Combat Index is another good source of pictures; pages on individual ships often contain photographs attributed to the US Navy, which makes them suitable for use on Wikipedia.
The Maritime Administration maintains the Reserve Fleet and handles the disposal of ships. The site is particularly useful for information about scrapping and disposal, as well as ships loaned or sold out of service. (This replaced the defunct PMARS site with similar data, including the card images, but not the artifact images).
The United States Submarine Veterans Inc. is primarily a community of submariners, but has some information on submarines "on eternal patrol;" i.e., lost.
Destroyers OnLine - to collect, preserve and display historical information about the ships, their crews and the U.S. Navy. Includes destroyers, escorts, and frigates; destroyer classes; alphabetical list; links; glossary, bibliography. Individual ship profiles may include history, photos, crew locator, and email from crewmembers.
The maintainer of the Web site Ships of the Old Navy ( http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/INTRO.HTM ), which is devoted primarily to Napoleonic-era ships, has given Wikipedia permission to use any of his work. The Epopt has his statement of permission on file. The original site is no longer active, however its contents are available here.
The maintainer of the Web site Navyphotos has given permission for materials from his site to be used, with the stipulation that a link and/or acknowledgement is requested. David Newton has the email giving permission. This permission is not compliant with Wikipedia's licensing requirements. New images should not be uploaded from this site.
Her Majesty's Stationery Office has denied Wikipedia permission to copy anything under Crown Copyright. This includes the original imprints of ships' badges.
Imperial War Museum has lots of images of Royal Navy ships. Crown Copyright expires after 50 years so most all World War I and II ship photos can be used.
The London Gazette may prove useful for researching Royal Navy ships from 1665.
The copyright statement on the Web pages of the Bellona Foundation ( http://www.bellona.no/ ) states "(c) BELLONA - Reuse and reprint recommended provided source is stated." That requirement is compatible with the GFDL's requirement that history be maintained, so their excellent material may be used without restriction.
The Royal Australian Navy's Sea Power Centre has histories of all the former ships of the Royal Australian Navy. Note that these histories are covered by copyright and cannot be reproduced on Wikipedia without the permission of the RAN.
The Australian War Memorial has photos of most RAN ships in its Collections Database. Photos taken prior to the early 1950s which have a copyright status of 'clear'. Permission must be obtained before reproducing more recent photos. The AWM also sells higher resolution versions of the photos in the database.
The AWM also has the official histories of the RAN in WW1 and WW2 available online. Note that the AWM still holds the copyright to these publications and permission must be obtained before any elements of them are reproduced.
Class listing of every ship in Brazilian service, past and present [1], in Portuguese. Probably reliable, as The ed17 has a 2012 academically published book that uses it as a reference.
Official site of the Hellenic Navy [2] (Greek Navy)
The History of Turkish Submarines ( http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/7704/index.html ) is a privately maintained website, well-organized, with good information. Wikipedia has no permission to copy; all rights are reserved.
The Submarines of the Royal Netherlands Navy ( http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/ ) has excellent information about the title subject. Wikipedia has no permission to copy; all rights are reserved.
Charles, Roland W. (1947). Troopships of World War II(PDF). Washington D.C.: The Army Transportation Association. - Book on WWII troopships published in 1947.
Jon Eastham's photos are of Naval and Commercial Shipping seen around Portsmouth, UK, including the Trafalgar 200 International Naval Review. Jon has offered to upload low resolution (300px width) copies of his images under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike, upon request. Contact Jon on his talk page.
The following classification societies have public databases that can be used to find basic information, general characteristics etc. of merchant ships currently in service. Information about a ship's classification society can be found e.g. in Equasis.
Miramar ship index has entries on over 250,000 merchant ships (subscription required; free 7-day trial) (no longer updated from 2022)
Equasis, maintained by French Ministry for Transport, has a database of current - and some past - merchant ships (free registration required), many with direct link to current classification society database entry
- Pacific Marine Review - US ship news. Includes much information about individual ships and maritime affairs in the United States, as well as some coverage of foreign vessels. Copious photographs and images.
