Three years after the passage of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the first national marine sanctuary was designated in 1975, to protect the recently discovered wreck of the Civil War-era USS Monitor. The Monitor would eventually be named as a National Historic Landmark and would pave the way for an extensive NOAA maritime heritage program.

Among other notable shipwrecks found in sanctuaries is the SS Winfield Scott, a Gold Rush-era sidewheel steamer (Channel Islands); the Portland (Stellwagen Bank), considered as the Titanic of New England; the airship USS Macon (Monterey Bay); and the whaler Two Brothers (Papahānaumokuākea), whose captain, George Pollard's previous command, the whaler Essex, had been rammed and sunk by a whale. The ordeal of Pollard and his men inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. It is stories and ships like this that are protected, explored, and shared through our maritime heritage work.