Most famous (non fictional) fighting vessel of all time

post with your ideas, and let the argueing and bickering begin.

My vote is with the world war II aircraft carrier Enterprise.

Please give specific ships, classes of ships do not count.

 

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I'm going for the Viking Longship.

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With their shallow hulls and characteristic construction these ships were the fastest of their time and allowed the Vikings to virtually come out of nowhere to raid coastal towns.

 

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Probably the Yamato. Her and her sister ship were two of the largest battleships ever constructed.
The Japanese bragged that it was unsinkable. It survived 10 torpedo and 7 bomb hits before it sank. And the only reason it did sink after all that, was its forward ammo magazines detonated.

 

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A. were going for specific ship names, not classes so viking longboats dont count.

B. fame for what it got in action, ie, the USS Enterprise getting 20 some odd battle stars.

And now that's done....

The USS enterprise was declared sunk three times in the war by the Japanese.

 

I didn't get that from the OP, but ok..

 

sorry, i probably shouldve made it more specific, but you are right, the longboats were the best of their time.

 

No problem. Now let me see which specific ship will qualify..

 

Typically speaking, ammo magazines blowing up usually doesnt end well for the ship

 

I have decided: The Bismarck.

 

Titanic


Sure it was a fignting ship. It attacked an iceberg, did it not.

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Didn't the iceberg attack the Titanic ? I mean, attacking an iceberg with your flanks isn't really a smart move.. lol

 

I'd have to say either the USS Maine, after all, they didn't shout "remember the Maine!" for nothing.
OR
The USS Arizona. Not for its fighting skills, but because its a tomb.

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What about HMS Victory? More than 100 years of British naval supremacy followed Trafalgar.

 

I would agree with the Enterprise. Not just because it dealt damage, but because of the psychological impact it had on the Japanese for "resurrecting" itself twice and the role it played at Midway.

Edit: fixed my confusion over York and Ent.

I would also rank the USS Constitution high.

But my vote goes for the USS Wahoo. Yeah, anglo-centric list. Sorry, but the greatest naval power of all time should dominate this discussion.

 

Winner.

 

yep, The Bismark. I know nothing about it, but when you hear the name, you know it was a fighting ship.

 

the enterprise, in and of itself, was not a fighting ship. she had very little defensive weapons.

the most famous fighting ships in my opinion would have to be the german u-boats.
if germany had nuclear power the u-boats would have won the war for germany.

 

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... Graf_Spee .... Perhaps not the most famous, but should be if you knew:

The most technically advanced ship at start of WWII. Used Diesel motors, not steam. Was arc welded, not riveted together. Had early form of radar. Could out run most other warships. 6 inch shell bounced off her sides.

So feared by the English that they formed eight hunting groups in the Atlantic and one in the Indian Ocean to look for Admiral Graf Spee, a total of three battleships, two battlecruisers, four aircraft carriers, and 16 cruisers (She had sunk 9 ships.)

After Graf Spee was found off the coast of southern South America, in the “Battle of the River Plat,” she badly damaged the HMS Exeter, best ship of the group that found her, which broke the engagement and fled but one of Exeter's 8-inch had hit the boiler room, (Not the engine room as Graf_Spee was diesel). Steam was used to process crude oil for the motors and Graf_Spee had only 16 hours of already processed fuel, so she could not use her speed to run away for the other British ships. She made port in neutral Montevideo but could on stay for 72 hours. Only time to bury her dead and release captured crew from ships she had sunk, but not enough to repair fuel processing system. She did not want to be captured by the Brits, so she sailed out of the harbor with minimal crew, the sea cocks open, and sank herself.

This and more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Admiral_Graf_Spee

 

The Revenge

At flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,
And a pinnace, like a flutter'd bird, came flying from far away.
'Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty-three!'
Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: 'Fore God I am no coward;
But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear,
And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow quick,
We are six ships of the line; can we fight with fifty-three?'

The spake Sir Richard Grenville; 'I know you are no coward;
You fly them for a moment to fight with them again.
But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore.
I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard,
To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain'

So Lord Howard past away with five ships of war that day,
Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven;
But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the land
Very carefully and slow,
Men of Bideford in Devon,
And we laid them on the ballast down below;
For we brought them all aboard,
And they blest him in their pain, that there were not left to Spain,
To the thumbscrew and the stake, for the glory of the Lord.

He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight,
And he sailed away from Flores till the Spaniard came in sight,
With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the weather bow,
'Shall we fight or shall we fly?
Good Sir Richard, tell us now,
For to fight is but to die!
There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set'
And Sir Richard said again: 'We be all good English men.
Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil,
For I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil yet.'

Sir Richard spoke and he laugh'd, and we roar'd a hurrah, and so
The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe,
With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below;
For half of their fleet to the right and half to the left were seen,
And the little Revenge ran on thro the long sea-lane between.

Thousands of their soldiers look'd down from their decks and laugh'd,
Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little craft
Running on and on, till delay'd
By their mountain-like San Philip that, of fifteen hundred tons,
And up-shadowing high above us with yawning tiers of guns,
Took breath from out sail, and we stay'd.

