Summary and Key Points: Throughout history, warships have played pivotal roles in shaping world events and asserting naval dominance. This top 10 list highlights the greatest warships ever built, from the Carthaginian Quadrireme, which showcased advanced naval engineering, to the USS Johnston, known for its heroic stand at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

-Each warship, including Zheng He’s Treasure Ships and HMS Victory, reflects a unique blend of technological innovation and strategic importance.

-These vessels not only changed the course of battles but also left lasting legacies in naval history, demonstrating the evolution of maritime warfare from ancient times to modern conflicts.

Presenting the Top 10 Warships of All Time

World history has been defined by the ability of man to travel across vast distances.  

Until the dawn of airpower, the mighty warship allowed for these great expeditions. History is replete with famous—or, in some cases, infamous—warships. 

While certainly not exhaustive, this top ten list will take you through what this author believes are the greatest warships that ever sailed.

10. Carthaginian Quadrireme

The Carthaginians were likely the greatest naval power of the Mediterranean Sea in the ancient world. Their navy was more advanced than even the larger Roman Empire to their north. In fact, the Roman Empire, a mostly land-based power, recognized the sophistication of the Carthaginian navy and strove to crush it, realizing that Carthage was the only group standing between Rome and total dominion over the Mediterranean. 

Many have read about the ancient Greek triremes, but few may be aware that the Carthaginians perfected this design with the quadrireme. 

These boats had four rows of oars on each side, allowing for greater speed and power compared to triremes. These boats could also carry more marines and equipment for naval combat. When Rome captured some of the Carthaginian quadriremes during the First Punic War between the two powers, they reverse-engineered the boat, which in turn allowed for the larger Rome to clone Carthaginian capabilities and ultimately defeat the Carthaginians.

9. Zheng He’s Treasure Ships

Chinese Admiral Zheng He, operating under orders from the Ming emperor, led a series of missions consisting of 300 gigantic wooden warships. These great ships went from China down to India, over to the Persian Gulf, and even making it as far south as East Africa, long before Europeans ventured there. The fleet achieved its goal of “increasing the prestige of China and its emperor overseas.” 

This fleet consisted of warships that were five-masted and six-masted troop transports, as well as six-to-seven masted transports carrying grain, horses, and water. They featured divided hulls with several watertight compartments, too.  

Sadly for Zheng He, despite the magnificent success of his voyages, his chief benefactor, the Ming emperor, died and was succeeded by court Mandarins—bureaucrats—who resented Zheng He. Their goal was to turn China inward, away from the world. All that hard work that Zheng had put into his voyages, all the resources spent on building the greatest fleet that the world had ever seen—and it was at the time of its creation—was for naught. 

The ships were mothballed, their mission ended, and Zheng He fell out of favor with the court. But he showed the world just what great ships could do.  

8. Koxinga’s Junk

In 1662, the Japanese pirate known as Koxinga (or Cheng Cheng-kung) led a resistance against the ruling Chinese dynasty at the time, as well as against the Dutch East India Trading Company’s presence on Formosa (modern Taiwan). In need of a new base, Koxinga strove to dislodge the Dutch presence on Formosa. No one had dared take on the technologically superior Dutch. But Koxinga had a plan. Part of his plan involved the use of Chinese sailing ships known as “Junks.” 

Koxinga was brutal, and he especially loathed the superior and haughty Dutch who had encamped on the island redoubt he dreamed of using for his own purposes. No one believed Koxinga, with his rag-tag force, could dare to take on the might of the Dutch East India Company’s military power. But he did, and his fleet of Junks, though smaller than the warships that the Dutch deployed, were greater in number and used their maneuverability and smaller size to get in close to the Dutch warships and engage in swarming tactics. 

In a stunning turnaround, Koxinga evicted the Dutch and humiliated the powerful Europeans. The 1662 Sino-Dutch War for control over Taiwan should be required learning for American strategists today, who believe that China yearns to control Taiwan (they do) but cannot take it because of a lack of proper seapower. The Dutch said the same thing about Koxinga. His rag-tag fleet proved them all wrong.

7. SMS Emden

When one thinks of the First World War, they think of the brutal trench warfare that defined the Western Front. But an interesting fight erupted along the periphery of the war, in the Asia-Pacific. 

Germany held a port in China as a concession. From that port operated Admiral Maximilian von Spee’s East Asia Squadron, consisting of heavily armored and armed cruisers that the British had taken to calling “pocket battleships.” While the entire squadron was legendary in its own right, one warship in the group stands out. That is SMS Emden.

Led into combat by the elegant and dashing Commander Karl von Muller, this small German cruiser of 3,600 tons displacement, with two masts and three funnels, armed with ten 4.1-inch and eight 5-pounder guns, as well as two submerged torpedo tubes, turned out to be a decisive actor against Allied forces and shipping throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Separating herself from the East Asian Squadron and taking on the Allies at sea on her own, this warship became the stuff of legends in the press both in Germany and throughout the Allied nations. 

