When the Greeks left without killing Ajax, despite their sacrifices Athena became so angry that she persuaded Zeus to send a storm that sank many of their ships.

By 454, the Delian League could be fairly characterized as an Athenian Empire ; at the start of the Peloponnesian War, only Chios and Lesbos were left to contribute ships, and these states were by now far too weak to secede without support.

The goddess held a lance whose gilt tip could be seen as a reflection by crews on ships rounding Cape Sounion, and a giant shield on the left side, decorated by Mys with images of the fight between the Centaurs and the Lapiths.

to their left are four more anchored ships and to the left of these vessels is a distant shoreline.

Typical of his satire and cynical humour, the book included a discourse on Parkinson's Law of Triviality ( debates about expenses for a nuclear plant, a bicycle shed, and refreshments ), a note on why driving on the left side of the road ( see road transport ) is natural, and suggested that the Royal Navy would eventually have more admirals than ships.

Fort McHenry looking towards the position of the British ships ( with the Francis Scott Key Bridge ( Baltimore ) | Francis Scott Key Bridge in the distance on the upper left )

On 5 June 1668, both ships left port at Deptford, England, but the " Eaglet " was forced to turn back off the coast of Ireland.

At the same time, with the aid of numerous merchant ships converted to auxiliary cruisers, a loose naval blockade on the Ottoman coasts from the Dardanelles to Suez was instituted, which disrupted the Ottomans ' flow of supplies ( only the Black Sea routes to Romania remained open ) and left some 250, 000 Ottoman troops immobilized in Asia.

Upon receiving the invitation, Octa, Ebissa, and Cherdich, with three hundred ships full of soldiers immediately left for Britain.

In the autumn the ships would be tarred and then left in a boathouse over the winter to allow time for the tar to dry.

The Northwest Passage represented a new route to the established trading nations of Asia, as in 1493 to defuse trade disputes, Pope Alexander VI split the discovered world in two between Spain and Portugal ; thus France, the Netherlands, and England were left without a sea route to Asia, either via Africa or South America, unless their ships defied the ban and explored such waters regardless ( they did, and the ban became unenforceable ).

The mothballed ships are on the left, and the hammerhead crane is on the right.

This left the Klingons alone to carry on the fight as their ships were not affected in the same manner.

However, some local merchant-lairds took up where the German merchants had left off, and fitted out their own ships to export fish from Shetland to the Continent.

Out of all the Rough Riders, Roosevelt was the only one with a horse, as the troopers ' horses had been left behind because transport ships were scarce.

When they did so, a failed attack was made on the South American port of Cartagena which left thousands of British troops dead, over half from disease, and cost many ships.

This left the Channel denuded of ships, with only 11 ships of the line present.

Rogers worked to improve the defenses of Nassau, but an unidentified disease killed almost 100 of the men who had come to Nassau with Rogers, and then the Navy ships left.

Not having enough crewmen left standing to manage three ships, Vasco da Gama ordered the São Rafael scuttled off the East African coast, and the crew re-distributed to the remaining two ships, the São Gabriel and the Berrio.

The heavily armed fleet of fifteen ships and eight hundred men left Lisbon on 12 February 1502.

According to some sources, by this time he was left with only 120 men on two ships.

Finding their position in mainland Europe precarious, they crossed to England in 330 ships in two divisions.

In the one recorded naval engagement in the year 896, Alfred's new fleet of nine ships intercepted six Viking ships in the mouth of an unidentified river along the south of England.

Afterwards, Eleanor proceeded to gather together her movable possessions in England and transport them on several ships in December to Argentan.

Meanwhile, Sir Francis Drake had undertaken a major voyage against Spanish ports and ships to the Caribbean in 1585 and 1586, and in 1587 had made a successful raid on Cadiz, destroying the Spanish fleet of war ships intended for the Enterprise of England: Philip II had decided to take the war to England.

On 12 July 1588, the Spanish Armada, a great fleet of ships, set sail for the channel, planning to ferry a Spanish invasion force under the Duke of Parma to the coast of southeast England from the Netherlands.

The fleets built by the Commonwealth of England in the 1650s generally consisted of ships described as " frigates ", the largest of which were two-decker ' great frigates ' of the third rate.

A few weeks later ( September 1578 ) Drake made it to the Pacific, but violent storms destroyed one of the three ships in the strait and caused another to return to England, leaving only the Pelican.

Departing England with two ships in April 1791, Vancouver commanded an expedition charged with exploring the Pacific region.

After his return to England in 1750, he made three further voyages as captain of the slave-trading ships Duke of Argyle ( 1750 ) and African ( 1752 – 1753 and 1753 – 1754 ).

