Correct: B. HMB Endeavour

HMB Endeavour carried Lieutenant James Cook on his first Pacific voyage from 1768 to 1771. The expedition's scientific mission included observing the transit of Venus at Tahiti before Cook continued exploring and charting parts of the Pacific. The vessel had originally been the collier Earl of Pembroke before the Royal Navy purchased and renamed it Endeavour in 1768.

Correct: A. USS Monitor and CSS Virginia

USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fought in Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, during the American Civil War. Their battle marked the first combat encounter between ironclad warships and demonstrated how armored steam-powered vessels were changing naval warfare. The two ships exchanged fire for almost four hours before the engagement ended without a decisive tactical victory.

Correct: C. 1545

The Mary Rose sank on July 19, 1545, during the Battle of the Solent between English and French forces. The Tudor warship heeled during a turn, and water entered through open gunports as the ship went down. The wreck later became an extraordinary archaeological source for understanding Tudor naval warfare and life at sea.

Correct: B. Balsa wood

Kon-Tiki was a balsawood raft used by Thor Heyerdahl and his crew for their 1947 Pacific expedition. The raft left Callao, Peru, on April 28, 1947, as Heyerdahl sought to demonstrate that a pre-modern raft could travel from South America toward Polynesia. The expedition was connected to Heyerdahl's controversial theory about ancient migration across the Pacific.

Correct: B. North Pole

USS Nautilus reached the geographic North Pole while submerged on August 3, 1958, during the secret mission known as Operation Sunshine. The achievement demonstrated the ability of a nuclear-powered submarine to operate for long periods beneath Arctic ice. Commander William R. Anderson was the submarine's commanding officer during the historic voyage.

Correct: A. USS Holland

USS Holland was commissioned on October 12, 1900, becoming the U.S. Navy's first commissioned submarine. Designed by submarine pioneer John P. Holland, the boat was used for training and experimentation as the Navy developed its early submarine force. Holland also provided data that informed submarines then under construction or consideration.

Correct: C. 16

The Great White Fleet began its world cruise in December 1907 with sixteen battleships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. President Theodore Roosevelt sent the force abroad as a demonstration of American sea power, and the ships returned in February 1909. The battleships' white peacetime paint scheme gave the fleet its famous nickname.

Correct: A. USS Olympia

USS Olympia served as Commodore George Dewey's flagship during the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Dewey's Asiatic Squadron entered Manila Bay and defeated the Spanish naval force during one of the major opening actions of the Spanish-American War. Dewey's own battle report was submitted from Flagship Olympia at Cavite after the engagement.

Correct: B. CSS Alabama

CSS Alabama was defeated and sunk by USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France, on June 19, 1864. The Confederate commerce raider had spent nearly two years attacking United States merchant shipping around the world before entering Cherbourg for repairs. Kearsarge arrived off the port, and the two ships fought until Alabama was reduced to a sinking wreck and surrendered.

Correct: B. Bonhomme Richard

Bonhomme Richard was John Paul Jones's flagship when it fought HMS Serapis off the English coast on September 23, 1779. After roughly four hours of fighting, Serapis struck her colors even though Bonhomme Richard had suffered severe damage. Jones transferred his crew to the captured British ship because his own vessel could not be saved.

Correct: B. HMS Shannon

HMS Shannon captured USS Chesapeake after the American frigate sailed from Boston to engage the British ship in June 1813. Captain James Lawrence of Chesapeake was mortally wounded during the short and violent engagement, and the British subsequently seized his ship. Lawrence's death became closely associated with a famous command that inspired other American sailors during the War of 1812.

Correct: B. USS Lexington

USS Lexington was lost during the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 8, 1942. Japanese aircraft struck the carrier with bombs and torpedoes, and explosions caused by gasoline vapors later produced uncontrollable fires aboard the ship. After the crew abandoned Lexington, the American destroyer USS Phelps fired torpedoes into the carrier and she sank that evening.

Correct: A. USS Yorktown

USS Yorktown was severely damaged by Japanese carrier aircraft during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Salvage crews later returned to the abandoned carrier, but Japanese submarine I-168 torpedoed Yorktown and the destroyer USS Hammann on June 6. The accumulated damage proved fatal, and Yorktown rolled over and sank the following morning.

Correct: A. USS Enterprise

USS Enterprise, CV-6, earned 20 battle stars for its service during World War II, more than any other American warship in the conflict. Known as the Big E, the carrier participated in many of the Pacific War's most important operations, including Midway, Guadalcanal and Leyte Gulf. Enterprise was also awarded both the Presidential Unit Citation and the Navy Unit Commendation for its wartime record.