Writing in 1915 of her exploits, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Lyman A. Cotton explained that, “German ports of any character were few and far between, being located at widely divergent points in the South Sea Islands. Thus the prospect for a small German cruiser at sea in the Pacific did not seem very favorable for accomplishing anything to injure or embarrass her enemies, which by this time included four nations possessing powerful navies—England, Russia, Japan, and France. On all sides her enemies had ships, naval p-orts and commercial ports ready and capable of naval use, while the little Emden had only her bunkers full of coal, her speed of 25 knots, her determination to accomplish something, and such facilities as the high seas afforded.”

Nevertheless, Emden captured multiple ships belonging to enemy fleets and garnered a fearsome reputation as a true raider. Ultimately, she was cornered on a small island in the South Pacific by the Royal Australian Navy warship, HMAS Sydney. Most of her crew was captured on North Keeling Island after the crippled warship was beached by her skipper, Herr Muller. Although they ended in debacle, Emden’s exploits are worth remembering. Because both she and the rest of her East Asia Squadron did more to complicate the efforts of the Allies than most other German feints had. If Japan had not entered the war against Germany, it is likely that the East Asian Squadron would have been even deadlier than it was.

6. HMS Victory

This beast was Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship at the decisive Battle of Trafalgar, in which Britain’s Royal Navy knocked Napoleon’s navy out of the Napoleonic Wars for good. Built and completed in 1765 (and still in commission today, more than 259 years later), Victory is docked at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. This ship was clearly built to last. It was one of the larger warships of its era, coming in at 227 feet and carrying a whopping 104 guns among her three decks. 

Victory is the embodiment of both her era and the man who ultimately commanded her during her greatest victory over Britain’s most significant enemy to that time. The warship is entwined with Nelson’s heroism and swashbuckling attitude. It was on HMS Victory that Nelson hoisted his famous flag signal that read, “England expects that every man will do his duty.” This became a rallying call for the British. Oddly enough, Napoleon, when he had learned of the flag signal, ordered that every French warship be festooned with a variation which read, “La France compte que chacun fera son devoir” (or, “France expects that everyone will do his duty.”) 

Admittedly, like much of the French naval effort during the Napoleonic Wars, this slogan comes across as a cheap knockoff of the proper English version. 

Ultimately, Victory outlasted her famous commanding officer. Nelson was fatally shot aboard the warship during its penultimate stand at Trafalgar. To this day, no one is certain which French sailor got the kill-shot on Nelson, although several British veterans claimed to have shot Nelson’s killer afterward. Regardless, Nelson’s leadership ended Napoleon’s quest to become what Nelson described as the “George Washington of France.” 

5. Ville de Paris

Ville de Paris was considered a first-rate ship-of-the-line for the French Navy. She was the flagship of the French naval forces assigned to assist American revolutionaries during the Revolutionary War against the British Empire. This warship presided over bruising defeats of the otherwise dominant British fleet. In fact, for many of the French sailors, their campaign to aid the American revolutionaries was a bit of payback for having lost their North American empire to the British a decade before, in the French and Indian War (known in Europe as the Seven Years’ War). 

She was completed in 1764, too late to serve in the Seven Years’ War. This boat was a 90-gun first rate and one of the first three-deckers to be completed for the French Navy since the 1720s. Indeed, by the time the Revolutionary War had erupted in America, she would become the most important warship keeping the American revolutionaries in the fight. Had it not been for the French and Spanish fleets, the American revolution would have been crushed by untrammeled British seapower. 

In 1778, Ville de Paris fought at the Battle of Ushant, an indecisive battle waged 100 miles off the coast of the French island of Ushant along the mouth of the English Channel. 

Engagements like this, however, kept the British fleet bogged down and spread thin. 

Ultimately, the storied warship was lost with all hands (save one crewmember) in battle with the British. 

4. USS New Jersey

The U.S. Navy was a battleship navy for decades before making the switch to the aircraft carrier. A number of American battleships made waves in the Second World War. USS New Jersey is one such battlewagon. In fact, it is the most decorated battleship in U.S. Navy history. She fought in every U.S. conflict from WWII to Desert Storm. 

Coming in at nearly 888 feet long and displacing a whopping 57,540 tons at full load, this warship is one of America’s finest ever built. The “Big J” shelled targets on Okinawa and Guam. It clobbered the hell out of the North Koreans, too, during the Korean War. Possessing an arsenal of nine, 16-inch/50 caliber Mark 7 guns, twenty 5-inch/38 caliber guns mounted in twin-gun dual purpose turrets, and an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns, this battlewagon was unstoppable. 

File this under “they don’t build ‘em like they used to.”

3. USS Enterprise (CV-6)

This was, quite frankly, the greatest aircraft carrier ever. “The Big E,” or “Gray Ghost,” as she was affectionately known by her crews, was the most decorated and legendary aircraft carrier of World War II. Belonging to the Yorktown class of carriers, Enterprise was instrumental in multiple battles that defined the outcome of WWII’s Pacific Theater. 

This boat was instrumental at the Battle of Midway, which most historians believe was the turning point in the war that ensured the United States would come out victorious. Enterprise’s airwing was responsible for sinking an astonishing three Japanese aircraft carriers at this battle, as well as an additional cruiser. 

