"What is The Greatest Warship of All Time?" Topic

It is a bogus question. Too many different ways to look at 'the greatest'. Bravest? Most effective? Most innovative? Longest list of Battle Honors/Honours? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

USS Nimitz

Simply, the submarine. It turned two dimensional warfare into three dimensional warfare and also introduced stealth into the equation.

That submarine in Gerry Anderson's UFO was pretty cool. The bows were a fighter plane that detached to be launched from underwater against the aliens.

link

Must have been quite a small vessel but hey, it was 1980.

This is a question that cannot be answered. All you can do is ask what is the individuals FAVORITE warship.

If pressed to name the greatest ship of all times from the point of influencing world history, I would say The Mayflower.

Agree, I think we are mixing up most historical, most important, most powerful and my favorite. Greatest is even more subjective.

Most Powerful: Ohio Class SSBN
Most Historical: Constitution, Victory
Most Important: Langley, Nautilus, Dreadnought, Monitor
My Favorite: USS Texas BB35
Greatest: ?

American here, so I apologize for any bias, but will try and remove. The problem is the many concepts of what can make a ship great. The Dreadnought for example was great in its change to overall ship design theory, saw action, including Jutland, but didn't have a particularly distinguished career amongst the all-time greats. The Monitor has great fame, but lacks in other areas. The Constitution has great longevity, a very good combat career, and is fairly unique, but wouldn't be considered one of the most powerful ships even in her heyday. The Gerald R Ford or Ohia-Class sub might be the most devastatingly powerful ships ever built, but have hardly seen significant action.

Trying to balance those things somewhat in my list, but here's a list of nominees in no particular order:

USS Constitution-200 years of service all over the globe, part of the real beginnings of the US Navy.
Asahi-My choice of the Japanese ships that brought forward the big gun era through their victories in 1904-1905.
HMS Victory-The name, the history, the fame. 'Nuff said.
U-9: Sure it's most famous victories were against the 'live bait' squadron, but it also represented what was to come with submarine warfare in both world wars.
HMS Warspite-I don't think there's a better representative of the post-dreadnought battleships for toughness, for accomplishment than the Warspite.
USS Enterprise (CV-6): I can't think of a better representative of the rise of carrier navies than this beast. Showed in nearly every major battle of the pacific theater.

Hmmm…
HMS Indefatigable (fast Razee Frigate)
Honourable Company Ship Nemesis (first Iron-hulled steam warship)
As a type the Liberty Ships, literally enabled the allied cause to continue in WWII.

IJN YAMATO

nuff said

Coming late to this thread, I would suggest that the Monitor hardly made all other warships obsolete, as was suggested in several posts, as she was incapable of engaging virtually any sea going vessel. A vessel that simply isn't seaworthy can hardly qualify!
Could I also point out that the crew of HMS Li Wo were actually civilians? All of the officers were RNR, as were the regular crew, as they were MN personnel temporarily in the RN in wartime, not even regularly enrolled, hence the Master's rank being Temporary Lieutenant RNR.