Except that, as far as I can determine online, the Arabs had already won significant naval victories over the Byzantines by the time of the Masts, notably the defeat of an expedition against Alexandria in 646. Likewise, they had already reduced North Africa to a vassal state, by an overland expedition in 647-8. The second expedition was not launched until 665, ten years after the Masts, and not completed until the 680s (after the Arabs’ naval defeat at Marmara). Carthage was not permanently secured until a third espedition in 698.
You could be right, the only knowledge I have of that time/area is from that 1 article. If you are right, I will look at what I thought was a good rag with more suspicion.
11th Round round:
Yamen - 9
Yalu - 7
These 2 are eliminated.
Others got:
Syracuse - 5
First of June - 5
Quib Bay - 4
Hansan - 4
Black May - 2
Chesapeake - 1
Pearl Harbor - 1
Remaining:
Actium - Octavian defeats Mark Antony; takes Roman Empire.
Battle of the Aegates Islands – Rome ends 23-year First Punic War, assumes lasting naval dominance
Aegospotami - Lysander’s destruction of the Athenian navy finished the Athenian Empire.
Black May-when the Western Allies got the upper hand against the u-boats for good.
Chesapeake: French defeat British; Cornwallis doomed
Diu: Portuguese smash the Ottoman/Mamluk/Indian fleet
The Downs - Larger Spanish fleet crushed, rise of Dutch dominance.
Glorious First of June: Decisive British win over French
Gravelins: Spanish Armada turned back by England to meet their famous fate.
Hansan - Brilliant maneuvering leads to key victory in Imjin War.
Lepanto: Ottoman high water (heh) mark
Marmara (677) - Greek Fire stopped the Arabs outside Constantinople - and the Byzantines would roadblock Islam for another 700 years.
The Masts - Arabs/Islam take to the sea and kick Byzantium butt.
Midway: U.S ambushes Japanese fleet
Myeongnyang - Shattered remnants of Korean fleet holds off and smashes a massively larger Japanese invasion fleet.
Pearl Harbor - Japan is allowed to run amok and capture large amounts of territory
The Nile: strategically more important Napoleonic battle than Trafalgar
Quiberon Bay - the cherry on the Year of Victory, it secured control over the Atlantic for Britain and doomed French Canada.
Salamis: Greeks turned back Persian fleet
Sluys - Massive French invasion fleet annihilated, preempting a descent on England.
Second Battle of Syracuse/Sicilian Expedition – Athenian expedition cut off/wiped out.
Trafalgar: Brits won against France/Spain in Nap.war
Tsushima - Japan annihilates the Russian fleet
Eliminated:
Sinking of the Lusitania – One sided, but helped doom the Germans in the big picture.
Kamikazi “divine winds” origin – Mongol invasion of Japan fails due to typhoon
H.L. Hunley sinking the Housatonic - The first submarine to sink an enemy vessel.
Baltimore - AKA the attack on Fort McHenry
Flamborough Head – I have not yet begun to fight!
The sinking of the INS Eilat, 1967 - the first battle vessel sunk using ship-to-ship missiles.
Denmark Strait - The Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen of Germany meet the Prince of Wales and the Hood of Britain.
Hampton Roads: USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia - first ironclad duel
Operation Dynamo – Evacuation of Dunkirk allowed the Allies to live to fight another day
Bismarck Sea: The Cannae of airpower vs naval power
Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse - The blow from which the British Empire never recovered
Cartagena de Indias – British beaten by Spain in Colombia
New Orleans: Farragut captures biggest Confederate city
Falkland Islands in World War 1 seems pretty decisive.
Lake Erie: Perry defeats British fleet; “We have met the enemy…”
Cape Bon ( 468 ) - Vandals destroy combined Roman fleet, nail in the coffin for the Western Empire.
Noryang – Japanese invasions of Korea repelled
Coral Sea – Introduction of aircraft carriers facing each other
The Battle of the Philippine Sea - aka The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot - The USN destroyed the remnants of the IJN carrier force.
