Qing China engaged British warships, about as advanced as sailing black powder ships could be, with ‘fireships’, an old technique that was basically “Fill a half-busted ship with flammables, then set it on a collision course with the enemy and light it up”
The Byzantines used hand-pumped siphons to throw a particularly nasty liquid known as ‘Greek Fire’ onto enemy ships. The concoction was almost impossible to put out, and would burn even on the water’s surface.
The Romans, in the first naval war of their civilization’s history, rigged up a bunch of ships to have big boarding ramps/spikes so their landlubber troops didn’t have to train up to get their sea-legs before going to the rumble. Absurdly, it worked, but it was largely abandoned after the war, as the Romans began to take naval matters seriously, because having a big bridge sticking out of your ship is a great way to capsize it in bad weather.
The Koreans, in fighting against the Japanese in the late 16th century AD, opted for the reverse technique - instead of becoming better at boarding or marksmanship (which the Japanese were good at), they made ‘Turtle Ships’ which were heavily armored and stacked to the brim with cannons. Turns out, floating castles are almost as hard to take as the terrestrial version.
During WW2, several naval battles between the USA and Japanese Empire were done largely through aircraft carriers, who carried planes as their main armament, operating out of firing range of each other (but not out of a fighter-bomber’s operational range!)
During one of the wars of the coalition during the 1790s/1800s, French cavalry managed to cross a frozen strait to capture some… Dutch ships, I think? That had become stranded by the cold weather freezing parts of the bay.
Not sure what the next one is.
The Swedish Empire marched across frozen straits to reach Denmark at one point.
Ukraine, recently, has managed to inflict considerable losses on the Russian navy, despite Ukraine not really having a navy at this point.
During the Roman siege of Syracuse in Italy, the inventor Archimedes created a giant mirror that could be used on the besieging Roman ships to set them aflame with the power of the SUN! Supposedly. There have been constant debates about how efficient it would have been and whether it was actually made, but I’m inclined to believe it both as a morale-boosting weapon, if not necessarily a practical one, and as something that is ridiculously cool.
Myth Busters did several episodes about the Archimedes mirror. They weren’t able to recreate the effect. Makes me wonder if it was just a myth, or if actually setting fire to the ships wasn’t really the point - maybe they just wanted to blind the sailors and navigators, or the ships got hot enough that the enemy feared they might catch fire. Or, Archimedes was just smarter than the people who worked for Myth Busters.
The other one is about the Ottoman Turks transporting their ships across the land on log rollers in order to avoid the sea chain the Byzantines had stretched across the Golden Horn to stop them. This allowed them to outmaneuver Constantinople’s defenses and was an important piece of capturing the city. https://warhistory.org/@msw/article/ottoman-naval-tactics
Swedish and Danish battles across the pond was normal for a couple millennia, explaining the Skåne dialect having the worst of both world’s, being almost as impossible to understand as Danish itself to most Scandics, probable even to the Danes??
But yes, the swedes are the ones famed for charging on foot at wintertime.
Context please
Ah, fuck it, I have some free time.
Qing China engaged British warships, about as advanced as sailing black powder ships could be, with ‘fireships’, an old technique that was basically “Fill a half-busted ship with flammables, then set it on a collision course with the enemy and light it up”
The Byzantines used hand-pumped siphons to throw a particularly nasty liquid known as ‘Greek Fire’ onto enemy ships. The concoction was almost impossible to put out, and would burn even on the water’s surface.
The Romans, in the first naval war of their civilization’s history, rigged up a bunch of ships to have big boarding ramps/spikes so their landlubber troops didn’t have to train up to get their sea-legs before going to the rumble. Absurdly, it worked, but it was largely abandoned after the war, as the Romans began to take naval matters seriously, because having a big bridge sticking out of your ship is a great way to capsize it in bad weather.
The Koreans, in fighting against the Japanese in the late 16th century AD, opted for the reverse technique - instead of becoming better at boarding or marksmanship (which the Japanese were good at), they made ‘Turtle Ships’ which were heavily armored and stacked to the brim with cannons. Turns out, floating castles are almost as hard to take as the terrestrial version.
During WW2, several naval battles between the USA and Japanese Empire were done largely through aircraft carriers, who carried planes as their main armament, operating out of firing range of each other (but not out of a fighter-bomber’s operational range!)
During one of the wars of the coalition during the 1790s/1800s, French cavalry managed to cross a frozen strait to capture some… Dutch ships, I think? That had become stranded by the cold weather freezing parts of the bay.
Not sure what the next one is.
The Swedish Empire marched across frozen straits to reach Denmark at one point.
Ukraine, recently, has managed to inflict considerable losses on the Russian navy, despite Ukraine not really having a navy at this point.
During the Roman siege of Syracuse in Italy, the inventor Archimedes created a giant mirror that could be used on the besieging Roman ships to set them aflame with the power of the SUN! Supposedly. There have been constant debates about how efficient it would have been and whether it was actually made, but I’m inclined to believe it both as a morale-boosting weapon, if not necessarily a practical one, and as something that is ridiculously cool.
Myth Busters did several episodes about the Archimedes mirror. They weren’t able to recreate the effect. Makes me wonder if it was just a myth, or if actually setting fire to the ships wasn’t really the point - maybe they just wanted to blind the sailors and navigators, or the ships got hot enough that the enemy feared they might catch fire. Or, Archimedes was just smarter than the people who worked for Myth Busters.
Other experiments have shown that the effect can work, the continuing debate is just whether it was practical enough to use as a weapon.
The other one is about the Ottoman Turks transporting their ships across the land on log rollers in order to avoid the sea chain the Byzantines had stretched across the Golden Horn to stop them. This allowed them to outmaneuver Constantinople’s defenses and was an important piece of capturing the city. https://warhistory.org/@msw/article/ottoman-naval-tactics
Ah, I’d completely forgotten about that incident!
Thank you very much for your service o7
Swedish and Danish battles across the pond was normal for a couple millennia, explaining the Skåne dialect having the worst of both world’s, being almost as impossible to understand as Danish itself to most Scandics, probable even to the Danes?? But yes, the swedes are the ones famed for charging on foot at wintertime.
Here’s a video of the Moroccan one.
For which one(s)? There are a… lot of examples here, over a vast period of time.
Yes
Even if just name of battle or any reference to find story.