Largest Naval Engagements

Not sure what the largest was, but Jutland is a good place to start looking.

Originally posted by think yet what were some large engagements, with lots of men killed an lots of ships sunk.

The two biggest of the ancient world would probably have to be:

The Battle of Salamis; fought in 480BC between the Greeks and Persian in the Bay of Salamis, Greece (Part of Persian Wars). It is believed that a mere 371 Greek ships (many triremes) defeated a force of 1,271 Persian ships (max.). Total = 1,642 ships and an estimated 200,00 men (sailors, oarsmen and military personnel), while over 200 Persian ships were lost, only 40 of the Greek's were sunk.
The Battle of Cape Economus; fought in 256BC between Carthage and Rome off the coast of Sicily(Part of First Punic War). Carthage could boast about 350 ships while the Romans had 330. Total = 680 ships and roughly 200,000 personnel altogether. The result was a Roman Victory, sinking/capturing 95 Carthaginian Warships while only losing 24 of their own.  

Note: At this time in history records were not 100% accurate or reliable. Some figures were exaggerated so it is not possible to get an exact figure of the ships or casualties. Herodotus was particularly renowned for exaggerating Persian forces size and decreasing the size of the Greek Force. Bias was omnipresent.

Originally posted by think what are the important naval engagements during the imperial era ??

Big naval engagement would have to be:

The Battle of Leyte Gulf; fought between an allied force of Americans and Australians against Japan in 1944, off the coast of the Phillipines (Part of Pacific war in WW2). Japanese: 9 Battle Ships, 4 Aircraft Carriers, 19 Cruisers, 34 Destroyers, 200 Planes plus many other smaller boats/watercraft.  Allies: 17 Aircraft Carriers, 12 Battle Ships, 24 Cruisers, 141 Destroyers, 1500 Planes and many other smaller escort boats/ships. The outcome was a decisive victory for the Allies. 10,000 Japanese died along with all 4 aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 8 cruisers and 12 destroyers being sunk. The Allies only lost 3500 men, 1 of their Aircraft carriers, 2 of their escort Carries, and 3 Destroyers/Escorts. Largest Naval Battle of all time in terms of sheer battle area, tonnage of ships and craft involved.

- Knights -

The Battle of Leyte Gulf

Interesting. ive never heard about this battle, perhaps it also goes by another name.

Japanese General Togo used modern tactic to sink the entire Baltic Fleet in Port Author with almost no deads for Japanese army.

Yeh i know that battle. Someone posted a topic on how to get to battle the Japanese was a battle itself for the Russians going a vast distance to just get defeated.

Tsushima was amazing, a topic was started some time ago about it (by me, I think).

Leyte Gulf was wonderful too...

But wouldn't one of these be Nagato?... or whatever the battle in the midst of the 19th century between Turks and Europeans was called. I can never remember that name.

Well, for the pre-Imperial era Trafalgar would be an obvious example. 27 British ships of the line  manned with 21000 vs 33 French and Spanish with 26000 men. The allied lost 22 ships and 14,000 men dead wounded or captured.

Edited by Styrbiorn - 05-Dec-2006 at 07:51

Lepanto battle involved almost 500 ships ... Guess who did win?

Well, another example would be Hankoniemi and Midway..

Originally posted by rider Well, another example would be Hankoniemi and Midway..

Originally posted by rider For northern areas, Hankoniemi was a large battle

Hmmh. I must agree then although I understood that the whole fleet of Swedes was entrapped at Hankoniemi (yep, used in Estonia) and the Russians enclosed on them destructively with even more ships..