Ark Royal (1587)
In 1586 an English galleon was ordered by Sir Walter Raleigh from the shipbuilder R. Chapman located in Depford England. As was the custom she was named for the owner and was known as the Ark Raleigh. However she was purc...

HMS Victory (1765)
As fate would have it in 1758, the same year of Lord Nelson's birth the Board of Admiralty ordered twelve new ships of the line, among them a 'first-rate' ship with 100 guns, to be named Victory. HMS Victory is a first-rate...

Napoleon I
The screw propeller was first used on a military vessel in 1852 by the French with the introduction of the Napoleon a 90-gun ship-of-the-line as part of the French Navy - becoming the very first screw-driven steam battleship ...

USS America (1782)
On November 9th, 1776, the Continental Congress authorized the construction and purchase of three 74-gun ships. The first of these men-of-war built for the Continental Navy became the USS America. Her construction started in...

USS Bonhomme Richard (1765)
The Duc de Duras, a 900 ton merchant ship built in France for the French East India Company in 1765, transported freight between the Orient and France. She was placed at the disposal of John Paul Jones and the Continental Nav...

USS Constitution
The USS Constitution was a product of changing times in America's policy. Fresh off of their independence war decades earlier, the US Navy found itself with nary a capable vessel of defending her merchant force and her intere...