# What was the most important Navy Ship of all time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 6, 2023, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250 "2023-04-06T13:07:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/1 "2023-04-06T13:07:14Z")
I nominate The Big “E”, **CV-6, The USS Enterprise**. She served all of WWII. She was involved in every major battle but one in the Pacific. * * * * * * Bad weather delayed her return to Pearl from December 6th so she was not in port when the Japanese struck. She was near enough to launch Squadrons however and so participated even in Pearl Harbor. She escorted the Hornet on the “[Doolittle Raid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid)”. Was a major part of the great victory at Midway, though the Yorktown did at least as much in this battle before sinking. This left only the Enterprise and the Hornet as the Pacific Carriers. At the [Battle of the Eastern Solomons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eastern_Solomons), the US Navy triumphed but the Enterprise was badly damaged. Her Damage Control Parties patched her up well enough and quick enough to return to Pearl. Here they managed to repair her in just 36 days. She formed up with the Hornet again for the [Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Santa_Cruz_Islands). She took two bomb hits this time but remained in action and recovered a significant number of planes and crewmen from the Hornet that was sunk in this battle. This left The Big “E” as the sole defender of the Pacific. She raced from battle to battle like no ship had ever done before here. Often sailing out with repair crews still onboard and at one point with 75 Seabees onboard aiding in emergency repairs. So from October 26, 1942 to the Summer of 1943 she held the line as the only US Carrier in the Pacific. Her exploits continued throughout the war, fighting the entire war. On at least 3 occasions the Japanese reported her sunk. This picked her up the additional nicknames of The Grey Ghost & The Galloping Ghost. She fought in the [Battle of the Philippine Sea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Philippine_Sea), [Battle of Leyte Gulf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf). She was the first ship capable of night flight operations and hit Luzon & Tokyo, [striking shore targets and shipping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Sea_raid) from [Formosa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosa) to [Indo-China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-China) including an attack on [Macau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau), supported the Marines in the [Battle of Iwo Jima](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima) * * * * * * In all she received 20 Battle Stars in WWII, the most and the most in our history at that point. [Here is the complete list of her Battle Stars](http://www.cv6.org/decoration/stars/stars.htm). The USS New Jersey eventually passed her but not until the 1990s. Post war she was part of the massive [Operation Magic Carpet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Magic_Carpet) in both the Pacific and the Atlantic returning servicemen home from foreign theaters. Very sadly she was scrapped in 1958 instead of becoming a museum ship. But the name rose again in the form of our first Nuclear Powered Carrier, CVN-65 The USS Enterprise. Then a certain Gene Roddenberry named his Starship after CV-6, a “heroic ship” as he thought of her. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/2 "2023-04-06T14:07:27Z")
> **[USS Bonhomme Richard (1765)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bonhomme_Richard_(1765))** > > Bonhomme Richard, formerly Duc de Duras, was a warship in the American Continental Navy named for Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. She was originally an East Indiaman, a merchant ship built in France for the French East India Company in 1765, for service between France and Asia. She was placed at the disposal of John Paul Jones on 4 February 1779, by King Louis XVI of France as a result of a loan to the United States by French shipping magnate Jacques-Donatien Le Ray. > Bonhomme Richard was or... > The commander of _Serapis_ finally called on Jones to surrender. He replied, “Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!” > > Though _Bonhomme Richard_ sank after the battle, the battle’s outcome was one of the factors that convinced the French crown to back the colonies in their fight to become independent of British authority. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/3 "2023-04-06T14:18:38Z")
The _[Indianapolis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35))_. It delivered the Hiroshima bomb _and_ inspired an excellent dramatic monologue in _Jaws_. ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/4 "2023-04-06T14:27:04Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I nominate The Big “E”, **CV-6, The USS Enterprise**. She served all of WWII. She was involved in every major battle but one in the Pacific. Nothing matches the Big E. 20 battle stars. Presidential Unit Citation. Navy Unit Commendation. Only major battle missed was Coral Sea, as she was coming back from the Doolittle raid. There’s a reason _Star Trek_ used the name Enterprise for their ships. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/5 "2023-04-06T14:39:13Z")
Since the OP did not specify U.S. navy ships, [H.M.S. Dreadnought](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1906)) (1906) should be considered. As the first battleship to feature an all-big gun (12") main battery and turbine rather than reciprocating engines which gave it a speed advantage, it immediately made existing battleships obsolete and sparked an international naval arms race. [![](https://external-preview.redd.it/aF50kldFREdbGCFPiTwiSzgu_LuWVtGcrr3770LrMqU.jpg?auto=webp&s=f57db2cc48dff990d6f6f86cc60e5335c7513a47) ](https://external-preview.redd.it/aF50kldFREdbGCFPiTwiSzgu_LuWVtGcrr3770LrMqU.jpg?auto=webp&s=f57db2cc48dff990d6f6f86cc60e5335c7513a47) ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/6 "2023-04-06T14:39:21Z")
