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[Martin (Admin)]

What should be the Most Famous Ship of all time and why?

[dbninja]

I thought the answer was "Titanic" 



db

[amdaylight]

I have to agree with the above poster the "Titanic" and you know why. 

Andre

[Colin Bishop]

Noah's Ark?

[Arrow5]

Got it in a oner Colin. Sign of the times that it wasn`t the first (and only) answer !  For those that disagree, it has been written about for a couple of thousand years.

[barryfoote]

But surely we need to name a REAL ship!!!!!!!

[tobyker]

Neither was designed by IKB so both fail. However, Golden Hind has a good claim, as has HMS Victory. All that RMS Titanic did was sink. With apologies to the fundamentalists, it may be that Noah's Ark was a ship in the same sense that M.Poirot was a famous Belgian - he always comes 3rd after Eddie Mercx and Rene Magritte. I'm more tactful than Footski!

[Arrow5]

Footski, just you wait till the dig it out of Mt. Aratat

[Prophet]

its hard to decide one there are many famouse ships. the titanic is probaly going to be one of the most popular to appear on this thread but i have some others that may be more historic then the titanic with out the use of claiming a few 1000's lives. fame should not be based on disaster...

try these...

Achille Lauro
—
Hijacked in 1985 by four Palestinians; one passenger killed and thrown overboard. — (December 2, 1947 - Sank on December 2, 1994 due to fire)

Admiral, SS
—
Was the largest river cruise ship in the world, sailing the Mississippi from St. Louis; in 1979 converted to a land-based casino.

America
—
Won the Royal Yacht Squadron's 53 mile regatta around the Isle of Wight, August 22, 1851.American 19th century racing yacht (schooner) (May 3, 1851 - Berthed at Annapolis, remnants removed and burned in 1945) Gave its name to the international sailing

Andrea Doria, SS
—
Collided with the Stockholm in the Atlantic and sank.

Arizona, USS
(BB-39)
—
The sunken ship lies in Pearl Harbor with a memorial above it honoring the crew lost. (October 17, 1916 - Sunk during the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack)

Beagle, HMS
—
Its second voyage carried Charles Darwin on his historic expedition. (May 11, 1820 - Sold for scrap in 1870)

Belle of Louisville
—
Oldest continually operating steamboat in the United States.

Bismarck
—
At the Battle of Denmark Straits in May, 1941, fired upon the British battlecruiser HMS Hood which sank within minutes. (August 24, 1940 - Sunk by British forces May 27, 1941 in the North Atlantic)

Bluebird K7
—
Set seven world water speed records between 1955 and 1964, reaching 276.33 mph (444.71 km/h). (Early 1955 - Flipped and disintegrated at high speed January 4, 1967, killing Campbell)

Constitution, USS
(Old Ironsides)
—
Oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world. (October 21, 1797 - Now on display)

Deutschland
—
A blockade-breaking German merchant submarine used during World War I.(February 19, 1917 - Broken up at Morecambe in 1922)

Discovery
—
The ship that carried Scott and Shackleton on their first successful journey to the Antarctic. (March 21, 1901 - Museum ship in Dundee, Scotland) She was locked in the ice of the Antacrtic for two years. The ship was eventually freed in February, 1904 by the use of controlled explosives

Edmund Fitzgerald, SS
—

Endurance
(Christened Polaris)
—
Used by Sir Ernest Shackleton for the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. (December 17, 1912 - Crushed by pack ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915) One of the strongest wooden ship ever built.

Enterprise, USS
—
World’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. (September 24, 1960 - Still in use) As one of the oldest carriers in the fleet, she is scheduled for decommissioning in 2014-2015. To be replaced with the USS Enterprise by starfleet 

Essex
—
Was the inspiration for Herman Melville's 1851 classic novel Moby-Dick. (Around 1800 - November 20, 1820) Left Nantucket in 1819 on a whaling voyage in the South Pacific with 21 aboard. It was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean. Only two men survived.

Exxon Valdez
(later Sea River Mediterranean)
—

Flying Cloud
—
Sailed from New York to San Francisco in 89 days, more than 16,000 miles. (1851 - Went aground June 19, 1874) Its navigator was a woman, Eleanor Creesy.

General Slocum
—
Caught fire and burned to the water line in New York’s East River on June 15, 1904 killing 1,021 people. (April 18, 1891 - The remains were recovered and converted into a barge, which sank in a storm in 1911)

Glomar Explorer
—
Built for a secret operation by the CIA to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, K-129, which was lost in April 1968. (July 1, 1971 - currently operates as the GSF Explorer) Converted into a deep sea oil drilling ship in 1997.

Golden Hind
—
Circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. (Probably 1576 - In dry dock for decades where it rotted away) Originally known as the Pelican, but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage.

Graf Spee, Admiral
—
Though size was limited by the Treaty of Versailles, she was as heavily armed as a battleship. Sank nine Allied merchant ships. (January 6, 1936 - Scuttled December 17, 1939) Afterwards, ships of this size were called heavy cruisers.

Great Eastern, SS
—
The world’s largest steamship; successfully laid cable across the Atlantic ocean cable.(January 31, 1858 - Broken up 1889)

Great Republic, SS
—
The largest wooden clipper ship ever constructed, requiring 1,500,000 feet of pine, 336 1/2 tons of iron, and 56 tons of copper. (October 4, 1853 - abandoned during a hurricane off Bermuda, March 5, 1872) In 1853, fire sank her; but she was salvaged and rebuilt as a three deck vessel and went on to set trans-Atlantic speed records.

