Relative to the other naval forces of their time, during the 17th century and in previous years?
which navy had the greatest advantage over any rival on the planet: weapon power, sheer number and mix of types of vessels, force projection, or other factors I don’t know about (:))?
Spanish Armada before they got whipped? Later Portuguese? British, which ruled the waves? Fleet at Actium?
I don’t know squat about these navies, except that they were world-powerful at one time or another.
Definitely not the fleet at Actium: no Roman fleet was ever really a dominant power. Even the fleets which beat the Carthaginians in the Punic Wars were barely able to make it across the Med without falling apart.
I’d put a vote in for the Ottomans. They whipped Christian fleets (and the Venetians in particular) regularly throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, and projected Ottoman forces from Northern Europe to India.
If you extended the time frame through the 17th century, Spain, England and Portugal all would undoubtedly outstrip the Ottoman’s record dominance, but probably not beforehand.
The Armada was created for one campaign, and in any case turned in a decidedly
second-best performance vs the English.
The Roman navy was preeminent in the Mediterranean from the time it defeated
the Carthaginian navy in the 1st Punic War Ca. 245-225BC. It had a challenge from
pirates two centuries later, but Pompey led a campaign which successfuilly eradicated
most piracy. I do not believe Rome lost control of the seas until the empire entered
its final state of collapse ca. 380sAD &ff after the (land) battle of Adrianople.
Pomey’s antipiracy strategy conisted of starting ot the west end
of the Mediterranean with a gigantic fleet which then worked its
way east for rooting out most pirate fleets and strongholds as it went.