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List of oldest surviving ships

This is a list of the oldest ships in the world which have survived to this day with exceptions to certain categories. The ships on the main list, which include warships, yachts, tall ships, and vessels recovered during archaeological excavations, all date to between 700AD and 1918; earlier ships are covered in the list of surviving ancient ships. Vessels listed are sorted by date of launch as most accurately known. Many of the ships in the "Build location" column were built for use in other countries by the United Kingdom, which in the mid to late 1800s was a dominant worldwide ship builder. A majority of ships on this list are found in museums, and it includes examples that are the last of their kind left in the world.

List criteria

While this list includes the "oldest surviving" ships, many have since been restored, and/or reconstructed. Ships that have been exposed to the elements gradually deteriorate over time, thus no ship can be considered truly original due to part replacements during a ship's life. This leads to a known paradox called the "Ship of Theseus", making the definition of "original" unclear. An example is the USS Niagara: the original sank in 1820 and was raised and reconstructed three times. These extensive reconstructions left little of the original ship remaining (nonstructural items). Another separate issue is incomplete ships due to weathering conditions caused by their status as a former shipwreck, or by sheer neglect. One example is the ship Mary Rose, whose raised and preserved remains consist of only a partial hull. Those that remain underwater and intact are lumped into a separate category that focuses on shipwrecks, such as those found in the Black Sea. Many surviving old ships may also appear on other Wikipedia lists such as lightvessels. Many old lightvessels survive worldwide to this day, unlike ocean liners of which there are very few pre-World War II examples.

With these things in mind, the following are excluded

Replicas – There is an article on ship replicas.
Underwater wrecks – There is an index with lists of shipwrecks.
Ships made after 1918 – This is a list of "oldest" ships launched before 1919.

The following things are included in this page

Reconstructed ships – "Restored" is fine as long as the ship retains its original features or some of its original features.
Wreckage – As long as they are restored in some way and put on display as a museum exhibit. All of the ships listed below include a fully intact or partially intact hull. Ships like the Lady Elizabeth are still considered to be surviving despite their current condition of not being preserved.

Legend

These ships have been preserved as museums or
they are no longer in use but still exist to this day.
Not a museum ship (commercial vessel, privately
owned, etcetera)
N/A indicates that information is unavailable or yet to be evaluated.

Oldest ships

Before 700 AD

700–1400s AD

1500s–1859

1860–1889

1890–1909

1910–1918

Oldest surviving by category

The following is a list of ships arranged by category. These include ships that are the oldest in the world by type and by function, they do not include ships known only for being the last of their kind. The cutoff date as with the list are ships constructed before 1919.