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Famous Ships Quiz

Guess the names of these famous ships, real or fictional.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: September 20, 2018
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First submittedJuly 27, 2012
Times taken26,893
Average score50.0%
Rating4.20
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Description
Ship
"Unsinkable" ship that sank
in 1912
RMS Titanic
Han Solo's ship
Millennium Falcon
Columbus's three ships from
his first voyage
Niña
Pinta
Santa Maria
Jack Sparrow's ship
Black Pearl
Captain Kirk's ship
USS Enterprise
Biblical zoo ship
Noah's Ark
"Gilligan's Island" boat
SS Minnow
Blackbeard's ship
Queen Anne's
Revenge
Jason's ship
Argo
Captain Nemo's ship
Nautilus
Darwin's ship
HMS Beagle
Description
Ship
Spilled oil in Prince William Sound, 1989
Exxon Valdez
Landed on Plymouth Rock, 1620
Mayflower
Ship whose crew mutinied againt
Captain Bligh
HMS Bounty
"Old Ironsides" ship harbored in Boston
USS Constitution
Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about this
ship that sank in Lake Superior
SS Edmund
Fitzgerald
Jacques Cousteau's ship
Calypso
Legendary ghost ship doomed to
sail the ocean forever
Flying Dutchman
Battleship sunk at Pearl Harbor,
now a museum
USS Arizona
Ship from a Gilbert and Sullivan musical
HMS Pinafore
Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar
HMS Victory
Sank in 1898, precipitating the
Spanish-American war
USS Maine
+2
Level 37
Jan 5, 2013
One of these days, it will work. With 3-5 seconds left, I will type "bob," and it will be an answer. One of these days!
+2
Level 75
Apr 22, 2016
How about "yo mama"?
+3
Level 90
Jan 20, 2013
USS Arizona is still carried as an active vessel, ie passing ships render honors. She is not a museum. A memorial has been erected over her, but the museum is on the shore.

Since 1941, Arizona has been leaking oil into the harbor. Old sailor's lore is she will continue to weep until the last Pearl Harbor survivor shifts colors.

+1
Level 48
May 20, 2014
I thought the Missouri was the museum.
+1
Level 73
Jul 20, 2018
OldSailor and burntfrost are both correct. The Arizona Memorial to the beginning and the Missouri to the end of the war and I dare any American with the smallest bit of national pride to go on the Arizona Memorial and not get emotional. To me, it has the feel of a very holy place.To Jerry 928 later in the discussion, the Arizona is still an active vessel because she has never been decommissioned and I pray that she never is.
+3
Level 76
Jul 13, 2018
Huh? It sunk in 1941, and it lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. If someone told you that makes it an "active" vessel, you're having your leg pulled.
+3
Level 40
Jan 15, 2019
the USS Pueblo is still an actively commissioned US Navy vessel despite being held by North Korea since 1968. We in the Navy have a long memory when it comes to ships.
+1
Level 73
Sep 1, 2019
It might be best to take the Navy members' word for it.
+4
Level 83
Apr 9, 2014
That's CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow
+3
Level 75
Jan 28, 2015
I was drawing a blank on the name of his ship. First I thought I remembered it was something black, but typing that got me nothing. Then I remembered, "No, it was the Pearl!" But typing that got me nothing. Once again, so close yet so far away.
+1
Level 89
Dec 22, 2019
🎼Now back to the good part!🎶

