags: , ,

I updated the Merchant Vessels of the United States file again this week. This is a file provided by the US Coast Guard describing some 387,000 vessels registered in the United States which have a valid Certificate of Documentation, from the National Vessel Documentation Center, based in Falling Waters, WV. The file lists all boats that receive federal documentation – usually those that will travel between states or outside of the United States, or are about 20+ feet or longer. This is different from state titling, which usually happens for smaller boats with a motor. Of course, the smaller non-powered ones, like rowboats and canoes, usually don’t require any titling or documentation at all.

Anyway, MVUS includes all US-flagged commercial vessels, and a lot of large personal vessels, as well. It’s the best file for finding the most popular vessel names in the US, which is of course a popular topic at a guide to vessel names!

Most commercial vessels have unique names that are just a combination of letters and numbers, like “Art 360”, “Art 361”, “Art 362”, “Art 363”, or “T13909”, “T13911”, “T13912”, etc. Most of these are barges, and to be honest, they’re not that interesting. Of the 209,037 unique ship names (ending with “Zzzz!”) and 386,377 unique vessels in MVUS, 175,049 appear only once. Some of those are quite interesting, and we will investigate a few in the future. For now, here’s how the instance of ship names breaks out:

# of instances# of names# of vessels% of vessels
1175,051175,05145.3%
215,62631,2528.1%
35,72417,1724.4%
4-108,95151,47013.3%
11-993,53687,76622.7%
100+14923,8006.1%

Over 31,000 ships have a single matching partner with the same name somewhere in the country, and nearly 150 have at least 100 different ships with the same name.

Note: this analysis is pretty basic; I didn’t combine vessel names that are very similar, but not the same, like “Ain’t Mis Behavin”, “Ain’t Misbehavin”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, and “Ain’t Miss Behavin” – I’m not sure which name I’d combine these under, for instance! Actually, I did correct one or two. There was one listed as “0hana” and I felt pretty sure they meant “Ohana”, and it was a mistake in the Coast Guard’s National Vessel Documentation Center. I could be wrong, though. (I did note the former name in my correction, so if I was wrong, a person can still find that ship name.)

Some people name their vessel “USS Enterprise” or “USS Git-It-Done” or “HMS Michele”. I kept those initial parts in here because, unlike with the actual naval ships, it is a part of the name, for better or (most definitely) for worse. One feature of ShipIndex.org is that when you do search for, say, “HMS Indefatigable” (definitely one of the best ship names ever), the database assumes that you want to search for “Indefatigable”, as that will return the best results. It still gives you the option of searching with the “HMS”, however – which will be useful for those searching for “USS Michele”.

A lot of owners put “The” at the start of their ship name. There are a dozen ships named “The 19th Hole”, along with 27 named “19th Hole”. Ugh. On the one hand, I very much dislike putting “The” at the front of a ship name! On the other hand, my brother and a friend built a rowboat for our dad, and I carved a nameboard for it, and that boat had the name “The Prelude”, with the article. (See a picture of it, below.) But, see, our dad had written a book about William Wordsworth and his poems, one of which was named “The Prelude”, and we also thought this might be a precursor to a larger boat.

An acceptable use of an article in a ship’s name, according to me.

Anyway, which are the most popular vessel names in the US, in 2025? Here’s a list of the top 50 vessel names in MVUS, with the number of boats with that name, as of February 2025:

Ship NameNumber of instances
Serenity538
Freedom519
Andiamo390
Liberty370
Osprey329
Second Wind305
Pura Vida274
Grace271
Ohana264
Island Time262
Why Knot253
Happy Ours250
Relentless250
Serendipity241
Seas the Day240
Escape239
Legacy236
Island Girl232
Odyssey231
Destiny227
Blue Moon222
Knot on Call222
Carpe Diem221
Orion221
Calypso219
Aurora213
Spirit209
Endless Summer205
Patriot205
Gratitude201
Voyager195
Phoenix194
At Last191
Tranquility188
Morning Star187
Dream Catcher183
Pegasus182
Halcyon180
Valhalla178
Southern Cross177
Bella Vita176
Liquid Asset176
Zephyr176
Harmony174
Escapade172
About Time171
Encore171
Journey170
Cool Change169
Dragonfly168

In a week or two I’ll write a post that looks at the changes in the most popular vessel names, over the past five years. I hope you found this as interesting as I did!

Upcoming Price Increase: June 30

Written by:
Published:
Categories: Building a Company
Tags: ,

ShipIndex opened for business in early 2009. The database had existed since about 2000 in a different online location, and then moved to the ShipIndex.org URL in 2002. Originally, I had no plans for turning it into a business at the time, so I never bothered to get the ShipIndex.com domain name. Oops.

But when we did start the company, we needed to set reasonable prices for database access. Everything that had originally been free remained free, but we were expanding quickly – the free database still has over 150,000 citations, but the subscription database has now grown to over 3.5 million citations! We set what we thought were reasonable prices for accessing the database, and moved on to the next issue. Now, 14 years later, we think it might be time to review those prices. All of our costs have gone up in the past 14 years, and ShipIndex was never profitable to begin with. So, it’s time to change.

At the end of June 2024, our individual subscription prices will increase. The changes will look like this:

Subscription TypeCurrent PriceNew Price
Two weeks access $6 $7.50
Three months access $22 $26
Six months access $35 $43
One year access $65 $80
Monthly recurring access $8 $10

But if you subscribe now, you can lock in the current price levels. If you decide to establish a monthly subscription, for example, the cost will forever be based on the price when you start – if you start a monthly subscription today it will stay at $8/month, and it will not increase when the standard pricing changes.

You can also purchase one year gift certificates (at bottom of page) now, to use whenever you like, for access to the full database from the point when you redeem the certificate, either for yourself or as a gift.

Price increases aren’t much fun, but it’s been 14 years since we’ve made changes, and now certainly seems to be the time to do it. Feel free to comment below if you have anything to add.