While arguably not the most important naval vessel of all time, SMS Goeben, the German battlecruiser that evaded a British fleet in the Mediterranean and reached Constantinople (along with the light cruiser Breslau) had a major impact in WWI.
The German offer to have both ships incorporated into the Turkish fleet played a huge role in drawing Turkey into the war, helped bottle up the Russian navy in the Black Sea (and keep it from being adequately supplied by its Allies), thus contributing to the Russian collapse in 1917.
BB62, The New Jersey just moved from Camden to Philly for a small refit. The most decorated ship in US History and awesome museum ship needs some work. I think she’s due back in Camden by June.
Now a huge part of her decorations came after WWII but I believe she beat the Enterprise by 1 decoration.
My prejudiced pick for greatest Battle Ship of all time.
Also I served in a combined fleet with her for a short period. The Ranger & the New Jersey did a joint fleet mission making it at the time the most powerful peacetime fleet ever assembled. Not bad.
I think there’s a strong case for the New Jersey being the most important battleship of all time, but most important Navy ship? I think I might give it to Enterprise, which was in the thick of many critical naval battles in WWII, including lanching the Doolittle raid, and was critical in the battles of Leyte Gulf, Midway, Guadalcanal, etc.
Ironically, that applied to Great Britain as well. Once Dreadnought was there and everyone else needed one GB found they had to start building a lot more of them too. Quite expensive.
I definitely agree about the importance of CV-6 Enterprise, but the pedant in me is compelled to point out that while the Big E was half the flight decks of the Doolittle task force, the actual raid was launched from Hornet.
They may not have been the ships most responsible for turning the tide of war, but mention should be made of Staten Island ferries’ role in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War, notably the USS Hunchback and the USS Clifton, which was involved in action against Confederate batteries at Vicksburg and in the capture of Galveston.
Right. After the Dreadnaught , every other battleship was obsolete. After the Monitor- every wooden warship was obsolete.
Both ships changed naval warfare in a matter of a decade.
There really wasnt an "ur-Aircraft carrier that fits, and aircraft carriers took decades and decades before everyone realized the battleship was obsolescent (still good for shore bombardment and escorting Carriers).
Sure, but the design is what revolutionized naval warfare in both cases- HMS Dreadnaught and USS Monitor.
No, the Monitor.
HMS Dreadnaught did changes Battleships from 4 main, many secondary, more tertiary batteries- to All Main plus some tertiary batteries. But the designs were still big Castles of steel.
The Monitor changed line of battle ships from wood, sail powered, many many muzzleloading cannons in a broadside-- to iron armored, steam propelled, two big breechloaders in a turret…
The HMS Victory would be blown apart in minutes by one of the Unions seagoing Monitors- which would maybe need repainting afterwards.
The SMS Schleswig-Holstein sailed with the High Seas fleet. Yes, it had only 4 main guns to 8 or even more, but it was still a decent ship.
Yep.
Yep, the Monitor was a big game changer. Mark Twain said that if the British had declared against the USA, a few of our double turreted seagoing monitors would make short work of the entire Royal Navy.
And the British navy was more or less manned at that time by well fed slaves. A man could be grabbed and impressed. He was fairly often not allowed to leave his ship, for fear of desertion. His pay was pitiful, when he could get it. Torture was common, and a sadistic captain could cheerfully ignore RN rules for punishment. The best Royal Navy seaman was very good indeed, the worst was useless. Still, they were overall better than any other navy at that time- except the all volunteer US Navy (the Dutch and the Danish also had good seamen, but the Royal Navy took care to take or burn their navies)
The HMS Victory was just a little bigger than most of the other ships in the fleet, and she always sailed as part of a large fleet. If Nelson had his flag on a 90 gun ship of the line, his great command skills would have been just as important. If was Nelson who made the Victory important, not the ship that made the Admiral.
Right. or even a 90 gun.
In the Battle of Cape St Vincent, Nelson was aboard the HMS Captain. The Battle of the Nile- HMS Vanguard, Battle of Copenhagen- HMS Elephant, etc etc. It was Nelson, not his ship.
It certainly led to less US casualties in the Pacific and a shortening of the war. By how much? I dont really know, but certainly winning the Battle of Midway saved many US lives. The Big E was certainly an important ship, no doubt. I dont think two years, however. Several months?
The USS Constitution and it’s sister ships did teach the British to respect the American navy, but of course, they just made excuses.
But the HMS Warrior was designed with sail power, and mostly muzzle loading broadside cannons, and a rather thin armor. Basically, the RN still wanted its sail powered broadside line of battle ships- but with some armor added. That design was a failure, every navy going to turrets rather quickly, and mostly abandoning sails- sails which caused the HMS Captain to sink.
And using half-charges of powder on Navy Department orders, out of concern that the Dahlgrens might burst. Had they used full charges, as the USS Weehawken did against the CSS Atlanta later in the war in a similar clash, the Monitor might have decisively defeated the Virginia.
I would agree that the USS Enterprise was the greatest aircraft carrier, and perhaps even the greatest USN ship. I would disagree that it was the most important.
The argument could be made that it did because it was the Enterprise’s planes that effectively destroyed 3 of the 4 Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway. I mean, yes you are right that we would have won the war if that two minutes never happened but if you had to pick the most impactful ship to win the war, then you would be hard pressed to find another ship.