Ship of the Line: Did you mean...?

A Nazca geoglyph depicting a hummingbird. The designs and lines created on the desert floor of southern Peru are known collectively as the 'Nazca Lines' and were made over several centuries between 200 BCE and 500 CE. Their exact purpose...

A Nazca geoglyph depicting a human figure. The designs and lines created on the desert floor of southern Peru are known collectively as the 'Nazca Lines' and were made over several centuries between 200 BCE and 500 CE. Their exact purpose...

A Nazca geoglyph depicting a cactus. The designs and lines created on the desert floor of southern Peru are known collectively as the 'Nazca Lines' and were made over several centuries between 200 BCE and 500 CE. Their exact purpose is not...

The Bismarck was a German battleship, the largest and most powerful capital ship in the Kriegsmarine. For all its weaponry and armour, the ship was involved in only one major operation which, after the sinking of the British battlecruiser...

The RMS Empress of Ireland was a transatlantic passenger ship that sank early in the morning of 29 May 1914 on the St. Lawrence River killing 1,012 of the 1,477 people on board. It is considered Canada’s worst maritime disaster and one of...

The galleon (Spanish: galeón, French: galion) was a type of sailing ship used for both cargo carrying and as a warship. Galleons dominated the seas in the second half of the 16th century, and with their lower superstructures, they were much...

The carrack (nao in Spanish, nau in Portuguese, and nef in French) was a type of large sailing vessel used for exploration, to carry cargo and as a warship in the 15th and 16th centuries. Famous carracks include the Santa Maria of Christopher...

It was all very well pocketing other people’s valuables and roistering at rum parties, but life on a pirate ship involved a surprising amount of hard work. Pirates were first and foremost sailors and in the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730...

Christopher Jones (l. c. 1570-1622 CE) was the English captain and quarter-owner of the Mayflower, the cargo ship that brought the religious separatists (now known as pilgrims) to the New World in 1620 CE. Little is known of Jones' life prior...

A model of a brigantine ship. With two masts which were traditionally gaf-rigged and lateen-rigged, the ship was fast and highly manoeuvrable, making the brigantine a favourite ship of pirates. (Deutsches Museum, Munich)