Famous Shipwrecks Quiz – Printable Version
20 multiple-choice questions with an explained answer key, ready to print.
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- Why did the 1956 sinking of the Andrea Doria claim relatively few lives despite the violent collision?
- A. The liner took about 11 hours to sink, giving other ships, including the Île de France, time to rescue the passengers
- B. All the passengers could swim
- C. It sank in harbour
- D. There was almost nobody on board
- Which part of the ferry Estonia gave way in the 1994 Baltic storm, causing it to sink?
- A. The keel, which broke in two
- B. The bow visor, letting water flood the car deck
- C. The rudder
- D. The funnel
- Why did the Costa Concordia pass so close to the island of Giglio in January 2012?
- A. To avoid a storm
- B. Because of an engine failure
- C. To perform a 'salute' to the islanders, a showy manoeuvre judged reckless
- D. To pick up a passenger
- What grim record does the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, torpedoed in the Baltic in January 1945, hold?
- A. It is the deadliest sinking in history, with probably more than 9,000 dead
- B. It is the oldest known shipwreck
- C. It is the only sinking with no survivors
- D. It is the deepest shipwreck
- Why did so many sailors of USS Indianapolis die after it sank in 1945, rather than during the sinking?
- A. They were captured by the Japanese
- B. Their absence went unnoticed for days: many died of exhaustion, thirst and shark attacks
- C. They got lost on a desert island
- D. Polar cold killed them within an hour
- Who found the wreck of the Japanese battleship Musashi, sunk in 1944 in the Sibuyan Sea, in 2015?
- A. The Japanese navy
- B. Jacques Cousteau
- C. The team of billionaire Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft
- D. Filipino fishermen by chance
- Which historic event had taken place aboard the battleship HMS Prince of Wales a few months before it was sunk in December 1941?
- A. George VI's coronation
- B. The signing of the 1918 armistice
- C. The first helicopter flight
- D. The meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt that produced the Atlantic Charter
- Why did Captain Langsdorff scuttle the pocket battleship Graf Spee off Montevideo in December 1939?
- A. His ship had run out of food
- B. He wrongly believed a powerful British fleet was waiting for him offshore
- C. Uruguay forced him to
- D. He wanted to give the ship to a museum
- What share of the Soviet gold carried by the cruiser HMS Edinburgh, sunk in 1942, was recovered in 1981?
- A. None at all
- B. A single bar
- C. Almost all of it: 431 bars out of 465
- D. Exactly half
- Which singer immortalised the wreck of the ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1976?
- A. Gordon Lightfoot
- B. Bob Dylan
- C. Johnny Cash
- D. Bruce Springsteen
- What economic consequence did the loss of the steamship SS Central America, sunk in an 1857 hurricane with tonnes of California gold, have?
- A. It brought down the price of bread in Europe
- B. It helped trigger the Panic of 1857 in the United States
- C. It sparked the Alaska gold rush
- D. None
- Which famous novel was inspired by the wreck of the whaleship Essex, rammed by a sperm whale in the Pacific in 1820?
- A. 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'
- B. 'Treasure Island'
- C. 'Moby-Dick' by Herman Melville
- D. 'Les Misérables'
- Under what name was James Cook's ship Endeavour scuttled in Newport harbour in 1778, during the American War of Independence?
- A. Lord Sandwich
- B. Resolution
- C. Discovery
- D. Victory
- Which American company had to return the treasure of the frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes to Spain in 2012?
- A. Apple
- B. NASA
- C. Odyssey Marine Exploration
- D. General Electric
- What did the discovery of the wreck of the Henrietta Marie, an English slave ship sunk off Florida in 1700, provide?
- A. Proof that Florida was an island
- B. The oldest cannon in the Americas
- C. A hoard of Spanish gold coins
- D. Hundreds of iron shackles, one of the largest physical collections linked to the slave trade
- What did archaeologists do with the hull of the Greek Kyrenia ship, in Cyprus, sunk around 300 BC?
- A. They raised and reassembled it, and seaworthy replicas were built
- B. They left it on the seabed for tourists
- C. They burned it according to tradition
- D. They sold it to a collector
- How did archaeologists excavate the wreck of La Belle, explorer La Salle's ship, in Matagorda Bay, Texas?
