Description: For more than two hundred years, the people of the United States have seen the sea as a barrier to enemies in distant lands. A navy was established to defend us. The sea has been our greatest battlefield, and hundreds of U.S. Navy ships lie on the ocean floor. These American warships date from the beginning of the navy to the present day. They include boats rowed with oars into battle, sailing ships, iron-hulled steamships, submarines, battleships, and aircraft carriers. They include ships sunk in storms, by running into reefs or rocks, and ships lost in battle to cannon balls, shells from huge guns, torpedoes, and bombs dropped by planes. Underwater archaeologists have discovered and studied many of these warships. Ships such as Constitution, Philadelphia, Defence, Somers, Alabama, Arizona, and others detail the advances in warfare technology -- and life on board these vessels changed -- throughout U.S. history.

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