Lesson 01
The age of the galley
From Salamis (480 BCE) to Lepanto (1571), war at sea meant rowed galleys ramming and boarding in coastal waters. Battles were decided by seamanship, marines and the oar — not firepower at range.
Lesson 02
The ship-of-the-line
Broadside gunnery made the heavy sailing warship the arbiter of empires. Fleets fought in rigid lines so every gun could bear; Trafalgar showed how breaking the line could shatter that symmetry.
Lesson 03
The carrier age
At Taranto, Pearl Harbor and Midway (1940–42) the aircraft carrier displaced the battleship: the decisive weapon became the aircraft, striking hundreds of kilometres beyond gun range. Sea control became air control.