Correct: A. USS Indianapolis

USS Indianapolis delivered parts and nuclear material for the atomic bombs to Tinian in July 1945. The cruiser departed San Francisco on July 16 and reached Tinian on July 26 after covering roughly 5,000 miles in only ten days. Soon after completing the secret mission, Indianapolis was torpedoed and sunk while sailing toward the Philippines.

Correct: B. USS Monitor

The wreck of USS Monitor became the United States' first national marine sanctuary on January 30, 1975. Monitor had fought the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads in 1862 before sinking in a storm off Cape Hatteras later that year. The sanctuary designation established federal protection for one of the most significant historic shipwrecks in U.S. waters.

Correct: A. John Ericsson

Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson designed USS Monitor for the Union during the American Civil War. His unconventional design featured a low profile, shallow draft and a rotating armored gun turret rather than the traditional arrangement of broadside guns. The U.S. Navy accepted the concept as it urgently sought an ironclad capable of challenging Confederate armored warships.

Correct: A. Revolving gun turret

USS Monitor's revolving armored gun turret was one of the vessel's most influential innovations. The rotating turret allowed its guns to be aimed in different directions without requiring the entire ship to turn toward a target. Combined with Monitor's low profile, the design differed radically from the traditional broadside warships common at the beginning of the Civil War.

Correct: A. HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast served as flagship of Bombardment Force E during the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. The cruiser supported British and Canadian troops landing at Gold and Juno beaches and opened fire on German positions at 5:27 a.m. Belfast continued providing naval gunfire support as Allied troops advanced inland from Normandy.

Correct: A. Robert FitzRoy

Robert FitzRoy commanded HMS Beagle during the surveying voyage on which Charles Darwin traveled from 1831 to 1836. FitzRoy oversaw extensive hydrographic surveying while Darwin conducted observations and collected natural-history specimens. The expedition became important to both navigation and the history of biological science.

Correct: A. James Caird

James Caird was the small lifeboat in which Ernest Shackleton and five companions sailed from Elephant Island to South Georgia in 1916. The roughly 800-mile journey across the stormy Southern Ocean was undertaken to seek rescue for the rest of the stranded Endurance expedition.

Correct: C. 1872

HMS Challenger departed England in 1872 to begin its landmark scientific voyage around the world's oceans. The expedition left Sheerness on December 7, 1872, and continued until 1876 while conducting systematic oceanographic observations.

Correct: A. Erebus and Terror

HMS Erebus and HMS Terror sailed from Britain in 1845 under Sir John Franklin in an attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage. Both vessels became trapped in Arctic ice, and all members of the expedition eventually died after the ships were abandoned.

Correct: A. HMS Erebus

HMS Erebus was discovered in September 2014 during a Parks Canada-led search for the lost ships of Sir John Franklin's expedition. The wreck was found south of King William Island after years of searches combining modern technology with historical and Inuit knowledge.

Correct: A. HMS Terror

HMS Terror was confirmed discovered in Terror Bay in 2016, two years after the wreck of HMS Erebus was located. Parks Canada investigations verified that the remarkably preserved wreck belonged to Franklin's second lost expedition vessel.

Correct: A. Robert Ballard

Robert Ballard led the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution team associated with the 1985 discovery of RMS Titanic. The expedition worked with a French team led by Jean-Louis Michel and used deep-sea imaging technology to search the North Atlantic seabed.

Correct: A. Anders Franzén

Anders Franzén located the wreck of Vasa in 1956 after searching Stockholm's waters for historic shipwrecks. His discovery initiated the complex salvage effort that ultimately brought the seventeenth-century warship back to the surface. Divers and engineers spent years preparing the fragile hull for recovery.

Correct: C. 101 days

The Kon-Tiki expedition took 101 days to cross the Pacific from Peru before the raft reached the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands. Thor Heyerdahl organized the voyage to demonstrate that a traditional-style balsa raft could make a long-distance Pacific crossing.

Correct: B. 6

Six men sailed aboard the Kon-Tiki raft during Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 Pacific expedition. They departed Callao, Peru, on April 28 and spent 101 days at sea before reaching the Tuamotu Islands.

Correct: A. Ferreira

Cutty Sark was renamed Ferreira after being sold to a Portuguese company in 1895. The vessel continued working as a cargo ship under Portuguese ownership for decades after its British clipper career ended. Its survival through several changes of ownership ultimately allowed the historic vessel to be preserved.

Correct: A. Australian wool

Australian wool became the cargo associated with Cutty Sark's fastest and most successful voyages after the sailing tea trade declined. The ship entered the Australian wool trade in the 1880s and became renowned for speed on passages between Australia and Britain.

Correct: C. 104

HMS Victory carried 104 guns during the period associated with the Battle of Trafalgar. As a first-rate ship of the line, Victory was among the Royal Navy's largest and most heavily armed warships and served as Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship in 1805.