Taranto: ascendancy of the airplane over the “fleet in being” (even more notable considering the small, weak, obsolescent air units involved)
Manila Bay – Led to Dewey being given the unique (at least for USA) honor of Admiral of the Navy
Jutland During WWI- Germany effectively neutralized.
Leyte Gulf: Swan song for Imperial Japan
The Yalu - Japan’s victory was the start of Japanese imperial expansion, and a death blow to the Qing Empire.
Yamen – Mongol-controlled Yuan Dynasty crushed Song Dynasty in China
Round 12 due by say 2:00 Central Thursday. (3 days from now).
Personally I would put Marmara as more significant than the Masts…because to win AGAINST Byzantium seems par for the course. For Byzantium to WIN…that is a rarity 
Sticking to my guns:
Pearl Harbor - 2 votes - the raid itself was NOT decisive. I understand that the decision the Japanese made to attack ensured their destruction, but in my opinion, nothing the USN lost at Pearl made a difference in the outcome of the war (well nothing except their idea that the Japanese were an inferior opponent). No USN CVs were sunk, and the repair facilities, oil tank farm, and sub base were undamaged and did much more harm to the IJN than 8 old BBs. In fact, those repair facilities enable the USN to win at Midway not even 6 months later by getting the Yorktown repaired in less than 36 hours after her return from the Coral Sea.
Second Syracuse - 1 vote - Not as informed about Athenian stuff as I am on WW2, but I have been persuaded by other’s well-reasoned opinions.
Glorious First of June - 2 votes- A smashing English victory, but it was a case where the French navy took giant losses to successfully complete their mission, which was to get the grain convoy through to France. That grain probably saved the Revolution and indirectly led to the rise of Napoleon.
Sticking with:
Hansan – 2
Quiberon Bay – 2
Glorious First of June – 1
With Yamen’s elimination, my nominations are all gone. Oh well, at least I don’t have to worry about saving my choices anymore…
First of June - 2
Pearl Harbor - 2
Syracuse, I think, shouldn’t be written off yet. The campaign was lost on land, but the fact that the Athenians had nowhere to go was what turned it from a humiliating defeat, but one from which they could have recovered, into an empire-killer.
Naw…the 5 I first put in (Midway, Lepanto, Trafalgar, Gravelines, Salamis) was for all of us. I just threw them in so that people wouldn’t just all put those in but would dig deeper.
I’ll vote for:
Quiberon Bay - 2 votes
The Masts - 2 votes - no one seems to be able to say much definitively about it, so I have trouble believing it was really all that decisive
The Glorious First of June - 1 vote
Regarding Pearl Harbor, it’s interesting to wonder what if the battleships had survived…
With the large classical battle fleet hammer, I wonder if U.S. admirals would have seen the problem as more of a nail, and how much longer it would have taken them to figure out that it wasn’t a nail than it did in history.
The Masts - 2
Pearl Harbor - 2
Diu - 1
Don’t be too hard on it - the Arabs’ naval expansion from 640 on was a significant achievement and I suspect contemporary accounts are quite scanty. The Masts probably became the symbol of the wider process because it was the battle everyone remembered, even though it wasn’t very decisive in itself.
Tom Scud - Not only was the campaign lost on land, but (barring Nicias) the Athenians should have been able to break out on land and withdraw to a friendly region. Plus Syracuse, though a heavy blow, didn’t end the war. Athens staged a partial recovery and their fleet went on winning victories for another decade, until the final disaster at Aegospotami.
Taking my own advice:
Second Syracuse : 2
Chesapeake : 2
The Masts : 1
Sticking with:
**Second Battle of Syracuse/Sicilian Expedition **- 2 votes.
**Glorious First of June **- 2 votes - the convoy got through.
Adding:
Pearl Harbor - 1 vote; what initially looked like a crippling blow was made good by the US within 6 months.
12th Round round: I see I missed my own deadline but wouldn’t change the results.
First of June - 8
Pearl Harbor - 7
These 2 are eliminated.
Others got:
Syracuse - 5
masts - 5
Quib Bay - 4
Hansan - 2
Chesapeake - 2
Remaining:
Actium - Octavian defeats Mark Antony; takes Roman Empire.