https://youtu.be/hqidLUQhI_E

+6
Level 48
May 20, 2014
I remembered the Maine!
+2
Level 65
Jun 24, 2015
I kept saying "Remember the..., Remember the something"
+2
Level 58
Jan 4, 2017
Alamo!
+1
Level 84
Jul 13, 2018
Same!! I knew it was a state too but I couldn't get there.
+1
Level 89
Dec 22, 2019
The only one syllable state...makes a catchy slogan....Maine.
+1
Level 49
Feb 3, 2024
Let's blame the Maine on Spain
+1
Level 33
Jun 29, 2014
Voyager isn't on here.
+1
Level 74
Sep 26, 2014
Never mind Voyager, where's the Belafonte?!
+1
Level 54
Apr 6, 2021
What about Pioneer? It is also ship.
+1
Level 65
Jan 15, 2015
Good quiz. Lots of variety in the questions.
+1
Level 44
Jan 28, 2015
why am I surprised that 70% of people didn't know the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald? I have seen her sister ship I forget the dang name of it on Lake Erie in the 1990s. Last I heard it was still on the lakes.
+2
Level 70
Jan 28, 2015
I was a freshman in college in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was popular. It was on the radio ALL the time!!
+1
Level 60
Jan 23, 2019
Imagine that there are people that are not from the US on this site. Crazy, right?
+2
Level 89
Dec 22, 2019
The sister ship? The wreck of Ella Fitzgerald?
+2
Level 82
Jan 28, 2015
Good quiz, even though there are lots of famous ships left off including a couple mentioned above. So many you or someone could probably squeeze out a sequel.
+1
Level 37
Jan 28, 2015
How is the Bismarck not in this quiz?
+1
Level 37
Jan 28, 2015
and the Mary Rose
+1
Level 37
Jan 28, 2015
and Pugwash's Black Pig
+1
Level 37
Jan 28, 2015
the Flying Dutchman?!?!?!
+1
Level 69
Jan 28, 2015
Check out this one
+2
Level 82
Jan 28, 2015
The Queen Anne's Revenge, the Dawn Treader, the Yamato, the Dreadnought, the Mimi, Voyager, the Phoenix, Excelsior, Dauntless, Slave 1, Red 5, Maersk Alabama, Lusitania, Challenger, Apollo 13... like I said, plenty of material for a sequel.
+1
Level 74
Jan 15, 2019
And the Endeavour, Lusitania, Tirpitz, Hood, Kon-Tiki, Bismarck...
+1
Level 75
Jan 15, 2019
Also the Merrimack and Monitor, Golden Hind, Jolly Roger, and I wanted to include the Sloop John B, but I guess it was really a boat, not a ship.
+1
Level 82
Jan 15, 2019
and Battlestar Galactica
+1
Level 93
Apr 14, 2019
cutty sark
+2
Level ∞
Jul 12, 2018
Added the Flying Dutchman and the Queen Anne's Revenge.
+1
Level 72
Jul 20, 2018
Some strange choices, and omissions.

A few of those answers are all but unknown to most outside of North America. Who the heck is Gordon Lightfoot? The rest of the world tends not to study the Spanish-American war in great detail and a question on a US sitcom that stopped recording over 50 years ago? It may have been popular in the States but surprisingly the rest of the world don't show repeats of it any more. Indeed, I don't think it's been shown over here for 30/40 years.

Great idea for a quiz, I don't mean to be totally negative. I just think some more famous potential answers were missed in favour of some obscure answers that those of us not from North America have virtually no chance of knowing.

