Maritime History

From ingenuity at sea to an avenging female pirate, the maritime past is full of incredible stories. Here we’ve got five fascinating stories from boating history for you to impress your friends and fellow boat lovers with.

1. A Cunning Camouflage

Camouflaged HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen | Photo by Australian Navy Built in the 1930s, the HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen was based near the Dutch East Indies when Japan attacked in 1941. To safely retreat to Australia and avoid detection by Japanese aircraft, the ship was disguised as a tropical island with jungle foliage from nearby islands. Thanks to this ingenious camouflage, the ship was the only one of its class in the region to survive.

2. Swedish Shipwreck

Swedish Ship Vasa | Wikipedia The Swedish warship Vasa won’t go down in the history of boating for its success on the high seas. In fact, it sank less than a nautical mile into its voyage back in 1628. The surprising thing about this ship is that when it was salvaged in 1961, it was still almost completely intact, despite being underwater for a third of a century. However, most boats aren’t so lucky when it comes to surviving harsh saltwater. This is why many boat owners invest in a boat lift, to store their boat away from corrosive tides and coastal winds that many boats are exposed to when left out on the water.

3. A History of Boating and Beheading

Frenchwoman Jeanne de Clisson was so enraged by her husband’s beheading following accusations of being a traitor, she swore revenge on the French king and became a pirate. After attacking French forces in Brittany, Jeanne secured three warships with help from Britain. The ships were painted black with the sails dyed red, and the flagship was appropriately named, ‘My Revenge’. This Black Fleet patrolled the English Channel and hunted down French ships, massacring entire crews during a piracy that lasted over 13 years. Jeanne, known as The Lioness of Brittany, is also rumored to have personally killed those who betrayed her husband by beheading them with an ax.

4. Message in a Bottle

Back in 1784, Japanese seaman Chunosuke Matsuyama and his crew were forced to seek shelter on an island after their ship was caught in a storm. The sailors soon began to die from starvation and dehydration. Before his own death, Matsuyama carved a message into the wood from a coconut tree explaining the story of the shipwreck, placed his message into a bottle and threw it into the ocean. It wasn’t until 1935 that his message was finally found. However, what really makes this fact fascinating is that this oldest message in a bottle washed up on the shore of Hiraturemura, where Chunosuke Matsuyama was born.

Cruise Control

This final tale isn’t from a boating history, but rather a current phenomenon, and very surprising indeed! As any boat owner knows, there’s nothing like the feeling of relaxation and calm that being out on the ocean gives you. So it probably wouldn’t come as a surprise that a 2004 study found that retiring to a cruise ship was similarly cost-effective as retiring to a home, but that the cruise ship offered better quality of life. It’s definitely something to keep in mind for when you do retire! If you’ve got any questions about boat care or our range of boat lifts, contact us for information. IMM Quality Boat Lifts Call: (800) 545-5603 17030 Alico Center Rd. Fort Myers, FL 33967