History's great naval battles

[Cleisthenes]

I've always been fascinated by naval history.  What ranks as history's greatest naval battles?  I'll cast my vote for Athens' fleet of triremes under the command of Themistocles in their decisive victory over the Persians off the coast of Salamis. 

The setting could hardly have been more dramatic.  Threatened by Xerxes' vast Persian army, the Athenians sent to the Oracle at Delphi enquiring about the inevitable confrontation.  The news was devastating, "'Why sit you doomed one? Fly to the ends of the earth. All is ruin for fire and the headlong god of war shall bring you low."  Near panic, the Athenians asked for a subsequent message.  The Oracle replied cryptically, "'Though all else shall be taken, Zeus, the all seeing, grants that the wooden wall only shall not fail."  Conflict over interpretation ensued, but it was Themistocles who prevailed.  He convinced his fellow Athenians that their "wooden wall" was their fleet of triremes, ships that had been built at his emphatic suggestion.  Themistocles then convinced the Athenians to take an incredibly bold decision, evacuate Athens.

 In 480 B.C., over 100,000 Athenians fled.  When the Persians arrived they found an abandoned city.  The Persians put Athens to fire.  Themistocles then sent a messenger to Xerxes telling him that the Greeks were intent on escape and that if he acted quickly he could destroy them.  He "took the bait."  As Xerxes watched from shore, his fleet that had entered  the narrow channel between Salamis and the Greek mainland in the dark of night, and he thought "undetected," was attacked.  The Athenian triremes (much more manoeuvrable in the narrows) soundly defeated the Persians.  It was reported that while the Persians lost more than 200 ships, the Athenians lost only 40.  Persia's ally Egypt had sent a fleet to try to cut off the supposedly fleeing Greeks.  A Corinthian fleet "handled" the Egyptians.  Unable to supply his army, it was now Xerxes turn to flee.  The Greek army defeated the remaining Persian contingent in 479 B.C. at Plataea.

Some scholars have suggested that the crescent moon that appears on the reverse of the famous Athenian old style "Owl" tetradrachm commemorates this naval victory (see, among other sites, the Prince Edward Island Numismatic Association http://www.angelfire.com/art/peina/Newsletters/Apr01.html ).

This decisive naval battle insured Athens survival and led to her dominance of the Mediterranean for decades.

[ecoli]

Nice info...The greatest navel battle, although a smaller one, is still the the battle of Nile at Abukir Bay.

[virtvsprobi]

The greatest navel battle

Also known as "All the Ado about Lint"...

--

The anniversary of the battle of Aegusa is coming up. 10th of March, 241 BC the Romans paid the Phoenicians back for the fiasco at Drepana, and sank a large portion of the Carthaginian fleet. Which resulted in a speedy end of the First Punic War. Perhaps not a "great" battle, but a very significant one.

http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/aegates.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Aegates_Islands

G/<

[Jochen]

Don't forget the Naval Battle of Lepanto, AD 1572, where Venice defeated the Turkish fleet! The painting is from Fernando Bertelli, now in the Museo Storico Navale, Venice.

Best regards

[virtvsprobi]

That painting indeed makes the battle appear as though it is taking place in a navel. So little room to maneuver!

The bottom of that stretch of sea must be so full of junk, what with the 3 battles fought there.

Interesting Lepanto link: http://www.angelfire.com/ga4/guilmartin.com/Lepanto.html

G/<

[Jochen]

Thanks for the Lepanto link! Interesting!

[LordBest]

In terms of historical significance, I;d have to say:
1) Salamis
2) Lepanto
3) Trafalger
4) Abukir Bay
5) The battle where the Portuegese, I think, destroyed the Mamluk fleet attempting to stop the opening of a sea route to India. Cant remember its name.

the first three are pretty interchangable in terms of historical significance, I've put them in order of date because if one of the earlier ones hadnt occured, the later ones woudlnt have.
                                                    LordBest.

[*Alex]

Does no-one think that the battle of Actium between Mark Antony and Octavian was historically significant?

Alex. 

[Cleisthenes]

I think that the Battle of Actium is historically very significant.  After the 2nd of September 31 B.C., Octavian becomes the undisputed ruler of Rome.  Marcus Agrippa, Octavian's naval commander, did a remarkable job against a superior force (Antony had one hundred more ships).

[basemetal]

History's great naval battles-not.  I've seen that more than a few of us have Vespasian coins with a Victor Navalis celebrating the "battle" on the Sea of Gallilee in 66-67 A.D. by Vespasian's forces against the Jewish rebels.  From all I can gather and garner, the Roman forces simply massacred civilians trying to flee the city of Magdelena and surrounding areas.  One of the few "questionable from a modern point of view" celebrated victories by Vespasian.

Any thoughts/facts on this? 

[Robert_Brenchley]

Josephus' account makes it clear that this was a matter of the Romans using makeshift rafts to attack people fleeing from Tarichaeae; there's nothing new about politicians declaring nonexistent or vastly exaggerated 'victories'!

[Jochen]

I remember we have had several threads about this subject:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=22385.msg149189#msg149189
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=11892.msg82901#msg82901

Best regards

[virtvsprobi]

Cape Bon - Very unlucky for Rome:

Cape Bon, 468 - Vandals defeat joint West & East Roman navy.

(Vandals used old galleys filled with oil as fire ships to attack the tightly packed Roman fleet.)

