This is a list of classic vessels around the world. These are veteran vessels being maintained or restored with the aim of keeping them in operation. Many are in use for regular sailings, cruises or on a charter basis. They can be owned privately, by public bodies or by preservation groups. This list does not include museum ships, and the vessels listed are not necessarily on static display – for these, see list of museum ships.
Name | Built | Power | Function | Location | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SF Ammonia | 1929 | screw steamer | railway ferry | Lake Tinn, Norway | the world's last remaining steam-powered railway ferry. |
SS Badger | 1952 | screw steamer | passenger & auto ferry | Manitowoc, Wisconsin and Ludington, Michigan | Lake Michigan Carferry Service, regular sailings |
MV Balmoral | 1949 | screw diesel | passenger ferry and excursion ship | Bristol | PSPS/Waverley Excursions Ltd., regular sailings and charter excursions |
Bernisse [1] | 1954 | screw diesel | Minesweeper | Hellevoetsluis, Belgium | |
USS Buncombe County (LST-510) | 1943 | screw diesel | LST | Orient Point, New York, United States | Ride an operational D-Day ship Cross Sound Ferry Services Inc, regular sailings. |
Daniel Adamson | 1903 | screw steamer | canal tug | Cheshire | Daniel Adamson Preservation Society, regular sailings and charter cruises. |
Hikitia | 1926 | steam twin-screw | floating steam crane | Wellington, New Zealand | Sister ship of scrapped museum ship Rapaki . [2] |
PS Kingswear Castle | 1924 | paddle steamer | Chatham | The Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust, regular sailings and charter cruises | |
MV Liemba | 1913 | screw diesel | cargo-passenger ferry | Lake Tanganyika | former German warship. Marine Services Company Limited, makes scheduled crossings once a week. |
Lyttelton | 1906 | steam | steam tug | Lyttelton, New Zealand | Volunteers run excursions [3] [4] |
PS Maid of the Loch | 1953 | paddle steamer | Loch Lomond, Scotland | being restored, open to visitors, restaurant for functions. | |
RMS Segwun | 1887 | screw steamer | Gravenhurst, Ontario | regular excursions, charter cruises. | |
SS Shieldhall | 1954 | screw steamer | cargo ship (sludge boat) | Southampton | The Solent Steam Packet Company Ltd., open daily, charter, occasional excursions. |
SS Sir Walter Scott | 1899 | screw steamer | Loch Katrine, Scotland | Scottish Water Co., regular sailings, charter cruises | |
MF Storegut | 1956 | screw diesel | railway ferry | Lake Tinn, Norway | |
VIC 32 | 1943 | screw steamer | Clyde Puffer | Scotland | regular excursions, charter cruises. |
PS Waverley | 1946 | paddle steamer | Glasgow | PSPS/Waverley Excursions Ltd., regular sailings |
A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small number of museum ships that are still operational and thus capable of regular movement.
The Swedish Navy is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps.
The Bristol Industrial Museum was a museum in Bristol, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the Floating Harbour and which closed in 2006. On display were items from Bristol's industrial past – including aviation, car and bus manufacture, and printing – and exhibits documenting Bristol's maritime history. The museum was managed by Bristol City Council along with nearby preserved industrial relics along Prince's Wharf, including the Bristol Harbour Railway, cranes and a small fleet of preserved vessels. The railway, cranes and vessels all now form part of the working exhibits at M Shed Museum.
MV The Second Snark is a small passenger ferry, built in 1938 by William Denny of Dumbarton, later operated by Clyde Marine Services on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland.
A Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) is a facility owned by the United States Navy as a holding facility for decommissioned naval vessels, pending determination of their final fate. All ships in these facilities are inactive, but some are still on the Naval Vessel Register (NVR), while others have been struck from that Register.
The Belgian Navy, officially the Belgian Naval Component of the Belgian Armed Forces, is the naval service of Belgium.
National Historic Ships UK is a government-funded independent organisation that advises UK governments and others on matters relating to historic ships. It is sponsored by the Headley Trust, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The Queensland Maritime Museum is located on the southern bank of the Brisbane River just south of the South Bank Parklands and Queensland Cultural Centre precinct of Brisbane, and close to the Goodwill Bridge.
The Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) is one of the oldest Antwerp ship-owners. It is controlled by the Saverys family who also own major stakes in the Exmar and Euronav groups.
Forceful is a sea-going tugboat built for the Queensland Tug Company by Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd in Govan, Scotland in 1925. She worked at her homeport of Brisbane, Australia between 1926 and 1970 berthing ships and assisting nearby casualties. During World War II she was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in early 1942 as HMAS Forceful (W126), based at Fremantle and Darwin, until returning to commercial service in October 1943. She is preserved as a museum ship at Brisbane.
An emergency tow vessel, also called emergency towing vessel, (ETV) is a multi purpose boat used by state authorities to tow disabled vessels on high seas in order to prevent dangers to man and environment. The disabled vessel is either towed to a safe haven or kept in place against wind and current until commercial assistance by tug boats has arrived on site or until it has been repaired to the extent of being able to manoeuvre on its own. The need for ETVs as a preventive measure has arisen since the number of available commercial salvage tugs was reduced while potential dangers from individual vessels have increased. E.g. Spain has fourteen, Turkey has eleven, Germany operates eight, Norway has seven, France has five, Sweden three and the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Iceland and Finland each have one official emergency tug boat. Australia also operates emergency response vessels. The United Kingdom's four strong ETV fleet was to be disbanded in September 2011 due to budget cuts but the two vessels operating in Scottish waters received an extension of contract until the end of 2011.
The National Historic Fleet is a list of historic ships and vessels located in the United Kingdom, under the National Historic Ships register. National Historic Ships UK is an advisory body which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and other public bodies on ship preservation and funding priorities. As part of this remit, National Historic Ships maintains the National Register of Historic Vessels (NRHV), which as of September 2014 listed over 1,000 vessels. The National Historic Fleet is a sub-grouping of this register, the vessels included on this list are distinguished by:
ST Cervia was built in 1946 as a seagoing tug for use as a fleet auxiliary by Alexandra Hall & Company Ltd of Aberdeen, Scotland. Today she is a floating Museum still undergoing restoration in Ramsgate, Kent.
ARA Alférez Sobral (A-9) is an 800-ton ocean-going tug that was in service with the Argentine Navy from 1972 until 2019, where she was classified as an aviso. She had previously served in the US Navy as the fleet tug USS Salish (ATA-187). In Argentine service an aviso is a small naval vessel used for a number of auxiliary tasks, including tugging, laying buoys, and replenishing other ships, lighthouses and naval bases.
M Shed is a museum in Bristol, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the Floating Harbour in a dockside transit shed formerly occupied by Bristol Industrial Museum. The museum's name is derived from the way that the port identified each of its sheds. M Shed is home to displays of 3,000 Bristol artefacts and stories, showing Bristol's role in the slave trade and items on transport, people, and the arts. Admission is free.
Persephone is a steel logging tug used in the filming of the CBC Television series The Beachcombers. Built as a small tug named John Henry, it is today preserved as a museum ship in the town of Gibsons, British Columbia.
The Steam Yacht Ena is a steam yacht that was built in 1900 for Thomas Dibbs, the commodore of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. It was used as his private vessel for entertaining guests on Sydney Harbour and Pittwater until the beginning of World War I. In 1917 the yacht was purchased by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and used as the auxiliary patrol vessel HMAS Sleuth in the waters around the Torres Strait and Thursday Island, before later being used as a training ship tender based in Sydney.
The National Museum of the Great Lakes is a museum in the Toledo Maritime Center, a heritage location on the banks of the Maumee River on the east side of Toledo, Ohio. Operated by the Great Lakes Historical Society, it celebrates the natural and built heritage of the North American Great Lakes from a U.S. perspective. The museum is most noted as the docking location of a museum Lake freighter, the SS Col. James M. Schoonmaker.
May Queen was an iron barque of 733 tons net register. It was built at Aberdeen, Scotland, launched in May 1869, and was wrecked near Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand, in January 1888.