Ships: Did you mean...?

A c. 1590 CE painting by an unknown Flemish artist of English fireships being sent in to cause havoc amongst the vessels of the Spanish Armada of 1588 CE. (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

A photograph of Allied troops wading out into the sea awaiting rescue by boat during the Dunkirk evacuation of May-June 1940. Imperial War Museums

Explore the history and technology of Viking longships, which helped the Scandinavians conquer trade routes and new territories. — As the Roman Empire flourished, Scandinavians had small settlements and no central government. Yet by...

Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540-1596 CE) was an English mariner, privateer and explorer who in 1588 CE helped defeat the Spanish Armada of Philip II of Spain (r. 1556-1598 CE) which attempted to invade the kingdom of Elizabeth I of England (r...

Pirate ships could come in all shapes and sizes. There were big ones and small ones, sail ships and rowing boats. Some were bristling with cannons; others made do with scary fellas wielding cutlasses and grappling hooks. But what type of...

The Carthaginians were famed in antiquity for their seafaring skills and innovation in ship design. The empire their navy protected stretched from Sicily to the Atlantic coast of Africa. Able to match the tyrants of Sicily and the Hellenistic...

Ferdinand Magellan, or Fernão de Magalhães (c. 1480-1521), was a Portuguese mariner whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe in 1519-22 in the service of Spain. Magellan was killed on the voyage in what is today the Philippines...

The sea dogs, as they were disparagingly called by the Spanish authorities, were privateers who, with the consent and sometimes financial support of Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603 CE), attacked and plundered Spanish colonial settlements...

The Battle of Flamborough Head (23 September 1779) was one of the most famous naval engagements of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Fought off the coast of Yorkshire, England, it pitted the USS Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John...

The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between Greek and Persian forces in the Saronic Gulf, Greece in September 480 BCE. The Greeks had recently lost the Battle of Thermopylae and drawn the naval Battle at Artemision, both in August 480...