What ships or voyages achieved something important by accident?
Short answerExamples range from accidental submarine collisions to encounters with the Sargasso Sea and Galapagos, plus a shipboard spring experiment that became the Slinky.
NotesClaims that ships sank submarines by accident are offered with the qualification that their accounts must first be believed. Columbus's encounter with Sargasso seaweed provides another example of an unplanned observation at sea. The Galapagos discovery is recalled less confidently: a Spanish vessel is thought to have gone off course while travelling from Panama to Peru. The Slinky is linked to a shipboard accident in which a knocked-over spring appeared to walk after falling from a table. These examples retain different levels of certainty rather than treating every origin story as equally secure.