CSN Hunley - added a dimension ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/7 "2023-04-06T14:50:52Z")
Ships from any Navy qualify. I was fully expecting a nomination of the HMS Victory. * * * * * * Ships like The USS Monitor, the CSN Hunley & the HMS Dreadnought are interesting for being significant leaps forward. I feel like the [USS Nautilus (SSN-571)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_(SSN-571)) as the first nuclear sub and [CVN-65 USS Enterprise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CVN-65)) as the first nuclear carrier also would join this group. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/8 "2023-04-06T14:57:25Z")
The USS Monitor was quite important from a technological standpoint. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/9 "2023-04-06T15:01:35Z")
The Nautilus deserves a spot in this discussion. Not for war time service precisely, but it was the launch of the modern nuclear navy. > **[USS Nautilus (SSN-571)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_(SSN-571))** > > USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine and the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on 3 August 1958. Her initial commanding officer was Eugene "Dennis" Wilkinson, a widely respected naval officer who set the stage for many of the protocols of today's Nuclear Navy of the US, and who had a storied career during military service and afterwards. > Sharing a name with Captain Nemo's fictional submarine in Jules Verne's classic... ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/10 "2023-04-06T15:10:17Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > This left The Big “E” as the sole defender of the Pacific. She raced from battle to battle like no ship had ever done before here. Often sailing out with repair crews still onboard and at one point with 75 Seabees onboard aiding in emergency repairs. So from October 26, 1942 to the Summer of 1943 she held the line as the only US Carrier in the Pacific. Twice now this month that I have had to correct this persistent misconception. Saratoga was still active, tho technically during the latter battle she was still apparently in drydock. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/11 "2023-04-06T17:33:39Z")
Some great contenders here! I think HMS _Dreadnought_ and USS _Enterprise_ are probably the frontrunners so far. USS _George Washington_, the first SSBN, and her successors perhaps did more than any other warships to see that World War III never broke out. There were ironclads before USS _Monitor_, but her revolutionary design, especially her rotating turret, were obviously extremely influential. HMS _Victory_, for her key role at Trafalgar, and USS _Constitution_, best-known of the first six outstanding sail frigates of the infant US Navy, are certainly also contenders. The first Greek trireme, name now unknown, is probably also worthy of a nomination. Western civilization hinged to some extent on the victory of the Greeks over the Persians at Salamis. > [@Crane](#): > > CSN Hunley - added a dimension I assume you used CSN and not CSS advisedly; she was never actually commissioned into Confederate service. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/12 "2023-04-06T19:14:32Z")
I’d argue that while the Enterprise (CV-6) certainly had an illustrious career and was highly decorated, it wasn’t _important_ in the sense of the entire Navy through its history. That honor would have to go to the Continental Navy and US Navy ships of the Revolutionary War, Barbary Wars, and War of 1812 . They’re the ships that set the institutional tone for the US Navy- that it could fight and win vs. the best navies of the world, and that as a navy it was second to none. Ships like the _USS Randolph_ of 32 guns, that took on the 64 gun _HMS Yarmouth_, and at its own cost, prevented the _Yarmouth_ from capturing the shipping that the _Randolph_ was protecting. _USS Bonhomme Richard_ in the battle of Flamborough Head, where John Paul Jones uttered the famous lines “Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!” And the \*USS Chesapeake" vs. the _HMS Shannon_ of “Don’t give up the ship” fame. Or _USS Constitution_ vs. _HMS Guerriere_, along with several more actions. These set the tone for the Navy as an institution for the next 200 years. The _Enterprise_ was merely following their lead. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/13 "2023-04-06T19:48:48Z")
I think CV-6 had the greater impact by far. Catchie slogans emanating from a battle might make a participating ship historically _prominent_, but I don’t think that makes the ship _important_. I think there is a strong case for CV-6 because of the overall importance of CVs in the Pacific during WWII, and the fact that the USN had such a relatively threadbare force throughout much of the early conflict. CV-6’s erasure from the historical record, absent replacement, would have had far greater impact than the erasure of any other ship, even if the war would still ultimately have been won by the Allies (because the Axis powers were just that strategically bankrupt). The erasure of CV-6 would have resulted in one fewer CVs for the USN for a longer period of time that encompassed more highly consequential battles than any other CV, and at all times when a single CV would have represented a hefty double-digit percentage of all CVs in the USN, and so might well have prevented, or at least significantly delayed, important operations from being carried out, and so drastically altered the course of WWII, if not the ultimate victory. I don’t think the same could be said of any other ship in any other conflict. Even other important ships in other important conflicts were liable to be replaced by another: _Enterprise_ could not have been during so many key moments in the Pacific War. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/14 "2023-04-06T21:39:14Z")
