List of missing ships
Encyclopedia
This is a list of missing ships and wrecks. If it is known that the ship
Ship
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...

 in question sank, then its wreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

 has not yet been located.

Ships are usually declared lost and assumed wrecked after a period of disappearance. The disappearance of a ship usually implies all hands lost. Without witnesses or survivors, the mystery surrounding the fate of missing ships has inspired many items of nautical lores
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

 and the creation of paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...

 zones such as the Bermuda Triangle
Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances....

. In many cases a probable cause has been deduced, such as a known storm
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...

 or warfare
Naval warfare
Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers.-History:Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Land warfare would seem, initially, to be irrelevant and entirely removed from warfare on the open ocean,...

, but it could not be confirmed without witnesses or sufficient documentation.

Many disappearances occurred before wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy is a historical term used today to apply to early radio telegraph communications techniques and practices, particularly those used during the first three decades of radio before the term radio came into use....

 became available in navigation
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...

 applications in the late 1890s which would allow crew
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...

 to send a distress call
SOS
SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...

. Sudden disasters such as military strike, collision, rogue wave, or piracy
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...

 could also prevent a crew from sending a distress call and reporting a location.

Among the many missing ships on the list are submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

s, which have limited communication
Communication with submarines
Communication with submarines is difficult because radio waves do not travel well through thick electrical conductors like salt water.The obvious solution is to surface and raise an antenna above the water, then use ordinary radio transmissions. Early submarines had to frequently surface anyway for...

, and provide the crew almost no chance of survival if struck by disaster underwater.

The advancement of radar
History of radar
The history of radar starts with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects. This possibility was suggested in James Clerk Maxwell's seminal work on electromagnetism...

 technology by the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and today's Global Positioning System
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...

 make it more likely that a distressed vessel will be located.

Most vessels currently listed as missing disappeared over a vast search area and/or deep water
Abyssal plain
An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3000 and 6000 metres. Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth’s surface. They are among the flattest, smoothest...

 and there is little commercial interest in searching for the vessels and salvaging
Marine salvage
Marine salvage is the process of rescuing a ship, its cargo, or other property from peril. Salvage encompasses rescue towing, refloating a sunken or grounded vessel, or patching or repairing a ship...

 the contents. Often the search and recovery costs are prohibitive even with today's sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...

 and wrecking
Wrecking (shipwreck)
Wrecking is the practice of taking valuables from a shipwreck which has foundered near or close to shore. Often an unregulated activity of opportunity in coastal communities, wrecking has been subjected to increasing regulation and evolved into what is now known as marine salvage...

 technologies and could not be compensated by salvaged valuables
Treasure hunting (marine)
Treasure hunting is an expression which nowadays applies mainly to maritime salvage. Treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market of antiquities....

, if indeed there were any onboard. The search for these types of missing vessels is usually motivated by historical
Maritime history
Maritime history is the study of human activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, although national and regional histories remain predominant...

, legal
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

 or acturial
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...

 interests requiring the aid of government funding such as in the 2008 discovery of HMAS Sydney and Kormoran
Search for HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
A search for the wrecks of the Australian warship HMAS Sydney and the German merchant raider Kormoran, that sank each other during World War II, ended successfully in March 2008. On 19 November 1941, the two ships fought a battle in the Indian Ocean, off Western Australia...

.

The list is organised by the marine region in which the disappearance or sinking occurred, or the closest country to the area. The year of the disappearance, last known location, and possible location of the wreck are included.

Africa


North America

EWLINE
EWLINE



Asia





Europe




Oceania

EWLINE
EWLINE






High Seas

The following lists contain entries that could not be referenced to an area close to any one particular country or an area definitely in international waters
International waters
The terms international waters or trans-boundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems , and wetlands.Oceans,...

.


The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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