82. USS Arizona

Est. Value Today: $4.91 million* (Cost of Memorial)
Year Disappeared: 1941
Year Discovered: N/A
Not to be confused with a Civil War ship of the same name, the USS Arizona was constructed in March of 1913 at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. The BB-39 battleship was constructed, of course, for the U.S. Navy, and she didn’t really see combat until December 7, 1941, when the Japanese infamously attacked America’s Pearl Harbor.

USS Arizona @usnavy/Pinterest
Arizona was hit by multiple armor-piercing bombs dropped from the air. One bomb detonated a magazine, which exploded and sank the battleship, ending the lives of over 1,000 officers and crewmen. To this day, Arizona remains at the bottom of Pearl Harbor underneath the USS Arizona Memorial.

83. Endurance

Est. Value Today: $10 million* (Cost of Recovery Expedition)
Year Disappeared: 1915
Year Discovered: 2022
Endurance took $10 million to bring up from its watery grave. Owned by one Ernest Shackleton, Endurance set sail in 1914 on the Imperial Trans-Arctic Expedition. This Norwegian-built ship went on her first voyage to the Antarctic, but she never made it home, though all of her crew survived.

The Endurance ©Tom Stoddart/Getty Images
After she was trapped in pack ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, she sank on November 21, 1915. The crew survived by taking lifeboats to Elephant Island while Shackleton and a few brave others went for help. In March of 2022, Endurance was found 9,869 feet deep, and now she is a protected historic landmark.

84. HMS Lutine

Est. Value Today: $43.61 million*
Year Disappeared: 1779
Year Discovered: 1858
In today’s money, the HMS Lutine cost tens of millions of dollars to build. The frigate served in the Royal Navy and the French Navy, though it was the French who launched her in 1779. The ship went into British control in the 1700s, and she was taken into “HMS” service. In 1799, six years after becoming England’s, the Lutine sank during a nasty storm in the West Frisian Islands.
The majority of the Lutine’s cargo hasn’t been recovered, thanks to sandbanks shifting, so all of her gold is, mostly, still sitting there. In 1858, Lloyd’s of London, a famous financial company, recovered a bell from the wreck that it keeps, in ceremony, to this day. When something serious happens (the passing of a Royal, commemoration of disasters, etc.), Lloyd’s rings the Lutine bell.

HMS Lutine © Wikimedia Commons

85. Urca de Lima

Est. Value Today: $5 million*
Year Disappeared: 1715
Year Discovered: 1928
The Urca de Lima was a Spanish ship that went down in 1715 near Fort Pierce, Florida in the States. Urca was part of the 1715 Treasure Fleet, one of several that Spain sent sailing between itself and the Americas. Urca’s wreck, which was discovered in 1928 by explorer William Beach, was found two-hundred yards off the shore of Fort Pierce’s Jack Island Park.

Urca de Lima @natlparkservice/Pinterest
In 1987, Urca de Lima was named the first-ever Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve. In 2001, it made the registry of the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The Lima has had a meager salvage operation, as not much has been recovered, but it is thought that it could have been carrying $5 million in treasure when it sank.

86. Merchant Royal

Est. Value Today: $1-$2 billion*
Year Disappeared: 1617
Year Discovered: N/A
This 1600s merchant ship was called the Merchant Royal. Built in London’s Deptford Dockyard, Merchant launched in 1617 and sank on September 23, 1941. King Charles I was furious at its sinking, saying in his “Calendar of State Papers” that the Royal Merchant’s loss was the “greatest ever sustained in one ship.”

Merchant Royal @dailymail/Pinterest
$500 million in silver and gold coins was recovered from the Merchant Royal, though it is thought that the ship was worth billions when it went down. The team searching for the Merchant in the late 2000s even got their own show, Treasure Quest, that followed them as they tried to find it. So far, the Merchant Royal’s location remains a mystery.

87. HMS Feversham

Est. Value Today: $4,560* (1652 Pine Tree Shilling From The Wreck)
Year Disappeared: 1711
Year Discovered: 1996
Just one shilling from the HMS Feversham is worth thousands at Christie’s, so it’s safe to say that this 32-gun fifth-rate was worth a lot when it sank. The ship’s primary assignment was to protect Home Waters and North America from pirates trying to steal from the British Empire.

HMS Feversham @icollector/Pinterest
England detached Feversham from her anti-piracy routine to send her to help fend off an attack in Quebec. She never made it, sinking while on passage on October 7, 1711. Though the British tried hard to find her after she sank, it wasn’t until 1996 that treasure hunters uncovered coins and silverware belonging to the Feversham. 

88. Great Basses Wreck

Est. Value Today: $8,000-$9,000* (Rupee Hunks)
Year Disappeared: Early 1700s
Year Discovered: 1961
The Great Basses Reef is located a few miles off the coast of Sri Lanka, and it is home to the Great Basses wreck. This early-1700s shipwreck was discovered in 1961 by Mike Wilson and Arthur C. Clarke. The ship was identified as having belonged to India’s Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.

Great Basses Wreck © Sir Arthur C. Clarke/Wikimedia Commons
The ship, which would later become the subject of Clarke’s novel, The Treasure of the Great Reef, was full of cannons, silver rupees, and more artifacts. The rupees alone are worth thousands, though they were, strangely enough, fused together when they were found into hunks of solid silver. 

89. SS Ozama

Est. Value Today: Unknown
Year Disappeared: 1894
Year Discovered: 2013
The SS Ozama had a very colorful history, full of gunrunning and mutinies before she sank. She was even seized for smuggling, and, once, found to be part of a plan to overthrow the Haitian government. The American steamer was formerly a British ship named the Craigallion, and she was built in 1881 in Leith, Scotland.