+3
Level 75
Jan 15, 2019
Gordon Lightfoot is a Canadian folk-rock singer-songwriter who achieved international fame in the 1960s and '70s. Some of my favorites from him are Early Morning Rain and If You Could Read My Mind. His lyrics from the heart and haunting voice are just beautiful. At 80+ years, he's still touring.
+4
Level 75
Jan 15, 2019
Algernon, if QM only includes questions about America that are well known across the pond, most would be too easy for Americans. If QM includes questions well known only in one other country, they would likely be too obscure for many Americans and others. (I had no idea about Nelson's ship, for example.) The best quizzes will have some of both, as I believe this one did. Regarding the Gilligan's Island question, I haven't seen the show in decades either, but I can still sing every word of the theme song. It will be stuck in my mind forever, "If not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow would be lost, the Minnow would be lost."
+2
Level 82
Sep 1, 2019
Judging from his many complainy comments around the site, Algernon is under the impression that there is a mysterious far away place called America from whence no knowledge or information ever escapes, and the block around his house constitutes the entire rest of the world and it's only possible to know about things you might see there.
+1
Level 86
Jan 28, 2015
Cousteau's first name is Jacques-Yves, not Jacques.
+3
Level 58
Jan 4, 2017
But Jacques to his friends.
+1
Level 82
Dec 3, 2018
Indeed in French Jacques-Yves is one name, not first name + optional/rarely used middle name like in US names. But since he became internationally famous, the second part of his first name has been usually dropped.
+1
Level 21
Jan 29, 2015
what about the Bismark, the terror of the sea???
+1
Level 26
Jan 30, 2015
What about The Queen Mary? Also I was typing "interprise" for enterprise.. :(
+1
Level 43
Jan 31, 2015
Pedant that I am, I feel the need to point out that the Niña and Pinta were owned (and captained) by the Pinzón brothers, and not by Columbus. They were already prominent Spanish sailors, whom he was fortunate to recruit. (I would happily accept a hint that read "Three ships that sailed in Columbus's first voyage".)
+1
Level 12
Sep 9, 2017
Where are the titanic's sister ships, the Britannic and Olympic
+4
Level 86
Aug 4, 2018
Britannic's at the bottom of the Aegean Sea, and the Olympic was scrapped in the 1930's.
+3
Level 79
Oct 4, 2017
Speaking about sunk ships, that are now museums, the Vasa would be a nice addition to this quiz.
+1
Level 90
Jul 14, 2018
For a brief moment, I was imagining a pirate ship made out of Queen Anne's lace. It was an amusing moment.
+1
Level 75
Jan 15, 2019
It could be a float in the Rose Bowl Parade.
+1
Level 68
Jul 15, 2018
Another cool answer to add could be the 'Carpathia' which was the ship which rescued people from the titanic.
+1
Level 75
Jul 20, 2018
Good to see that a full 60% of people did not "Remember the Maine"...
+1
Level 82
Dec 3, 2018
Some are probably more famous in Europe than in US: Wasa, Prestige oil spill and Costa Concordia disaster.
+1
Level 82
Jan 15, 2019
Is the Wasa the same as the Vasa? I visited the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, pretty incredible.
+1
Level 65
Apr 2, 2019
I know about the Costa Concordia, but never heard of the other two. I am kind of surprised I never heard about the Prestige.
+1
Level 57
Jan 15, 2019
Spain, Spain, Spain you ought to be ashamed. Blowing up our battleship The Maine. When there's war, we'll sock you in the jaw......
+1
Level 55
Jan 15, 2019
Just to screw with folks like Algernon, add Bluenose, Erebus and Terror. All famous here in Canada.
+2
Level 75
Jan 15, 2019
Thank you, John Denver, for giving me Calypso. He wrote the chorus while on board the ship, and later sang it to Cousteau for his birthday. "To live on the land we must learn from the sea."
+1
Level 84
Nov 29, 2019
Yep. Not a big John Denver fan, but I loved that song. Great ode to Cousteau & his famous vessel.
+1
Level 74
Aug 4, 2019
lots of suggestions already, I would add the Rainbow Warrior.
+1
Level 89
Dec 22, 2019
No.
+1
Level 72
Apr 1, 2020
Another suggestion for the future: HMS Belfast, now moored in London west of Tower Bridge - it has an interesting history. What Wikipedia doesn't say is that in 1962 an attempt was made to smuggle drugs on it (c. 50 lbs opium/heroin) from Hong Kong to San Francisco.
+1
Level 83
Jul 24, 2020
just in reply to some earlier comments . I'm from Europe and found this quiz OK. I missed only 5 one was the Jack Sparrow one , never seen these movies never want to.
+1
Level 90
Oct 31, 2022
I think Gordon Lightfoot was the boat.
+1
Level 71
Jun 19, 2023
Do spaceships really belong on this quiz?
+1
Level 67
Jul 29, 2023
I got those ones