Correct: A. USS Constitution

USS Constitution is the U.S. Navy frigate known as Old Ironsides, a nickname earned during the War of 1812 when British shot was seen rebounding from her stout oak hull. The ship was launched in Boston on October 21, 1797, and remains the world's oldest commissioned warship afloat. She is also America's Ship of State and is preserved at Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston.

Correct: A. China tea trade

Cutty Sark was built exclusively for the China tea trade, where speed mattered because the first fresh tea cargos to reach London could command premium prices. The clipper was built in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1869 and made eight voyages to China carrying tea. The opening of the Suez Canal in the same year favored steamships and eventually pushed sailing clippers out of the tea trade.

Correct: B. USS Missouri

USS Missouri hosted the formal Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur signed the Instrument of Surrender as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed for the United States. Missouri had entered Tokyo Bay on August 29 to prepare for the ceremony.

Correct: B. HMS Victory

HMS Victory was Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The ship carried 104 guns and had 821 men and boys aboard, making her a first-rate ship of the line. Victory remains part of the Royal Navy and is preserved at Portsmouth.

Correct: C. It sank in Stockholm harbour

Vasa sank in Stockholm harbour on August 10, 1628, only minutes after setting out on her maiden voyage. The ship was top-heavy, and a gust caused her to heel until water flowed through the open lower gunports. Vasa then sank within sight of Stockholm, ending what was intended to be a display of Swedish naval power.

Correct: A. USS Nautilus

USS Nautilus became the world's first nuclear-powered submarine and was commissioned on September 30, 1954. Nuclear propulsion allowed submarines to remain submerged far longer than diesel-electric boats that had to surface or snorkel to recharge batteries. Nautilus demonstrated the operational potential of nuclear propulsion and became a landmark in submarine development.

Correct: C. USS Langley

USS Langley was converted from the collier USS Jupiter and recommissioned in 1922 as the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier. The converted ship served as an experimental platform for learning how to operate aircraft from a flight deck. Experience gained aboard Langley helped the Navy develop carrier procedures that influenced later fleet carriers.

Correct: B. USS Maine

USS Maine was destroyed by a massive explosion in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898. The disaster killed 266 members of the ship's crew and sharply intensified tensions between the United States and Spain. Later investigations have not conclusively established the precise cause of the explosion, although the event became a major factor in public pressure leading toward the Spanish-American War.

Correct: B. HMS Guerriere

HMS Guerriere was defeated by USS Constitution during a frigate action on August 19, 1812. Constitution closed the range before delivering heavy broadsides that left the British frigate severely damaged. Guerriere could not be brought safely into port after the battle and was subsequently destroyed.

Correct: B. USS Hornet

USS Hornet launched the sixteen B-25B Mitchell bombers used in the Doolittle Raid against Japan on April 18, 1942. The long-range Army bombers had been specially prepared for the mission and took off from the carrier hundreds of miles from Japan after the American task force was detected. The raid struck targets on the Japanese home islands and provided an important morale boost to the United States.

Correct: B. USS Arizona

USS Arizona remains submerged at Pearl Harbor and serves as the final resting place for more than 900 of the 1,177 crewmen killed aboard the battleship on December 7, 1941. The USS Arizona Memorial spans the sunken ship without resting directly on the wreck. The site commemorates those lost aboard Arizona and the wider attack on Pearl Harbor.

Correct: C. Bismarck

Bismarck sank HMS Hood during the Battle of the Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941. A shell from the German battleship penetrated Hood and triggered a catastrophic explosion in the British battlecruiser's ammunition spaces. Hood's loss shocked Britain and prompted an intensive Royal Navy pursuit of Bismarck.

Correct: A. Francis Drake

Golden Hind is closely associated with Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the world from 1577 to 1580. The ship had originally been named Pelican before being renamed during the voyage. Drake's expedition became one of the most famous English maritime enterprises of the Elizabethan era.

Correct: A. HMS Beagle

HMS Beagle carried Charles Darwin on its second surveying voyage from 1831 to 1836. Darwin joined the expedition as a naturalist while Captain Robert FitzRoy commanded the vessel during surveys of South America and other regions. Observations and specimens associated with the voyage contributed substantially to Darwin's later development of ideas about evolution by natural selection.

Correct: B. Endurance

Endurance was Ernest Shackleton's ship during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and became trapped in the Weddell Sea pack ice in 1915. The pressure of the moving ice eventually crushed the vessel, forcing Shackleton and his crew to abandon it before it sank.