Cape Bon, 1941 - British had intelligence of two Italian cruisers, returning from an aborted mission to carry a cargo of aircraft fuel to Tripoli.
In a surprise night attack and without being seen, Allied destroyers quickly sank both cruisers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cape_Bon

Both instances involved burning fuel!

Sorry, not "great" great battles, but what an interesting coincidence.

G/<

[basemetal]

Sorry Jochen...once covered never again. All of history portrays Vespasian as a practical man.  I can easily see how to mollify the roman navy and up the roman navy's prestiege, he would have issued a coin commorating a naval "victory in the midst of the conquest of Palestine.   It would have been one more positive note in the vanquishing of those pesky Jewish rebels.  The whole jewish rebellion thing must have been a big thing at the time.  All other cultures basically said "ok" when conquered.  One more god...no problem. I'm not Jewish but the courage of those ancient people (or their foolishness) is quite interesting.

[ecoli]

Fast forward a few centries and we have the battle of Midway in the pacific to turn the tide of the Pacific war...

[Robert_Brenchley]

Talking about important battles, let's not forget Waterloo. It could so easily have gone the other way. If the French had advanced more decisively at Quatre Bras, if Blucher had been more decisively defeated and hadn't managed to march in support, if the French force opposing him had marched to the sound of guns, if it hadn't rained... Like Wellington said, it was a damned close-run thing.

[Steve Minnoch]

I never realised Waterloo was a naval battle!

Trafalgar anyone?

To add a more eastern slant:

Hansan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hansan
Tsushima:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima

And borderline if it qualifies as a battle, but one of the most significant naval acts of the 20th century was the voyage of the Goeben:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Goeben

Steve

[LordBest]

In my opinion Trafalger was more important than Waterloo, had Napoleon been able to launch an invasion of Britain (and there is little doubt in 1805 his Grand Armee would have won a land war on English soil) there wouldnt have been a Waterloo, and chances are the other European powers would not have had such ready access to British gold to "pursuade" them to declare war on France repeatedly.
                                                            LordBest.

[Cleisthenes]

Has anyone yet mentioned the Battle of Jutland?  Here goes:

"The Battle of Jutland (known as the Battle of Skagerrak in Germany), fought between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet in 1916, was the largest surface naval battle of the metal ship era, the only major fleet action of World War 1, and the last major fleet action that the participants will ever fight.  It also played a key role in the demise of the reputation of battlecruiser, saw the first use of a carrier based aircraft in battle and is one of the most controversial naval actions in the Royal Navy's long history."

For more information on this significant battle see http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/jutland.html

[vic9128]

Please remember this is the History and Archeology board... "The stories behind the coins". We can go off-topic a bit...but could we try to keep these posts out of modern times and try to limit them to no later than medieval time...in keeping with the whole concept of this forum (ancient coins)? Thanks.

[ecoli]

Victor, the conversation killer

I think most of the med and before battles so far are Eurocentric, I'll add a couple of events that were Asian.

Since most of the major asian battles are land based, I can only think of a few battles that involves the sea that has influence today:

1) Failed invasion of Mongols of Japan - One can only guess what would have happened if the japanese were conquered then...

2) Conquest of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty on 1683 which has significant historical impact on the relations of mainland  China and Taiwan.

[virtvsprobi]

As previously mentioned, today is an anniversary of the Battle of Aegusa. I'm celebrating by sinking a miniature Carthaginian fleet in a sea of Scotch.
It's my birthday, so the Carthaginians are getting an extra dunking.

G/<

[slokind]

The Battle of Genethlia, for sure.  P.L.

[Cleisthenes]

The Battle of Salamis (Cyprus)

This thread began with the famous Battle of Salamis (circa 480 B.C.) where a superior Persian fleet was defeated by the Athenians.  There is another famous naval battle that boasts the name of Salamis.  This Battle of Salamis involved one of the Diodochi and a son of another one of the Diodochi, and it took place in 306 BC near Salamis, Cyprus.  The battle was between the fleets of Ptolemy I of Egypt and Demetrios Poliorcetes, the son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus.  Demetrios thoroughly destroyed the naval power of Ptolemy. 

At the age of only 31, Demetrios, who earned his epithet 'Poliorcetes' (Greek for 'the besieger') for inventing new siege weapons, was named 'king' by his father.  Demetrios' inventions included a huge siege tower-- that weighed more than 180 tons, was 120 feet tall and more than 50 feet wide.  He also used a battering ram that was reputed to be almost 200 feet in length.  1000 men were needed to make this ram batter.

Featured are coins of Demetrios Poliorcetes and Ptolemy I.  Demetrios Poliorcetes. 306-285 BC . AR Tetradrachm 306-285 BC.  Obv : Diademed and horned head of Demetrios right.  Rev : ÄHMHTPIOY BAÓIËEÙÓ ; Nude Poseidon standing left with right foot on rock, holding trident in left hand; monograms in outer fields.

PTOLEMAIC EGYPT, Ptolemy I, 323-283 BC. AR AtticTetradrachm (17.09 gm) of Alexandria 313 BC. Head of Alexander III wearing elephant headress right, D at neck / Athena Alkidemos with spear and shield, walkng right. SNGCop.15. Sv.42. Z.XIV. H.C1008. Toned XF. The engraver Delta began signing his dies in 314 BC.

I've also included a map of Cyprus and the region and a bust of Demetrios Poliorcetes.

Cleisthenes