The nautical file
Sourced facts about the ships and stories nautical.im covers, subject by subject. Every fact links to its source, checked 10 November 2026.
Vasa
- Vasa, the Swedish royal warship, sank on her maiden voyage in Stockholm on 10 August 1628, 1,300 metres from where she set off. [source]
- She came back to the surface on 24 April 1961, after 333 years under water, and more than 98 per cent of her original structure survives. [source]
- The museum’s short answer to why she sank: top-heavy, a little too tall and too narrow, with her gunports open. [source]
The whole story, sourced: vasa.nautical.im.
The Peggy of Castletown
- The Peggy was built for George Quayle of Castletown, Isle of Man; National Historic Ships UK calls her the world’s oldest surviving schooner. [source]
- She was one of three similar boats built for the Quayle family between 1789 and 1793, and two of them were called Peggy. A 1967 study by Basil Greenhill concluded that the surviving boat is the one built in 1791. [source]
- She was found in 1935 in a walled-up cellar in Castletown, built for her by Captain Quayle, where she had lain for more than 150 years. [source]
- Manx National Heritage says she was built in 1789, and calls her an armed yacht with sliding keels and original cannons. [source]
Sources differ on her date: Manx National Heritage says 1789; National Historic Ships UK reports Greenhill’s conclusion that the surviving boat is the 1791 one.
The Mary Rose
- The Mary Rose was built in 1510 and sank in 1545. Henry VIII watched her sink from Southsea Castle. [source]
- She was lost during the Battle of the Solent on 19 July 1545, when 200 French ships attempted to invade England. [source]
- Her hull was lifted from the seabed on a steel cradle on 11 October 1982, and like Vasa it was treated with PEG. [source]
Viking ships
- In the late Viking Age, worn-out ships were filled with stones and sunk in Roskilde Fjord to block the channel to Roskilde; twenty years later two more were added. [source]
- The five Skuldelev ships include an ocean-going cargo ship from western Norway and a great longship for a crew of 65 to 70. [source]
Longitude
- The Longitude Act of 1714 offered money for a way to find a ship’s precise longitude at sea. [source]
- John Harrison, a carpenter who taught himself clockmaking, brought his first marine timekeeper, H1, to London in 1735, and it went to sea on HMS Centurion in May 1736. [source]
SS Great Britain
- When SS Great Britain was launched in 1843 she was the world’s largest passenger ship and one of the first iron, propeller-driven ocean liners. She carried over 33,000 people. [source]
Lifeboats
- Sir William Hillary’s idea of a service to save lives at sea became the RNLI at the London Tavern in Bishopsgate on 4 March 1824. [source]
- Since it launched its first lifeboat in 1824, the RNLI says it has saved more than 146,000 lives at sea. [source]
Nautical books and kit
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For model makers, readers and anyone planning a museum trip: Maritime history books · Model ship kits · Vasa model kits · Ship-in-a-bottle kits · Navigation history · Brass sextants · Mary Rose books · Viking ship books. These are Amazon UK search links, not endorsements of particular products. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.