Top Ten Intriguing Mysteries That Were Recently Solved

1. Top Ten Intriguing Shipwreck Mysteries That Were Recently Solved
The ocean floor is littered with shipwrecks, many of which hide a secret. But as wonderful as
mysteries are, not knowing the answer is like a persistent itch that cannot be scratched. Luckily,
in the last few years, several ships have given up their silence and revealed remarkable stories.
From a strange blip near the RMS Titanic to massive warships vanishing into thin air, here are
the top maritime mysteries that can now be explained.
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10
A Missing Royal Ship
The Gloucester: Shipwrecked warship that sank carrying future king discovered – BBC News
In 1682, the HMS Gloucester almost killed a king. James Stuart, the future King of England, was
onboard the vessel when it wrecked on a sandbank off the English coast. On that fateful day,
James barely survived, but hundreds of crew and passengers did not. Despite the tragedy and
almost altering royal history, the location of the ship remained unknown.Then two brothers,
Lincoln and Julian Barnwell, along with their friend James Little, decided to look for the
Gloucester. After four years of searching, they began to believe that they would never find the
wreck. But in 2012, the divers found a cannon off the coast of Norfolk. This led to a shipwreck,
and eventually, the ship’s bell positively identified the vessel as the long-missing HMS
Gloucester.Remarkably, when the trio randomly decided to find the missing royal ship, they had
no idea how historically important their discovery would turn out to be. Considering its age and
role in royal politics, historians now view the discovery of the Gloucester as one of the most
significant maritime discoveries in recent years.[1]
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9
The Real Age of an Old Ship
In the 1980s, a fisherman was working the Java Sea when he discovered a shipwreck off the
coast of Indonesia. The vessel was old—that much was clear. But no one could date the ship.
The only thing researchers knew was that it came from China and carried a cargo of ceramics,
ivory, and incense.In 2018, archaeologists combed through the cargo again and discovered
something they’d previously missed. One of the ceramic pieces had Chinese writing on the
bottom, and it was almost like a label akin to the modern “Made in China” stamps. In this case, it
revealed the location where it was produced: Jianning Fu in China’s Fujian province.Historical
records showed that Jianning Fu became Jianning Lu around 1278. This suggested that the
ship sank before this name change, perhaps as early as 1162. This, together with carbon dating
tests of the ivory and other items, showed that the ship was probably 800 years old, a century
older than previously thought. [2]

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8
The Sullivan Brothers’ Grave
WWII Shipwreck USS Juneau Found—Famous for Five Sullivan Brothers | National Geographic
During the Second World War, the U.S. Navy forbid relatives from serving on the same ship.
The purpose of this rule was to spare families from losing multiple members in the case of a
disaster. But five brothers had other ideas. The Sullivan siblings flatly refused to serve in the war
unless they were assigned to the same ship. For some reason, the Navy gave in and allowed all
five brothers to board the warship USS Juneau.On November 13, 1942, the USS Juneau was
fighting in the Battle of Guadalcanal when she was struck by a Japanese torpedo. The ship
sank, killing everyone on board, including Francis, George, Joseph, Albert, and Madison
Sullivan.For 76 years, the location of the ship remained a mystery. But in 2018, sonar pulses
alerted a research crew of an anomaly that turned out to be the long-lost warship. It was found
near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The shipwreck rests at a depth of 3,700
feet (4,200 meters) below the surface and can only be described as a crumbling ruin covered in
sea life.[3]
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7
The Titanic Blip
A 26-Year-Old Titanic Mystery Solved – Meet Titanic’s Awe-Inspiring Neighbor in the Deep Sea
Paul Henry Nargeolet was a diver who frequented the shipwreck of the Titanic. By the time he
had 30 dives under his belt, he’d discovered something strange. One day, in 1998, a mysterious
blip appeared on his sonar screen, which sparked a mystery that would last for decades.
Nobody knew what it was, only that the blip was big and close to the Titanic.In 2022, Nargeolet
and other researchers launched an expedition to the shipwreck and managed to solve the
puzzle. The blip wasn’t another wreck or an underwater mountain. It was a deep sea reef.
Tentatively called the Nargeolet-Fanning Ridge, the volcanic formation sat 9,514 feet (2,900
meters) below the surface and teemed with marine life like fish, corals, lobsters, and
sponges.[4]
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6
Shackleton’s Legendary Ship
Shackleton’s Lost Ship Finally Found | History’s Greatest Mysteries (Season 3)
In maritime history, Ernest Shackleton was a legend. He went down in the history books when
his ship, the Endurance, sank off Antarctica in 1915. Shackleton and his crew made an
incredible escape—not just off the ship—but by surviving for over a year on drifting ice floes.
Everyone was eventually rescued, but the Endurance was never seen again.In 2022, explorers
set out to find the infamous wreck. They discovered the Endurance in the Weddell Sea, a region

