List of oldest surviving ships

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.[1] An example is the USS Niagara: the original sank in 1820 and was raised and reconstructed three times.[2] 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:

• Reconstructed ships – "Restored" is fine as long as the ship retains its original features.[lower-alpha 1]
• Replicas – There is an article on ship replicas here.
• Partially complete wreckage – All of the ships listed below include a fully intact or mostly intact hull.
• Underwater wrecks – Lists of shipwrecks can be found here
• Lightvessels – A worldwide list of lightvessels can be found here; the sole exception included here is the "oldest".
• Ships made after 1918 – This is a list of "oldest" ships made up until the end of World War I.

•   These ships have been preserved as museums
•   Not a museum ship (commercial vessel, privately owned, et cetera)

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.

• Museum ship
• List of museum ships
• List of ocean liners
• List of schooners
• List of large sailing yachts
• List of clipper ships
• List of large sailing vessels