What famous shipwrecks have never been found?
Verdict summary
Famous wrecks never found include Columbus's Santa María (1492), the Portuguese treasure ship Flor de la Mar (lost off Sumatra in 1511), La Salle's Le Griffon on the Great Lakes (1679), John Paul Jones's Bonhomme Richard (1779), the SS Waratah (1909) and USS Cyclops (1918). Several claimed discoveries of these have not been confirmed.
Recent finds show it can still be done: Shackleton's Endurance was found in the Weddell Sea in 2022, and Franklin's HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were found in 2014 and 2016.
Shipwrecks are usually protected by law; in the US, wrecks in state waters belong to the state under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act.
Sources: Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (Endurance); Parks Canada (Erebus and Terror); Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987.
What are the most famous shipwrecks? The best-known shipwrecks include the Titanic (sank 1912, found 1985), the Lusitania (1915), the Swedish warship Vasa (sank 1628, raised 1961), Henry VIII's Mary Rose (sank 1545, raised 1982), the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior (1975), Shackleton's Endurance (found 2022) and the treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha (sank 1622, found 1985).
What is the most valuable treasure ever found? Among the most valuable treasures ever recovered are shipwreck cargoes: the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, found off Florida by Mel Fisher's team in 1985, and the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes coins recovered by Odyssey Marine in 2007 and returned to Spain after a court case. The San José galleon off Colombia, found in 2015, may be worth more but its cargo has not been recovered.
Primary sources cited
- Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (Endurance)
- Parks Canada (Erebus and Terror)
- Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987