Im so glad all you cadets and Regulars of the Navy are on the forum now...lets have some real navy knowledge come through!

The topic is the most decisive naval battle or incident in history. I do mean incident, because there has been events at sea that have moved whole nations to react,,some great...some imfamous.

Post the event and why you believe its the most significant...anyone can just throw a name out there!

To start this off...I say the most significant incident was the Somers Mutiny. The reason it was significant was it was the main reason that the US Naval Academy was started in the US.

view the ships history here:

http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/s/somers.htm

view the story of the mutiny here:

http://www.ehistory.com/world/amit/d...m?amit_id=1520

The gaunlets been cast: good luck!

Well ic can say it was jitland battle WW1

Trafalgar. It ended Napoleans hopes of conquering Britain and dominating Europe.

I can't recall the battle, but another important one would be where Roman fleet defeated the Carthaginian fleet. It gave Rome the descive edge in the Punic Wars.

I'm going to say the battle of Midway or the battle of monitor and merrimack

The Battle of Midway was one of the largest land, sea, and air battles of all time. An awesome victory for the USMC that should not be forgotten.

Yeah I would definitely go along with the sea battle of Trafalgar. Stopped Napolean from conquering England and main sea just as Scondren said. I would not say the battle b/w the Merrimack and the Monitor (Virginia) is as significant because if I remember correctly, neither of them was sunk.. They just kept blasting at each other with cannons that could not pierce the sides.

I would have to say Trafalgar...although it wasn't much of a challenge for the Brits, Napoleon sucked at naval planning. A Midshipman 4th class could have beaten him.

Damn shame that sharpshooter took out Lord Nelson though...he would have been a very powerful man.

Navy? Whats that again?

well Monitor and Merrimack was the first Iron ship engagment. Let us not forget

well me not having sea legs and not being extremely knowledgeable about past naval battles, wouldnt the American attack in Santiago during the Spanish American war be one of the tops? 1800 Spanish dead and 1 American death and 1 American wounded with all Spanish beached, burning, or sunk? 2 weeks later the war was over due to the Santiago defenders surrendering.