Plimsoll ship data has copies of Lloyd's Register of Shipping covering 1930-45. A wealth of info there.
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS - formerly American Shipmasters Association) is the U.S. equivalent of Lloyd's Register. Collections of their Record of American and Foreign Shipping, published from c.1867, are available at Hathi Trust (22 years between 1875 and 1922) and Mystic Seaport (29 years between 1871 and 1900).
The links were copied from another site and have not been verified as useful. Caveat nautilus.
Wikipedia has no permission to copy from any of these sites; all rights are reserved.
http://www.rontini.com/ - Ron Martini's Submarine World Network- One of the largest collections of submarine links on the Internet.
http://www.heiszwolf.com/subs/plans/plans.html - Submarine Plans - A survey of historical submersible and submarine drawings, from Alexander the Great's glass diving bell to modern nuclear-powered submarines
http://www.momsen.org - Momsen.org - Page dedicated to the "Father of Submarine Rescue", Charles Bowers "Swede" Momsen and maintained by his granddaughter. Requires Internet Explorer; unusable with any other browser.
http://www.dolphin.org.il - Israeli Submarines - Extensive information on INS Dakar, an online memorial to all fallen Israeli submariners, and home to The Dolphin Israeli Submariners' Association
Crothers, William L (1997). The American-built clipper ship, 1850-1856 : characteristics, construction, and details. Camden, ME: International Marine. ISBN0070145016. -- Comprehensive reference on the design and construction of American-built clipper ships. Contains numerous drawings, diagrams, and charts, with examples of how each design feature varies in different ships.
Cutler, Carl C. (1960). Greyhounds of the Sea. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute.
Howe, Octavius T; Matthews, Frederick C. (1986). American Clipper Ships 1833-1858. Volume 1, Adelaide-Lotus (reprint of 1926-1927 ed.). New York: Dover Publications. ISBN9780486251158.
Howe, Octavius T; Matthews, Frederick C. (1927). American Clipper Ships 1833-1858. Volume 2, Malay-Young Mechanic. Salem, MA: Marine Research Society. ISBN9780486251165.
Lubbock, Basil (1984). The China clippers. The Century seafarers. London: Century. ISBN9780712603416.
Lubbock, Basil (1967) [1933]. The Opium Clippers. Boston, MA: Charles E. Lauriat Co. OCLC558518.
Tacoma Public Library, Ships and Shipping Database, More than 13,000 individual index records on ships built on the Pacific Coast and ships with a connection to the Pacific Northwest.
The Times Archive (subscription required, but may be accessible free of charge for UK editors who have a library card via their library's website). A wealth of info on merchant and naval ships and Wikinotable people between 1785 and 2008.
The official annual list of merchant vessels registered in the United States. In addition to merchant vessels, editions typically include federal government ships of all types, including naval vessels, as well as private yachts. More information on individual ships was included over the passage of time; from the 1905-06 edition on, for example, a list of vessels lost during the year, along with the reason for the loss, was recorded. The 1936 edition in particular includes some unique data, such as a list of ships by shipbuilder for all ships built on or after 1900.
Ohio State University - most years from 1924 to 1977, supplements only thereafter, to 1982; includes a complete list of editions for the 1940s.
On Google:
[3] - full views 1874-1913, 1920, incomplete, 1913 edition with part 6 (usually separate) bound together, separate pagination: Part 2 p. 149 and Part 6 p49; 1915 variant title. B
Insurance register. Unlike Merchant Vessels of the United States, the American Lloyd's register for much of its history was not a comprehensive list of American-registered ships. It does however also include some foreign-built vessels, and often contains more information, or different information, on individual ships to that recorded in MVUS. It was known as New York Marine Register in 1857-1858.