Inside the new shipwrecks exhibit at Ripley’s Aquarium

GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WATE) – Families can get a taste of history by learning all about the shipwrecks of the ages at a brand new exhibit in Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies.

“It’s a good mix of history and learning, so you can take something away from it,” said Mark Indelicato, assistant director of marketing for Ripley’s Aquarium.

Visitors get a glimpse of what lies under the sea, with the new Ship Wrecks exhibit featuring dozens of famous ships that sank around the world.

“We switch up our changeable exhibits every year,” Indelicato said. “This is just something that came to mind. It was fun idea and we just rolled with it.”

Some of the ships on display are the Edmund Fizgerald, a freighter that sank in the Great Lakes in 1975.

Then there’s the CSS Alabama, a naval ship that went down in battle during the American Civil War.

And then there’s Black Beard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, a pirate’s ship sinking in the 1700s.

“It’s kind of like a timeline through ship wrecks,” Indelicato said. “You see things as old as 1300 B.C. all the way up to 1975.”

All of the ships are paired with fish that are indigenous to the part of the world where the ships went down.

The interactive exhibit lasts through the end of the year.