Enterprise was damaged at the Battles of the Eastern Solomon Islands and Santa Cruz Islands. Each time, she persevered and inflicted greater harm than she received. 

There was a reason the veterans who served aboard this legendary flattop fought vehemently with the United States government to convert it into a museum at the war’s end.

Instead, this boat was mothballed after the war and sold for scrap. To this day, she is fondly remembered by naval historians and the few World War II veterans who remain alive. 

2. USS Lawrence

During the War of 1812, really merely a continuation of America’s Revolutionary War, the British and their American cousins went at it again. This time the strategic picture was much bleaker for the nascent American republic. The White House, along with the rest of Washington, D.C., had been burned by the marauding British. A famous American slogan that erupted from the end of the war was “neither an inch gained nor ceded!” Considering the damage the war inflicted upon the United States, that seems hardly like a worthwhile conflict.

But, as with all wars, there were still heroes. And the platforms they utilized to achieve hero status are remembered as much as the men who rose to prominence. One of them was USS Lawrence under the command of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. He commanded a U.S. Navy squadron on Lake Erie. Perry’s mission was to ensure that Lake Erie became a totally U.S.-dominated zone. Lawrence was Perry’s flagship.

Lawrence’s big day occurred on September 10, 1813. In the early morning of that day, Perry spotted a squadron of British Royal Navy warships off of Lake Erie’s Rattlesnake Island. Commodore Perry is described as “brazenly ordering his man to set sail and engage the British immediately.” Perry’s group had a gust of favorable wind, allowing for the American squadron—led by Lawrence—to attack the British head-on. In the ensuing battle, Lawrence was crippled by the British warship HMS Detroit. Lawrence was abandoned mid-battle, with Perry transferring his flag to USS Niagara.

With his battle flag fluttering in the wind (which read “Don’t Give Up the Ship”), Perry won the battle from Niagara. But he transferred back to the crippled Lawrence, where he received the commanding officer of the British squadron and accepted his surrender. Famously, Perry sent a letter to William Henry Harrison saying, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” On top of the surviving American warships, Perry took with him the captured British ships—including two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. 

It was Lawrence, though, that had made this victory possible. And Perry understood this. That is why he demanded that the British surrender on Lawrence rather than Niagara.

1. USS Johnston (DD-557)

Named after U.S. Navy Lieutenant John V. Johnston, an officer who served in the American Civil War, Johnston was built in 1942 and launched a year later under the command of Lieutenant Commander Ernest “Big Chief” Evans (Evans was a descendant of Native Americans from Oklahoma). It was a Fletcher-class destroyer that fought in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War. Johnston was the beneficiary of newer designs bigger in size than its sister ships in the Fletcher class. This allowed for more anti-aircraft guns, electronic equipment, and their operators to be on the ship without losing its offensive potential. 

This was a relatively small boat compared to the kinds of warships one thinks of when they think back to the Second World War. She possessed four Babcock & Wilcox boilers and could hit a top cruising speed of roughly 44 miles per hour. This boat had a range of about 7,500 miles and carried around 273 sailors onboard. 

From the moment that he assumed command, Evans told his crew, “This is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm’s way, and anyone who doesn’t want to go along had better get off right now.” His crew was fiercely loyal, and they would follow him to the gates of hell on more than one occasion, including in the final, greatest battle the warship ever partook in.

Indeed, Johnston would play a pivotal role in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, during what historians have since come to call the “Battle off Samar.” That day, Johnston and six other destroyers were performing escort duty for a handful of small-deck escort carriers that were protecting the Marine landings on the Leyte beachhead. Johnston detected a massive Japanese Imperial Navy flotilla that was supposed to have been moving away from the island, but in fact, had come to attack the beachhead. This flotilla included the largest battleship ever built, Yamato.

The aircraft carriers were the prize the Japanese wanted to catch. Without those carriers, the Marine landings would be over, and the island would again belong to the Japanese. 

Not waiting for orders, Evans engaged in a suicidal torpedo run at the larger Japanese force. Three other destroyers followed Johnston into the fray. Shockingly, Evans’ gambit worked. Johnston drew fire away from the carriers, taking a pounding from the Japanese flotilla. Firing all ten of Johnston’s torpedoes (and hundreds of rounds from its 5-inch gun), the ship sank a Japanese heavy cruiser while providing cover for the other destroyers to launch their torpedoes.

Three hours would go by until the tiny Johnston would buckle under the sustained assault from the Japanese flotilla. But not before the Japanese commanders assumed they were up against a much larger American force and backed down. The Japanese failure to take advantage of the weakened American state permanently ended the Imperial Japanese Navy’s ability to go on the offensive for the duration of the war. 

Johnston was lost with 186 members still onboard, including Evans. But the impact of that storied ship makes it the greatest warship of all time. Its decisive role at Leyte Gulf may have helped to end the war when it did. And we know Evans’ actions that day saved the lives of countless Marines and the carriers that were defending them (despite one of those carriers being sunk).

Author Experience and Expertise: Brandon J. Weichert

Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is due October 22 from Encounter Books. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

All images are Creative Commons or Shutterstock. 

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