Hood, HMS
—
Last battlecruiser built by Britain. (May 15, 1920 - Sunk by the German battleship Bismarck at the Battle of the Denmark Straits, May, 1941) Of the 1,418 aboard, only three men survived.

I belive HMS Hood beats the Titanic Personally

Hunley, H.L.
—
During the American Civil War, the first submarine to sink a ship. (July 1863 - Sank after attacking and sinking USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor February 17, 1864) Attacked by embedding a barbed spar torpedo into the foe’s hull and detonating t as she backed away.

 

[ian kennedy]

HMS DREADNOUGHT 1905

[RaaArtyGunner]

Name, Nautilus (JV's)
Why, Way ahead of its time

[davidm1945]

Bluebird K7
—
Set seven world water speed records between 1955 and 1964, reaching 276.33 mph (444.71 km/h). (Early 1955 - Flipped and disintegrated at high speed January 4, 1967, killing Campbell)

Famous certainly - but a ship?

[Peter Fitness]

That question is very subjective, and the answers will vary according to your nationality, or particular interest. Ask an Australian and you may well be told Endeavour; an Englishman may regard Victory as the most famous, or perhaps Golden Hind. An American may say Mayflower, and so on.

Titanic would probably be the layman's answer, as her sinking is the most publicised maritime disaster in history, but that's the only reason she's famous.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned QE2, she was certainly the most recognisable ship of modern times, and patronised by the rich, famous and titled. (I sailed on her a couple of years ago and I am none of these but that simply shows how wide her appeal was. )

Peter.

[Dreadstar]

And what about the Kon-Tiki and Ra eh? 

[RaaArtyGunner]

There is also the Tom Thumb. 
Applicable to that great discovery, settlement etc,etc, country OZ,   

[oldiron]

   How about either of the Cunard 1930's Queens, Elizabeth and Mary. Both did service in WWII
  To show my nationalistic side..the Bluenose. Won the International Fisherman's Trophy 17 years in a row. After the races, it went back to its work a day world of fishing. It has also been on our dime for more years than I've been around.

John

[pugwash]

What do you class as fame?  The ship that the most people in the world know about or the ship that
most have been written about -  I think the answer to both these is the Titanic.  Or is it the ship type
that is famous - middle east  or far east it would be a Chinese junk or arab dhow that most ordinary
people would know - western world - maybe viking longship or square rigger. Question is far too open,
are we looking throughout history or taking a myopic view from the 20/21st century perspective.

Geoff

[Martin (Admin)]

 It's just 'pub talk' Geoff, nothin' too serious!  

[pugwash]

Yes Martin I realise that;  from a personal point of view it would be the "Edinburgh Castle" of the old
Castle line as it during the war safely traversed the u-boats in the Bay of Biscay and west coast of
Africa and got my dad safely to Egypt to join the 8th army otherwise no Pugwash and and his
brothers,  and it was a handsome ship.

Geoff

[malcolmfrary]

Prophet has given us a long list of ships with a good solid claim to fame, but very few people actually know about them.  If you took a poll of people from around the world, in countries with a coastline and cinemas, Titanic would be the first ship name to be mentioned, and thus the most famous.  In this context, fame is "people remembering your name at the time the question was asked", and is more akin to celebrity and notoriety rather than merit or historical significance.
The number of times my HMCS Snowberry, when sailing my local lake has attracted the comment from a passing child to its mother"Look! A Titanic!", not withstanding the different number of funnels and colour scheme.

[Bunkerbarge]

I think the interesting thing is the title here, what SHOULD be the most famous ship of all time.

I would say that the Titanic probably is as a result of the huge unecessary loss of civilian life, the significant changes in ship construction and development that the tragedy led to as well as the fact that the whole episode caputured the attention of the entire world where the incident has remained for almost a century.

However what should be the most famous as opposed to what actually is may be a bit more creative and open to interpretation.  I thought about all sorts of possibilities for vessels that have had a significant impact on our lives, which include all the obvious stuff such as the Bismarck, the Dreadnaught, the QE2, the Mayflower, The Spray, etc.. but then came to realise that the one ship that captured the hearts and imaginations of more people than any other vessel, had more impact on the world than any other vessel and continues to be the most talked about vessel ever has to be the Titanic.  

So I reckon the ship that should be the most famous already is, the Titanic.

[derekwarner]

Considering the impossible task..............my two bob is on Noah's Ark as previously suggested by Colin...... &  .......

Noah's Ark?

So Martin also asks why ??????? ...well just spend a few years reading & understanding the books of Old Bible....plenty of river & sea fearing/faring stories there  .......... Derek

[Martin (Admin)]

Which ship was the first with a Triple Expansion steam engine?

[Liverbudgie2]

Hard to say at present however I find at: http://www.norwayheritage.com/articles/templates/ships.asp?articleid=87&zoneid=5 that the Martello of the Wilson Line, introduced in the trade in 1884. was the first to use it on the N. Atlantic. Though according to:  http://everything2.com/title/triple+expansion+steam+engine they appeared around 1870.

I've no more time to look at present as I have to go and take pictures of The World.
LP

[Dinosaursoupman]

S.S. Minnow.

What other shipwreck could turn a "3 hour tour" into 96 original episodes of entertainment and continue to entertain on a daily basis right up to now, 43 years after the last original episode aired?

Randy