Correct: A. Chatham Dockyard

HMS Victory was built at Chatham Dockyard in Kent after being designed by naval surveyor Sir Thomas Slade. The ship was launched on May 7, 1765, and later became most famous as Admiral Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar.

Correct: A. USS Langley

USS Langley was converted from an aircraft carrier into a seaplane tender and redesignated AV-3 in 1937. Langley had previously made history as CV-1, the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier, after being converted from the collier USS Jupiter.

Correct: B. USS United States

USS United States was the first of the U.S. Navy's original six frigates to be launched, entering the water at Philadelphia on May 10, 1797. The six-frigate construction program had been authorized by the Naval Act of 1794 as the young United States sought protection for its maritime commerce.

Correct: B. Joshua Humphreys

Joshua Humphreys designed USS Constitution and developed the basic concept behind the large frigates authorized for the early United States Navy. His ships were intended to be strong enough to defeat ordinary enemy frigates while fast enough to avoid more powerful ships of the line.

Correct: B. Paul Revere

Paul Revere supplied copper bolts, spikes, and other metal fittings associated with the construction and outfitting of USS Constitution. Copper components were important because they resisted corrosion better than ordinary iron in a marine environment.

Correct: A. USS President

USS President was the last of the U.S. Navy's original six frigates to be launched. The ship entered the water in New York on April 10, 1800, several years after the first vessels of the program had been launched.

Correct: C. USS Nevada

USS Nevada was the only battleship at Pearl Harbor to get underway during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. After being hit by bombs and a torpedo, the battleship was deliberately grounded to prevent it from sinking in a position that might block the harbor channel.

Correct: A. USS Vestal

USS Vestal was moored alongside USS Arizona when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began. As a repair ship, Vestal was positioned next to the battleship and suffered damage from bombs and the catastrophic destruction of Arizona.

Correct: C. 21

The Naval History and Heritage Command records that 21 U.S. Pacific Fleet ships were sunk or damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese strike lasted less than two hours but inflicted severe losses on battleships and other vessels concentrated around the harbor.

Correct: A. USS Utah

USS Utah was a former battleship that had been converted into a target ship before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese torpedoes struck Utah on December 7, 1941, causing the vessel to capsize.

Correct: A. USS Nevada

USS Nevada survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and later supported the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944. The rebuilt battleship used its heavy guns to bombard German coastal positions in support of troops landing in France.

Correct: A. About 100 days

USS Monitor was constructed with remarkable speed, taking approximately 100 days from contract to completion. The ironclad was urgently needed by the Union during the American Civil War and was launched in January 1862.

Correct: A. Brooklyn, New York

USS Monitor was built at Continental Iron Works in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York. The revolutionary ironclad was designed by John Ericsson and constructed rapidly for Union service during the Civil War.

Correct: C. About 240 feet

The wreck of USS Monitor lies in approximately 240 feet of water off the coast of North Carolina. Its location near Cape Hatteras places the wreck in an area historically notorious for storms and shipwrecks.

Correct: A. Its revolving gun turret

USS Monitor's massive revolving gun turret was recovered from the seabed in August 2002. The operation required extensive planning because the turret, its guns, and associated archaeological material had remained underwater since the ship sank in 1862.

Correct: B. 1858

Great Eastern was launched in 1858 after a difficult and highly publicized construction process. The massive iron steamship was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and represented an unprecedented scale of nineteenth-century shipbuilding.

Correct: C. Submarine cable layer

Great Eastern achieved its most successful commercial role as a submarine cable-laying ship. Its enormous size allowed it to carry the vast lengths of telegraph cable required for transoceanic projects after its passenger-service career proved financially disappointing.

Correct: A. Portsmouth Harbour

HMS Victory has been permanently based at Portsmouth since 1823. The historic warship remained part of the Royal Navy and was eventually placed in dry dock for preservation and restoration.

Correct: A. Cuthbert Collingwood

Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood commanded the second British column at the Battle of Trafalgar while Nelson led the weather column from HMS Victory. Collingwood's flagship HMS Royal Sovereign was the first British ship to break through the enemy line and enter close combat.

Correct: A. Operation Sunshine

Operation Sunshine was the codename for USS Nautilus's secret 1958 attempt to make a submerged voyage beneath the Arctic ice and across the North Pole. Nautilus departed Pearl Harbor on July 23, 1958, and successfully reached the geographic North Pole on August 3.

Correct: A. William R. Anderson

Commander William R. Anderson commanded USS Nautilus during its historic 1958 voyage beneath the North Pole. Under Anderson's command, the nuclear-powered submarine reached the geographic pole on August 3 while travelling beneath the Arctic ice.