Ahoy mates.

With all the different warships to come down the slipway, what do you think the top 10 ships of all time are?

Think about innovation, service life, fire power and the like.

I haven't really given this a ton of thought, but off the top of my head here is what I would come up with, in no particular order.

Viking Long Ship
Greek Bireme
Roman Trireme
Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria. Counts as one. Not because of their service life, firepower, etc, but for what came about because of a certain voyage they made 500+ years ago.
Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. Again count as one and due to what they did at Jamestown.
HMS Victory. Service life, lets see, 250+ years. Firepower, 100+ guns. Helped defeat Nappy, etc.
USS Constitution. Decent service life, and put the USN on the naval map.
USS Monitor/CSS Virgina née Merrimack. Also counts as one because of the naval revolution they helped bring about.
USS Dreadnought. Revolutionary concept.
USS Lexington/IJN Akagi. Also counting as one because while neither was the first carrier between them they proved the concept of the really big fleet carrier.

Honorable mention, HMS Warspite, just because she's my favorite, and she had possibly the greatest fighting career of any modern warship.

Rodger,
I didn't know the US navy had a Dreadnought
I'll have a think about this and get back to Gator's question.
Tom

I would add

USS Nautilus---first Nuc powered ship
USS Enterprise--- Still in first line service after 40 years and probably the first true "Super-carrier"
Iowa class battleship...World War 2 concept and build and due to modifications has had a very long and extended career spanning some 60 years and not tied up on some dock like the Victory.

I would also vote for the Monitor as it had three very important concepts.. the Iron build...not just iron plates put over a wooden ship, used a screw propeller system and had the revolving turret.

The Langley---first Aircraft Carrier
The Hunley--- though not actually the first, still the first true submarine in my book the earlier ones were concepts

All very worthy indeed.

So you salty dawgs, put on your thinkin' caps and chime in. Gunny, Skipper, I know you guys have to have a list of favorites.

Don't make me get out my pet gator.

DOH! I don't know what time 6:47 GMT was, but I'll be willing to be I hadn't had my morning coffee yet.

The Langley---first Aircraft Carrier

I'm sorry but I think a few RN carriers pre-date Langley. My info is Langley didn't begin her conversion to carrier until 1920, and was commissioned in 1922. The RN had the HMS Argus, commissioned 1918, first full length carrier, HMS Eagle, converted from a Chilean battleship, launched 1918, and HMS Hermes, first purpose built carrier, launched 1919.


USS Nautilus is a great choice, and one I wished I'd thought of.

You will also find that HMS Campania sailed in 1916 for the battle of Jutland but was turned back due to lack of escort. Although not a through deck carrier she had a forward flying off deck and a recovery area aft.

HMS Ark Royal laid down 7th Nov 1913 as a vessel specifically to operate aircraft at sea commissioned 10 Dec 1914. Landplanes or trolley assisted seaplanes launched directly from the flying deck.

And of course HMS Furious, she went through 3 modifcations, as completed just a forward flying off and recovery deck 1917.
First mod. forward flying off deck and aft recovery deck 1918.
Second mod. as a flush deck carrier 1932.
Third mod. an island added strb 1939.

Ciao
Luciano

I would add the Higgins boats. Not your typical warship but the landings in the Pacific and Normandy would have been a harder without them.

OK the Langley wasn't the first but the first US and the beginning of the US becoming the world superpower....how about that. Maybe I'll throw in the Essex in lieu of it as she was first of a multi-ship class that propelled the US into the NAval dominating super-power it is today.

What was the first angled deck carrier? That should be included as it changed the method of takeoffs and landings which made jets usable.As well as the steam catapault. Though both things were invented by the Brits, the US incorporated them first in the Antietem (old Essex class) and the Midway class.

This deck has some angle.

A British innovation was the angled flight deck. (HMS Centaur)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angled_flight_deck
1954 the ship underwent a substantial reconstruction to provide for an angled flight deck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_class_aircraft_carrier

(USS) Antietam (CV 36) - America's first angled-deck aircraft carrier.(1953?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Antietam_%28CV-36%29

Well it is Wikipedia after all, I suppose that’s why two sources are better.

I concur with Gator

I'd like to add the USS George Washington ballistic missile submarine to the list . Talk about innovation: Submarine + Atomic Power + Ballistic Missile (fired underwater) + Nuclear Warheads! Incredible firepower. It's influence was felt around the world without ever having fired a shot!
The other nine on my list are just targets
v/r,
Cob

USS Monitor- Iron Clad, Steam power, First rotating turret
HMS Victory - Just the name and history would make any crew fight harder
DMK Bismark - Fantastic ship. Took all the British had and then scuttled
USS Nautilus - Underway under Nuclear power
USS Ohio Class SSBN - Almost totaly silent and totally deadly
CSS Hunley - Proved submarines can work
Viking Long Ship - Any open wooden boat that can go from Norway to North America can't be all that bad.
USS Nimitz - Able to project power anywhere. "Where are the cariers?" asked the president when trouble arose
HMS Dreadnought - Made every ship in the world Obsolete overnight
IJN Yamato - Add Radar and she would have ruled the waves


Yes, the HIggins boat was another. Or how about the Victory Ship? We made them faster than the Germans could sink them and they kept the supplies flowing.

Speaking of the sub George Washington, don't forget the Japanese I-400. The post war studies of that sub made the GW possible.