Correct: A. Terra Nova

Terra Nova carried Robert Falcon Scott's British Antarctic Expedition, which departed Britain in 1910. The former whaling ship transported the expedition to Antarctica for the attempt to reach the South Pole and for an extensive scientific program.

Correct: A. HMS Challenger

HMS Challenger carried the pioneering scientific expedition of 1872-1876 that investigated the world's oceans on a global scale. Scientists aboard measured ocean conditions, sampled sediments and marine organisms, and collected data across several major ocean basins. The expedition became a foundational event in the development of modern oceanography.

Correct: C. 1985

The wreck of RMS Titanic was discovered on September 1, 1985, by a joint American-French expedition. Teams associated with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and IFREMER located the wreck after following a debris field across the seabed.

Correct: A. 15-Apr-12

RMS Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg during its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic. The disaster became one of the most famous maritime tragedies in history and led to major changes in international maritime safety practices.

Correct: C. 1982

The Mary Rose was raised from the seabed on October 11, 1982, after centuries beneath the waters of the Solent. The complex recovery operation lifted the surviving section of Henry VIII's warship and returned it to Portsmouth for conservation.

Correct: C. 1961

Vasa was brought to the surface in 1961 after lying on the bottom of Stockholm harbour for more than three centuries. Salvage teams had spent years preparing the ship and gradually lifting it into shallower water before the final recovery.

Correct: A. Robert Burns

The name Cutty Sark comes from Robert Burns's poem Tam O'Shanter. In the poem, the witch Nannie wears a short garment described in Scots as a cutty sark, which literally means a short shirt or nightdress.

Correct: A. Naval Act of 1794

The Naval Act of 1794 authorized construction of the six frigates that formed the core of the early United States Navy. Congress approved the program partly to protect American merchant shipping from attacks by North African corsairs.

Correct: C. Boston

USS Constitution was built and launched in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1797. Construction took place at Edmund Hartt's shipyard, and the frigate successfully entered the water on October 21 after earlier launch attempts had been unsuccessful.

Correct: A. USS Oklahoma

USS Oklahoma capsized during the attack on Pearl Harbor after being struck by multiple Japanese aerial torpedoes. The battleship rolled over in less than 12 minutes, trapping many sailors inside the overturned hull.

Correct: A. CSS Virginia

CSS Virginia was constructed by rebuilding the burned and partially submerged hull of the former U.S. steam frigate Merrimack. Confederate forces raised the hull at Norfolk and transformed it into an armored warship during the American Civil War.

Correct: C. It foundered in a storm

USS Monitor foundered during a severe storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on December 31, 1862. Heavy seas overwhelmed the low-freeboard ironclad while it was being towed south, and efforts to pump out incoming water failed.

Correct: C. 1,973

The wreck of USS Monitor was first located in 1973 by researchers aboard the Duke University research vessel Eastward. Side-scan sonar revealed an unusual target approximately 16 miles off Cape Hatteras. Further examination and photography confirmed that the wreck was indeed the famous Civil War ironclad.

Correct: A. HMS Warrior

HMS Warrior was an iron-hulled broadside ironclad launched in 1860 that combined steam machinery with a full sailing rig. Britain built the ship in response to developments such as the French ironclad Gloire, and Warrior represented a major transition from wooden sailing warships to armored steam-powered vessels.

Correct: A. Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed the Great Eastern, one of the most ambitious steamships of the nineteenth century. The enormous iron vessel was intended to carry large numbers of passengers and cargo over long distances without frequent refuelling stops.

Correct: A. HMS Victory

HMS Victory carried Admiral Horatio Nelson's body back to Britain after his death at the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson was fatally wounded during the battle on October 21, 1805, even as the British fleet achieved a decisive victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets.

Correct: A. 21 October 1805

The Battle of Trafalgar was fought on October 21, 1805, off the southwestern coast of Spain. Admiral Horatio Nelson's British fleet defeated the combined French and Spanish fleet, establishing a decisive Royal Navy victory during the Napoleonic Wars.

Correct: A. Mayflower

Mayflower transported 101 passengers across the Atlantic toward New England in 1620. The ship departed England in September and endured a difficult voyage before reaching the coast of present-day Massachusetts in November.

Correct: A. Cape Cod

Mayflower's passengers first sighted Cape Cod in November 1620 after their Atlantic crossing from England. Their original destination lay farther south, but conditions and the long voyage led them to remain in the region that became Plymouth Colony.