Battle of the Aegates Islands – Rome ends 23-year First Punic War, assumes lasting naval dominance
Aegospotami - Lysander’s destruction of the Athenian navy finished the Athenian Empire.
Black May-when the Western Allies got the upper hand against the u-boats for good.
Chesapeake: French defeat British; Cornwallis doomed
Diu: Portuguese smash the Ottoman/Mamluk/Indian fleet
The Downs - Larger Spanish fleet crushed, rise of Dutch dominance.
Gravelins: Spanish Armada turned back by England to meet their famous fate.
Hansan - Brilliant maneuvering leads to key victory in Imjin War.
Lepanto: Ottoman high water (heh) mark
Marmara (677) - Greek Fire stopped the Arabs outside Constantinople - and the Byzantines would roadblock Islam for another 700 years.
The Masts - Arabs/Islam take to the sea and kick Byzantium butt.
Midway: U.S ambushes Japanese fleet
Myeongnyang - Shattered remnants of Korean fleet holds off and smashes a massively larger Japanese invasion fleet.
The Nile: strategically more important Napoleonic battle than Trafalgar
Quiberon Bay - the cherry on the Year of Victory, it secured control over the Atlantic for Britain and doomed French Canada.
Salamis: Greeks turned back Persian fleet
Sluys - Massive French invasion fleet annihilated, preempting a descent on England.
Second Battle of Syracuse/Sicilian Expedition – Athenian expedition cut off/wiped out.
Trafalgar: Brits won against France/Spain in Nap.war
Tsushima - Japan annihilates the Russian fleet
Eliminated:
Sinking of the Lusitania – One sided, but helped doom the Germans in the big picture.
Kamikazi “divine winds” origin – Mongol invasion of Japan fails due to typhoon
H.L. Hunley sinking the Housatonic - The first submarine to sink an enemy vessel.
Baltimore - AKA the attack on Fort McHenry
Flamborough Head – I have not yet begun to fight!
The sinking of the INS Eilat, 1967 - the first battle vessel sunk using ship-to-ship missiles.
Denmark Strait - The Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen of Germany meet the Prince of Wales and the Hood of Britain.
Hampton Roads: USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia - first ironclad duel
Operation Dynamo – Evacuation of Dunkirk allowed the Allies to live to fight another day
Bismarck Sea: The Cannae of airpower vs naval power
Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse - The blow from which the British Empire never recovered
Cartagena de Indias – British beaten by Spain in Colombia
New Orleans: Farragut captures biggest Confederate city
Falkland Islands in World War 1 seems pretty decisive.
Lake Erie: Perry defeats British fleet; “We have met the enemy…”
Cape Bon ( 468 ) - Vandals destroy combined Roman fleet, nail in the coffin for the Western Empire.
Noryang – Japanese invasions of Korea repelled
Coral Sea – Introduction of aircraft carriers facing each other
The Battle of the Philippine Sea - aka The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot - The USN destroyed the remnants of the IJN carrier force.
Taranto: ascendancy of the airplane over the “fleet in being” (even more notable considering the small, weak, obsolescent air units involved)
Manila Bay – Led to Dewey being given the unique (at least for USA) honor of Admiral of the Navy
Jutland During WWI- Germany effectively neutralized.
Leyte Gulf: Swan song for Imperial Japan
The Yalu - Japan’s victory was the start of Japanese imperial expansion, and a death blow to the Qing Empire.
Yamen – Mongol-controlled Yuan Dynasty crushed Song Dynasty in China
Glorious First of June: Decisive British win over French
Pearl Harbor - Japan is allowed to run amok and capture large amounts of territory
Round 13 due by say 2:00 Central Sunday. (3 days from now).
Starting out this one I will say:
Quib Bay - 2
2nd Syracuse - 1
Chesapeake - 1
Masts - 1
Quiberon Bay - 2
2nd Syracuse - 2
The masts - 1
Sticking with:
Hansan – 2
Quiberon Bay – 2
Chiming in on:
The Masts – 1
The Masts - 2 votes
Quiberon Bay - 2 votes
Chesapeake - 1 vote
My three nominations from last round are still in, so here goes again:
Second Syracuse : 2
Chesapeake : 2
The Masts : 1
Surprised to see Pearl Harbour not make the top 20. For my money, it was both strategically and tactically decisive - in opposite directions, as it were.
