Category
Shipwrecks & Seafaring
Named shipwrecks and abandoned ships, rebuilt from inquiry reports, court papers and logs, and how a ship's position was reckoned before satellite navigation.
3 entries
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RMS Lusitania: Witnesses Disagree on a Second Explosion
How the Lusitania sank on May 7, 1915: the British inquiry found two torpedoes and 1,198 lives lost; a 1918 U.S. court said about 18 minutes. Timeline, CSV.
Published
Picture credit
"The "Lusitania's" first appearance in New York Harbor, Sept. 13, 1907" by Unknown photographer — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_%22Lusitania%27s%22_first_appearance_in_New_York_Harbor,_Sept._13,_1907._LCCN2002721293.jpg — Public domain (US: a 1907 photographic print entered with the U.S. Copyright Office (Library of Congress record notes H100466), published before 1931; EU: no photographer is named and the print was made public in 1907, so the 70-year term for anonymous works has ended); modified: cropped: the typed title line and the sky above it at the top, and the print edges on all four sides, removed; ship, harbor and waterfront untouched
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Dead Reckoning: Why Bowditch Advised Shorter Log-Line Knots
How dead reckoning worked: Bowditch's 1802 manual timed a log line knotted every 51 feet with a half-minute glass, then advised shorter knots. Figures and CSV.
Published
Picture credit
Illustration: From the Surviving Record. Generated schematic image — not a photograph or historical record. © From the Surviving Record, all rights reserved.
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Mary Celeste: Conan Doyle's 1884 Story Called Her 'Marie'
The Mary Celeste was found with no one aboard in 1872, her boat gone, per testimony Fay printed. Conan Doyle's 1884 story called her Marie and kept her boats.
Published
Picture credit
"Brigantine Amazon entering Marseilles, November 1861" by Unknown painter — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Celeste_as_Amazon_in_1861.jpg — Public domain (US and EU: painting dated 1861 by its inscription; painter unknown, so the author is presumed to have died more than 70 years ago (presumed, per the site's rule for anonymous works of the 1860s and earlier); a faithful photograph of a flat artwork adds no new rights)