I go back before HMS Victory to Cook and HMS Endeavour: > **[HMS Endeavour](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Endeavour)** > > Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}41°36′N 71°21′W / 41.600°N 71.350°W / 41.600; -71.350 (Narragansett Bay) > HMS Endeavour\[g\] was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Australia and New Zealand on his first voyage of dis... and HMS Beagle: > **[HMS Beagle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Beagle)** > > HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, one of more than 100 ships of this class. The vessel, constructed at a cost of £7,803 (roughly equivalent to £664,000 in 2018), was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames. Later reports say the ship took part in celebrations of the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom, passing through the old London Bridge, and was the first rigged man-of-war afloat upriver of the bridge. There Th... The one focussed British attention on Australasia and the Pacific, and other helped Darwin develop his thinking on evolution (and though command of the Beagle may not have played any direct part in his thinking, its commander, Fitzroy, later went on to develop the beginnings of scientific weather forecasting as we know it today). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/15 "2023-04-06T22:01:41Z")
I don’t want to disparage _Enterprise_ or _Victory_ but their accomplishments were far from single handed. Huge fleets supported all of their triumphs. _Dreadnaught_ and _Nautilus_ were game changers and until adversaries updated their fleets they would have been the decider in any conflict. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/16 "2023-04-07T02:43:12Z")
Had neither _Dreadnaught_ nor _Nautilus_ been commissioned, that is just wiped from historical existence, they would have been replaced in the historical records as “firsts” by essentially identical vessels without much delay, and so history would have marched on. Ditto with _Beagle_, _Endeavor_, and _Victory_: all were ships among ships. Had one or even all three been obliterated from history, there were plenty of others to take on their most consequential roles even if the fleet had remained down a ship relative to history. Cook and Darwin alike could have explored in other vessels. Nelson could have commanded his fleet from the deck of another first rate. Again. I think _Enterprise_ stands out because it existed at such a time when no replacement was possible within the critical time period. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/17 "2023-04-07T04:26:32Z")
The Maine. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/18 "2023-04-07T09:47:04Z")
That’s a pretty specious argument because you could say the same thing about any major development since the beginning of homo sapiens. If whoever came up with the idea of attaching a stone to the end of a string to make it go further and faster hadn’t thought of it, someone else surely would have. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/19 "2023-04-07T11:44:23Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > you could say the same thing about any major development since the beginning of homo sapiens. I think that you just made your own point. No one remembers who made the first sling. Like no one remembers ships that were first to do things. The Enterprise has a record of significant accomplishments, along with being a critical part of the first generation of ships that made big gun ships obsolete. For hundreds of years big gun ships ruled the oceans, then the aircraft carriers took them down. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250/20 "2023-04-07T12:22:38Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > …you could say the same thing about any major development since the beginning of homo sapiens. If whoever came up with the idea of attaching a stone to the end of a string to make it go further and faster hadn’t thought of it, someone else surely would have. Well, yeah, I happen to agree, even if you think I shouldn’t. A sling might (or might not, I honestly haven’t thought about it) be among the most important inventions in human development, but that doesn’t make the first person to come up with the idea, or to demonstrate the idea in practice, the most important _person_ in history because it’s hardly as if no one else could have filled that role. It’s easy to say the same about ships that are important for showcasing innovative technology or for having one singularly important errand-type mission at a time when major navies were flush with ships to be sent on such errands. Part of what makes _Enterprise_ a good contender for “most important” is the paucity of like ships available to fill a like role at the same time of great need for capital ships (and aircraft carriers in particular). I mean, when you think about it, Midway sounds incredibly underwhelming from a tactical perspective in terms of ships lost if you know nothing about the role of aircraft carriers or their scarcity relative to other ships. And yet, for the sole reason that it resulted in the loss of 4 relatively scarce IJN CVs to the USN’s loss of only 1 _very scarce_ (at the time) CV, it’s regarded as a major victory, perhaps even a turning point in WWII. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-important-navy-ship-of-all-time/982250.md?page=2)