* 1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts ( the " First Fleet ") to establish a penal colony in Australia.

By 13 March Richard had returned to England, and by 12 May he had set sail for Normandy with some 300 ships, eager to take the war to Philip.

In 1755 lazarets in the form of floating hulks were established in England for the first time, the cleansing of cargo ( particularly by exposure to dews ) having been done previously on the ships deck.

In commercial New England and the Middle Atlantic states, ships rotted at the wharves, and in the agricultural areas, particularly in the South, farmers and planters could not export their crops.

In the fall of 1701 both France and England sent fleets there ; the French fleet of Château-Renault was, at 28 ships of the line, larger than any previous European fleet seen in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, the Danish king's brother, Cnut, had finally arrived in England with a fleet of 200 ships, but he was too late as Norwich had already surrendered.

* May 13 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with 11 ships packed with 1, 000 convicts and their jailers to establish a penal colony in Australia.

* May 28 – One of the worst storms ever experienced in the region hits the east coast of England, sinking more than 100 ships and killing at least 40 people.

* August 26 – First Anglo-Dutch War – Battle of Plymouth: A fleet from the Commonwealth of England attacks an outward-bound convoy of the United Provinces, escorted by 23 men-of-war and 6 fire ships commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter.

and now, therefore, do I, John A. Notte, Jr., Governor of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, proclaim Monday, May 22nd, 1961, as National Maritime Day, reminding our citizens that American Merchant ships and American seamen are ready at all times to serve our Nation in the cause of freedom and justice.

The 11 ships of the First Fleet set sail on 13 May 1787.

Bonaparte's armada sailed from Toulon on 19 May 1798, making rapid progress through the Ligurian Sea and collecting more ships at Genoa before sailing southwards along the Sardinian coast, passing Sicily on 7 June.

That some confusion still exists in this matter can be seen from the regulation of May 4, 1927, which once again states that Danish merchant ships have to fly flags according to the regulation of 1748.

The royal couple, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May by Byzantine ships attempting to capture both ( in order to take them to Byzantium, according to the orders of the Emperor ).

The captains of these ships — Jan Jacobszoon May van Schellinkhout on the Gouden Cath ( Golden Cat ) and Jacob de Gouwenaer on the Orangienboom ( Orange Tree )— named it Mr. Joris Eylant after the Dutch cartographer Joris Carolus who was on board and mapped the island.

The LTTE has been accused of hijacking several vessels and ships in waters outside Sri Lanka, including Ocean Trader ( in October 1994 ), Irish Mona ( in August 1995 ), Princess Wave ( in August 1996 ), Athena ( in May 1997 ), Misen ( in July 1997 ), Morong Bong ( in July 1997 ), MV Cordiality ( in September 1997 ), Princess Kash ( in August 1998 ), Newko ( in July 1999 ), Uhana ( in June 2000 ), Fuyuan Ya 225 ( Chinese trawler, in March 2003 ), MV Farah III ( in December 2006 ) and City of Liverpool ( in January 2007 ).

( It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port ).

On 3 May 1241, a combined fleet of Pisan and Sicilian ships, led by the Emperor's son Enzo, attacked a Genoese convoy carrying prelates from Northern Italy and France, next to the Isola del Giglio, in front of Tuscany: the Genoese lost 25 ships, while about thousand sailors, two cardinals and one bishop were taken prisoner.

* May 6 – WWII: Six U-boats are sunk after sinking 12 ships from Convoy ONS 5 in the last major North Atlantic U-boat " wolfpack " attack of the war.

* May 16 – The Hellenic Army lands at Smyrna on ships of the British Royal Navy.

* May 25 – British ships HMS Coventry and Atlantic Conveyor are sunk during the Falklands War

* May 13 – Battle of Reval: Gustav III of Sweden sends the battlefleet to eliminate the Russian squadron wintering at Reval ( Estonia ), but is defeated: 8 Russians, 51 Swedes are killed, 250 captured, and 2 ships are sunk.

* May 29 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The opening battle is fought off Dover, between Lt .- Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp's 42 Dutch ships and 21 English ships divided into 2 squadrons, one commanded by Robert Blake and the other by Nehemiah Bourne.

* May 28 – June 1 – The Glorious First of June ( Battle of Ushant ): British and French ships battle to a draw.

* May 19 – French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons ( taken by Cartier during his first voyage ).

* May 31 – Danish ships clash with Swedish ships under Niels Juel between Fehmarn and Warnemünde ; the Danish defeat the Swedish and capture a number of ships.