3. also tellingly called the world’s “worst sea,” a name it earned for being so dangerous and difficult
to navigate. The shipwreck rested 4 miles (6 kilometers from where it had been originally
crushed by pack ice. Despite all the crushing, the team discovered that the Endurance was
mostly intact and remarkably preserved.[5]
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5
A Mysterious Cog’s Purpose
Medieval ship discovered in Dutch port
In 2012, efforts were made to widen the Ijssel River in the Netherlands. While working, a
shipwreck was discovered at the bottom of the river. It wasn’t alone. The cog, a type of medieval
wooden ship, was in the company of a punt and barge from the same era.But why was this fleet
resting in that particular spot? As it turns out, the 2012 project wasn’t the first attempt to
engineer the Ijssel River. Researchers now believe that the vessels were deliberately sunk 600
years ago to alter the flow of the water.The decision was made to lift the cog from the water and
preserve the boat. This was no easy feat, considering that the vessel weighed 55 tons (50
tonnes). Maritime archaeologists spent three years planning the recovery, and when the
moment came, they successfully raised the cog in its entirety during the first attempt.[6]
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4
The Butter Boat’s Real StoryFor decades, locals living near Ireland’s Streedagh Beach visited
the remains of a shipwreck. Lodged in the sand, nobody knew where it came from or the name
it sailed under, and it eventually became known as the “Butter Boat.” In 2020, researchers
decided to crack the mystery. What they pieced together was a remarkably detailed and tragic
tale.After testing the ship and sleuthing through historical records, they discovered the ship’s
real name was the Greyhound. It was a trading ship that frequented the coastline between
Ireland and Britain. In 1770, the vessel sailed from Yorkshire’s Whitby Port and ran into a storm
at Broadhaven Bay.The crew successfully abandoned the ship, but after a head count, they
realized that a cabin boy was still trapped on the ship, which was anchored near some cliffs.
The crew and local volunteers returned to the Greyhound, but the storm dragged the ship and
many of the rescuers out to sea, killing 20 people in the process.[7]
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3
The Shipping Container That Wasn’t
Why Recovering Lost Shipping Containers is so Difficult
In 2019, a storm jostled the ship the MSC Zoe. As a result, several steel containers fell
overboard. Sometime later, metal salvagers decided to retrieve the containers and sell them as
scrap. Armed with a mechanical arm for grabbing large items and a ship-borne sonar, the crew

4. arrived in the North Sea, where the accident had happened. While scanning the seafloor near a
Dutch island called Terschelling, they found a sonar anomaly.Not sure what it was but hoping for
a shipping container, the salvagers used the mechanical arm to grab the object. What rose to
the surface was not payday—but a piece of history. They’d brought up timbers belonging to a
500-year-old ship and five tons (4,700 kilograms) of its cargo of copper.The cargo was
earmarked to be used for some of the Netherlands’ earliest copper coins, while the ship itself
was a rare example of two ship-building methods. Dutch shipbuilders transitioned from a
medieval method called “clinker” to the more advanced “carvel” technique, both of which were
present in the wreck built during this pivotal change.[8]
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2
The Disappearing Warships
Looting WW2 Java Sea Wrecks – ‘The Biggest Grave Robbery in History’
When a warship sinks and lives are lost, the wreck is considered a war grave and military
property. Needless to say, a lot of ships went down during World War II, many of them taking
entire crews with them to the bottom of the ocean.In 2016, Naval researchers were visiting
several sites when sonar revealed a disturbing pattern. Various submarines and warships had
vanished without a trace. Considering the massive size of these sunken vessels, the whole
thing was confusing—at first. A sudden influx of ship-related materials at scrapyards soon
revealed an answer. As it turns out, metal pirates are targeting warships. It’s not hard to see
why. A single bronze ship propeller is worth about $5,000, and a complete wreck has enough
metal to earn you a million dollars.American warships are not the only casualties of this trade.
Metal pirates also plunder Australian, Dutch, British, and Japanese warships, sometimes at
significant personal risk to their own safety. [9]
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1
How Horses Proved a Legend
Origins REVEALED! Chincoteague ponies #horses
Not all shipwreck mysteries are underwater. Some roam the land as living, breathing creatures.
In this case, it’s a herd of wild horses. For centuries, the animals have existed on the island of
Assateague, near the coast of Virginia and Maryland. But how did they get there? Nobody really
knew, only that an old folk tale claimed that long ago, the first horses were marooned on the
island after they survived a doomed Spanish galleon.Proof of this legend appeared by accident.
During a recent study, a researcher tested the DNA from what he thought was a cow’s tooth.
The latter had been found at a centuries-old abandoned Spanish colony in the Caribbean.
However, analysis soon showed that the tooth belonged to a 16th-century horse.Curious about
the animal’s origins, the DNA was compared to modern horses. From the onset, the expectation
was that the horse’s closest living relatives would hail from the Iberian Peninsula, where the
Spanish got their horses from. However, the tooth’s DNA was more closely linked to the
mysterious herd of Assateague. This proved that the Assateague horses could only have

5. originated from Spanish colonies and that their ancestors were indeed the steeds of explorers
who had wrecked near the island.[10]
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