SS Ozama @ella777111/Pinterest
The Ozama usually was able to slip out of nasty situations, and she had been attacked in the Bahamas in 1885 but survived. Alas, she fought her last battle in 1894, when she was attacked off the coast of Cape Romain, South Carolina. She sank then and, over a century later, she was discovered in 2013.

90. Tucker’s Cross

Est. Value Today: $2 million*
Year Disappeared: 1594
Year Discovered: 1955
The tale of Tucker’s Cross is one that could become its own blockbuster movie. This 22-karat gold cross, studded with seven emeralds, is worth $2 million, making it one of the most valuable single items ever found in a shipwreck. The Cross went down with the San Pedro, a Spanish galleon, in 1594, and it was discovered by Teddy Tucker, a marine explorer, in 1955.

Tucker’s Cross @karapaia/Pinterest
Tucker sold the Cross to the Bermudian government, and it was kept in a museum until, right before the late Queen Elizabeth II was supposed to visit Bermuda, it was revealed that Tucker’s cross had been stolen and a cheap, tacky plastic replica left in its place. The thief has never been caught.  

91. The Sweepstakes

Est. Value Today: Unknown
Year Disappeared: 1867
Year Discovered: N/A
The Sweepstakes, a Canadian schooner built in Ontario in the 1960s, was damaged off Cove Island’s coast in 1885. In an attempt to save it, Sweepstakes was towed to Lake Huron’s Big Tub Harbour, but it didn’t make it, sinking in September of that year. The remains are still there, and the Sweeps, as it was known, is in amazingly well-preserved condition.

The Sweepstakes @dailyhive/Pinterest
The schooner is now, officially, part of Tobermory, Ontario’s Fathom Five National Marine Park, and it is one of the most popular sites there. It is often visited by divers, tour boats, and snorkelers hoping to get a glimpse at what a real wreck looks like.

92. Underwater Museum of Art in Florida

Est. Value Today: $6,500 per artist*
Year Disappeared: N/A
Year Discovered: 2018
Located at Grayton Beach, Florida, the Underwater Museum of Art pays a $6,500 stipend to each artist that sculpts for it. This permanent underwater sculpture garden is the first of its kind in America, and it features unique art installations surrounded by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Underwater Museum of Art in Florida ©Rob Atherton/Shutterstock
The site is 58 feet below the surface, and it is less than a mile from shore, making it easy to access if you’re a scuba diver or snorkeler. Seeing as how the waters off the coast are mostly barren sand flats, it was the perfect place to install such a unique attraction.

93. 10,000 Emeralds

Est. Value Today: $500 million* (Alleged)
Year Disappeared: N/A
Year Discovered: 2010
This is perhaps one of the most fascinating entries on this list, as it is not really an underwater treasure, though it pretended to be. Jay Miscovich was a real estate agent from Pennsylvania when he, supposedly, uncovered thousands of emeralds as part of the shipwreck of a 1500s Spanish galleon.

10,000 Emeralds @takemetothesource/Pinterest
But, alas, that was not what happened. Miscovich didn’t find a pirate’s treasure—he bought emeralds at the store, planted them, and rediscovered them as a way to get out of debt after some bad investments. His scam was unveiled when the emeralds were analyzed and found to have been coated with epoxy. Miscovich passed away in 2013, and his hoard of faux emeralds has remained in legal limbo ever since.   

94. Neptune Memorial Reef

Est. Value Today: $1.5 million*
Year Disappeared: N/A
Year Discovered: 2012
The Neptune Memorial Reef was created by Gary Levine and Kim Brandell, and it cost around $1.5 million to construct. The Reef is an underwater columbarium (a structure that holds urns), and it is also the largest man-made reef in the world, covering around 600,000 square feet of the ocean floor, forty feet below the surface.

Neptune Memorial Reef @Solaria/Youtube
The Reef went through a huge permit process to ensure it was eco-friendly and able to withstand massive storms. Everything was approved, and, now, the sixteen-acre Reef is a haven for sea life and divers. The Reef has a few famous inhabitants, including Julia Child, who was interred there in 2004.    

95. The Kodiak Queen

Est. Value Today: $4 million*
Year Disappeared: Unknown
Year Discovered: 2012
If you’re a diver looking for an eco-adventure, then consider taking a trip to the British Virgin Islands to tour the Kodiak Queen. The Kodiak Queen was launched in 1940 as a U.S. Naval fuel barge, and it was one of just five ships to survive Pearl Harbor. After its survival, it was transformed into a fishing boat.

The Kodiak Queen @alevtinato/Pinterest
Mike Cochran, a historian, found the Kodiak Queen in a junkyard in 2012, and he underwent a massive effort to rescue it. He decided, after receiving funding, to turn the Kodiak Queen into a creative artificial reef. The Kodiak Queen is located off the shore of Virgin Gorda, and it is a huge attraction for snorkelers and scuba divers from around the world.

96. Chuuk Lagoon’s Ghost Fleet

Est. Value Today: $44 billion* (Cost of Sunken Ships
Year Disappeared: 1944
Year Discovered: N/A
World War II was fought in theaters around the world, and the South Pacific was one of the most brutal, nonstop conflict zones. For forty-eight hours in 1944, Allied bombers rained down destruction onto the South Pacific’s Caroline Islands during “Operation Hailstone.”Operation Hailstone took out the Japanese Imperial Fleet, doing tens of billions of dollars worth of damage.

Chuuk Lagoon’s Ghost Fleet @SeaDogSmithy/Youtube
Operation Hailstone sank the Japanese Naval ships below the surface of Chuuk Lagoon, turning the Lagoon’s seafloor into a ghost fleet. Divers who explore this site, which remains sunk, can bear firsthand witness to Operation Hailstone, which was called (rather inaccurately) “Japan’s Pearl Harbor” in the 1940s newspapers.