And while now the great San Philip hung above us like a cloud
Whence the thunderbolt will fall
Long and loud,
Four galleons drew away
From the Spanish fleet that day,
And two upon the larboard and two upon the starboard lay,
And the battle-thunder broke from them all.

But anon the great San Philip, she bethought herself and went
Having that within her womb that had left her ill content;
And the rest they came aboard us, and they fought us hand to hand,
For a dozen times they came with their pikes and musqueteers,
And a dozen times we shook 'em off as a dog shakes that shakes his ears
When he leaps from the water to the land.

And the sun went down, and the stars came out far over the summer sea,
But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty-three.
Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons came,
Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thunder and flame,
Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her shame.
For some were sunk, and many were shatter'd, and so could fight us no more -
God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?

For he said 'Fight on! fight on!'
Tho' his vessel was all but a wreck;
And it chanced that, when half of the short summer night was gone,
With a grisley wound to be drest he had left the deck,
But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly dead,
And himself he was wounded again in the side of the head,
And he said 'Fight on! fight on!'

And the night went down, and the sun smiled out far over the summer sea,
And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay around us all in a ring;
But they dared not touch us again, for they fear'd that we still could sting,
So they watch'd what the end would be.
And we had not fought them in vain,
But in perilous plight were we,
Seein forty of our poor hundred were slain,
And half of the rest of us maim'd for life
In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife;
And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold,
And the pikes were all broken or bent, and the powder was all of it spent;
And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side;
But Sir Richard cried in his English pride,
'We have fought such a fight for a day and a night
As may never be fought again!
We have won great glory, my men!
And a day less or more
At sea or ashore,
We die - does it matter when?
Sink me the ship, Master Gunner - sink her, split her in twain!
Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!

And the gunner said 'Ay, ay,' but the seamen made reply:
'We have children, we have wives,
And the Lord hath spared our lives.
We wil make the Spanaird promise, if we yield to let us go;
We shall live to fight and to strike another blow.'
And the lion there lay dying, and they yielded to the foe.

And the stately Spanish men to their flagship bore him then
Where they laid him by the mast, old Sir Richard caught at last,
But he rose upon their decks, and he cried:
'I have fought for Queen and Faith like a valient man and true;
I have only done my duty as a man is bound to do:
With a joyful spirit I Sir Richard Grenville die!'
And he fell upon their decks, and he died.

And they stared at the dead that had been so valient and true,
And had holden the power and glory of Spain so cheap
That he dared her with one ship and his English few!
Was he devil or man? He was devil for aught they knew,
But they sank his body with honour down into the deep,
And they mann'd the Revenge with a swarthier alien crew,
And away she sail'd with her loss and long'd for her own;
When a wind from the lands they had ruin'd awoke from sleep,
And the water began to heave and the weather to moan,
And or ever that evening ended a great gale blew,
And a wave like the wave that is raised by an earthquake grew,
Till it smote on their hulls and sails and their masts and their flags,
And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shattere'd navy of Spain,
And the little Revenge herself went down by the island crags
To be lost evermore on the main.

By Alfred Tennyson, whose house I can see from my window.
(No; I tell a lie. I must prune that tree!)
Egad! They don't write poetry like that these days!

 

Here is my reasoning for the USS Enterprise.

It was launched in 1936, she was a yorktown class carrier.

She was one of only three commisssioned American carriers built before world war II to survive World war II.

Participated in nearly all major confrontations with the Japanese than any other American vessel.

She launched the planes that went on the famous "Doolittle raid"

On three seperate occasions the Japanese declared the Enterprise to have been sunk.

She was awarded twenty battle stars and the British Admiralty Pennant.

The British Admiralty Pennant is the highest award of the british navy and the Enterprise is and still remains the only ship in history to have won the award and not having been of the British navy.

Here are all of her awards:

The silver star

20 battle stars

Presidential unit citation- winning this would warrent being awarded the Distinguished service cross, Navy cross, or Air force cross

Navy unit commendation- winning this would require being awarded a silver star atleast.

American Defense service medal

American Campaign medal

Asiatic-Pacific campaign medal (20 stars)

world War II Victory medal

Philipine republic Presidential unit Citation Badge

Philipine liberation medal (one star)

British Admiralty Pennant

Here is the part of the speech given for the presidential unit citation, "For consistently outstanding performance and distinguished achievement during repeated action against enemy Japanese forces in the Pacific war area, 7 December 1941, to 15 November 1942. Participating in nearly every major carrier engagement in the first year of the war, the Enterprise and her air group, exclusive of far-flung destruction of hostile shore installations throughout the battle area, did sink or damage on her own a total of 35 Japanese vessels and shoot down a total of 185 Japanese aircraft. Her aggressive spirit and superb combat efficiency are fitting tribute to the officers and men who so gallantly established her as an ahead bulwark in the defense of the American nation.
"

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Courtesy of wikipedia