History records the famous "firsts," and yet, not all are moments are to be cherished or revered.

For every major achievement that brought mankind forward, there are infamous events that highlighted its very worst. This is especially true in military history, where the first use of tanks is celebrated while the first use of poison gas is marked as a dark moment.

Then there is the fact that less considered are the famous "lasts" – and yet, in naval history, there are some moments that were crucial for being the final or last, while the end of some ships is also as significant.

Last Battle with Galleys

Naval galleys were used for several millennia throughout the Mediterranean Sea and had been used by early naval powers in the region including the Greeks, Illyrians, Phoenicians, and Romans. Even as newer types of vessels were developed, galleys remained the principal warship and were the first to effectively employ the use of heavy cannons as anti-ship weapons.

The galley reached its zenith in the 16th century, and within a hundred years was displaced by more modern sailing ships. The Battle of Lepanto, fought between the Holy League, which consisted of a coalition of Catholic states, against the Ottoman Empire in October 1571 was considered the last great battle involving galleys. It involved more than 400 galleys, and was the last major engagement in the Western world to be fought almost entirely between rowing vessels. It also marked the first major loss for the Ottomans in more than 100 years.

However, the Ottoman Empire rebuilt its fleet – only to suffer another major defeat at the Battle of Cape Celidonia in July 1616 when the antiqued galleys proved no match for the more modern Spanish galleons.

Last Wooden Warship

The Royal Navy's HMS Victoria was launched in 1859 and was the largest wooden battleship ever to enter service but was also the last of her kind.

Armed with a total of 121 guns, she was also the largest warship of her time and had a complement of 1,000 officers and sailors – but that was short-lived as HMS Warrior, the first British ironclad battleship, entered service just two years later.

The ship was truly one that showed the changing designs – and included both sails as well as an engine fired by eight boilers, which made her the fastest three-decker warship in service.

While Victoria cost nearly £13 million in today's money, the warship's career was short-lived. From completion, she was sent to the reserve fleet. The vessel briefly served as the Flagship of the Mediterranean fleet from November 1864 until early 1867 and was then reassigned to the reserve fleet. The warship was finally sold for scrap in 1893, having never taken part in any conflict.

Last Battle Fought with Wooden Ships

Two battles lay claim to this infamous last and both involved Austria, which is somewhat notable as it was never considered a significant naval power.

The first was the Battle of Heligoland, which was fought on May 9, 1864, during the Second Schleswig War between Denmark and the allied forces of Austria and Prussia. It marked the last naval battle fought by squadrons of wood ships, as well as the final time Danish warships fought in a major action. It also resulted in a tactical Danish victory, but Denmark was unable to enforce its blockade of the northern German ports. Within months, the war ended in Austria's and Prussia's victory.

Two years after that engagement, the navies of Austria and Italy were engaged in the Battle of Lisa on June 20, 1866, in what was one of the largest naval battles in the Mediterranean in the latter half of the 19th century. The Italian fleet consisted of 12 ironclads and 19 wooden ships against seven Austrian ironclads and 20 wooden ships. The Italian losses, which included the loss of two ironclads and more than three times the men, were significantly higher. It is also noteworthy for being the first major sea battle between ironclads but was also the last time that wooden ships were used in combat.

Last Battleship Battle

The final battleship battle in history has long been considered a one-sided slaughter. The Battle of Surigao Strait, which was part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf, took place from October 24-25, 1944, and was one of only two battleship-versus-battleship naval battles of the entire campaign in the Pacific during the Second War II. Both were fought between the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).

Surigao Strait also marked the last time in naval history that one force was able to "cross the T" of its opponent, and the last time that air power did not play a part, except in pursuit. U.S. Navy battleships participating were USS Mississippi (BB-41), USS Maryland (BB-46), USS West Virginia (BB-48), USS Tennessee (BB-43), USS California (BB-44), and USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) – and all except Mississippi had been damaged during the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941. When the battle ended the Japanese battleships Fuso and Yamashiro and the destroyers Michishio, Asagumo and Yamagumo had been sunk!

The Last Battleship Built

It is fitting that the Royal Navy has the distinction of commissioning the final true battleship – HMS Vanguard. Built during the Second World War, but only commissioned afterward, she was the biggest and fastest of the British battleships and the last to be built.

The development of a new and more powerful class of battleships began in the late 1930s when the British military believed it would be outnumbered by the combined German and Japanese battleship fleets. Originally designed with 16-inch guns, it was determined it would be too time-consuming to produce the warship and it was modified to use existing 15-inch guns. Construction of the warship stopped and restarted during the war, and as a result of modifications being made to address wartime experience, Vanguard wasn't completed until after the war ended. She remained in service until 1955 when it was determined during refit to be put in reserve.

Sadly, the last warship was sold for scrap in 1960, an inglorious end to the last battleship to be built.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He regularly writes about military small arms, and is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.