13th Round round:
Quib Bay - 8
Masts - 6
These 2 are eliminated.
Others got:
Syracuse - 5
Chesapeake - 5
Hansan - 2
Remaining:
Actium - Octavian defeats Mark Antony; takes Roman Empire.
Battle of the Aegates Islands – Rome ends 23-year First Punic War, assumes lasting naval dominance
Aegospotami - Lysander’s destruction of the Athenian navy finished the Athenian Empire.
Black May-when the Western Allies got the upper hand against the u-boats for good.
Chesapeake: French defeat British; Cornwallis doomed
Diu: Portuguese smash the Ottoman/Mamluk/Indian fleet
The Downs - Larger Spanish fleet crushed, rise of Dutch dominance.
Gravelins: Spanish Armada turned back by England to meet their famous fate.
Hansan - Brilliant maneuvering leads to key victory in Imjin War.
Lepanto: Ottoman high water (heh) mark
Marmara (677) - Greek Fire stopped the Arabs outside Constantinople - and the Byzantines would roadblock Islam for another 700 years.
Midway: U.S ambushes Japanese fleet
Myeongnyang - Shattered remnants of Korean fleet holds off and smashes a massively larger Japanese invasion fleet.
The Nile: strategically more important Napoleonic battle than Trafalgar
Salamis: Greeks turned back Persian fleet
Sluys - Massive French invasion fleet annihilated, preempting a descent on England.
Second Battle of Syracuse/Sicilian Expedition – Athenian expedition cut off/wiped out.
Trafalgar: Brits won against France/Spain in Nap.war
Tsushima - Japan annihilates the Russian fleet
Eliminated:
Sinking of the Lusitania – One sided, but helped doom the Germans in the big picture.
Kamikazi “divine winds” origin – Mongol invasion of Japan fails due to typhoon
H.L. Hunley sinking the Housatonic - The first submarine to sink an enemy vessel.
Baltimore - AKA the attack on Fort McHenry
Flamborough Head – I have not yet begun to fight!
The sinking of the INS Eilat, 1967 - the first battle vessel sunk using ship-to-ship missiles.
Denmark Strait - The Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen of Germany meet the Prince of Wales and the Hood of Britain.
Hampton Roads: USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia - first ironclad duel
Operation Dynamo – Evacuation of Dunkirk allowed the Allies to live to fight another day
Bismarck Sea: The Cannae of airpower vs naval power
Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse - The blow from which the British Empire never recovered
Cartagena de Indias – British beaten by Spain in Colombia
New Orleans: Farragut captures biggest Confederate city
Falkland Islands in World War 1 seems pretty decisive.
Lake Erie: Perry defeats British fleet; “We have met the enemy…”
Cape Bon ( 468 ) - Vandals destroy combined Roman fleet, nail in the coffin for the Western Empire.
Noryang – Japanese invasions of Korea repelled
Coral Sea – Introduction of aircraft carriers facing each other
The Battle of the Philippine Sea - aka The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot - The USN destroyed the remnants of the IJN carrier force.
Taranto: ascendancy of the airplane over the “fleet in being” (even more notable considering the small, weak, obsolescent air units involved)
Manila Bay – Led to Dewey being given the unique (at least for USA) honor of Admiral of the Navy
Jutland During WWI- Germany effectively neutralized.
Leyte Gulf: Swan song for Imperial Japan
The Yalu - Japan’s victory was the start of Japanese imperial expansion, and a death blow to the Qing Empire.
Yamen – Mongol-controlled Yuan Dynasty crushed Song Dynasty in China
Glorious First of June: Decisive British win over French
Pearl Harbor - Japan is allowed to run amok and capture large amounts of territory
Quiberon Bay - the cherry on the Year of Victory, it secured control over the Atlantic for Britain and doomed French Canada.
The Masts - Arabs/Islam take to the sea and kick Byzantium butt.
Round 14 due by say 2:00 Central Thursday. (3 days from now).