- A. By building a cofferdam around the wreck and pumping out the water to work in the dry
- B. By lifting it with a giant crane
- C. By diving only at night
- D. With remote-controlled robots
- Why does the wreck of the Eduard Bohlen, run aground on the Namibian coast in 1909, now lie in the middle of the desert?
- A. Namib Desert sand has advanced several hundred metres into the sea
- B. Camels dragged it inland
- C. A storm threw it inland
- D. Sea level dropped by 100 m
- Why did the Swedish warship Vasa sink in 1628, barely 1,300 metres after leaving Stockholm harbour?
- A. Too tall and top-heavy, it lacked stability and capsized at the first gust of wind
- B. It was torpedoed by a Danish ship
- C. It hit an iceberg
- D. Its crew was drunk
- How many people survived on the raft of the frigate La Méduse, wrecked off Mauritania in 1816?
- A. All of them
- B. About fifteen, out of some 150 left on the raft
- C. Just one
- D. About a hundred
Answer key — Famous Shipwrecks Quiz
- A. The liner took about 11 hours to sink, giving other ships, including the Île de France, time to rescue the passengersStruck by the Stockholm in fog off Nantucket, the Italian ship listed too much to launch half its lifeboats.
- B. The bow visor, letting water flood the car deckThe ship's lifting bow was torn off by the waves, opening up the car deck.
- C. To perform a 'salute' to the islanders, a showy manoeuvre judged recklessThe liner struck a rock that tore a 70 m gash in the hull; 32 people died.
- A. It is the deadliest sinking in history, with probably more than 9,000 deadThe liner was evacuating refugees, wounded and military personnel westward, fleeing the Soviet advance.
- B. Their absence went unnoticed for days: many died of exhaustion, thirst and shark attacksThe cruiser had just delivered components of the Hiroshima bomb.
- C. The team of billionaire Paul Allen, co-founder of MicrosoftSister ship of the Yamato, the Musashi took around twenty torpedoes and as many bombs at the Battle of Leyte Gulf before sinking.
- D. The meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt that produced the Atlantic CharterIn August 1941, off Newfoundland, the two leaders set out principles for a post-war world on board.
- B. He wrongly believed a powerful British fleet was waiting for him offshoreAfter the Battle of the River Plate, the damaged ship had taken refuge in Montevideo.
- C. Almost all of it: 431 bars out of 465The gold was meant to pay Britain and the US for war materiel delivered to the USSR.
- A. Gordon LightfootThe ship vanished without sending a distress call in a violent November 1975 storm, with all 29 crew.
- B. It helped trigger the Panic of 1857 in the United StatesThe ship was carrying Gold Rush gold bound for New York banks.
- C. 'Moby-Dick' by Herman MelvilleThe survivors drifted for more than three months in small whaleboats and resorted to cannibalism to survive.
- A. Lord SandwichSold by the Royal Navy after its voyages of exploration, the ship was renamed and used as a troop transport, then deliberately sunk to block the harbour against the French fleet.
- C. Odyssey Marine ExplorationIn 2007 the company had raised about 500,000 silver and gold coins from the wreck, sunk in 1804 in a battle with the British navy off Portugal.
- D. Hundreds of iron shackles, one of the largest physical collections linked to the slave tradeThe ship was returning from Jamaica, where it had landed captives, when it sank on a reef.
- A. They raised and reassembled it, and seaworthy replicas were builtRemarkably preserved under the sand, the hull of this small merchant ship was dismantled piece by piece and rebuilt in a museum.
- A. By building a cofferdam around the wreck and pumping out the water to work in the dryIn 1686 the ship was wrecked during La Salle's attempt to found a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi.
- A. Namib Desert sand has advanced several hundred metres into the seaThe cargo ship ran aground in fog on the 'Skeleton Coast', feared by sailors.
- A. Too tall and top-heavy, it lacked stability and capsized at the first gust of windKing Gustavus Adolphus wanted a prestige ship with two gun decks.
- B. About fifteen, out of some 150 left on the raftWith too few boats, about 150 men were crammed onto a makeshift raft, which was abandoned by the boats meant to tow it.