Biggest winners

USS Enterprise (the carrier in WW2)...I believe the US got its money worth with this vessel...

HMS Warspite. Served a major role in two world wars and holds the record for the longest gunnery hit on a moving target.

Mike

Manstein's revenge

USS Enterprise (the carrier in WW2)...I believe the US got its money worth with this vessel...

Agree, to bad she wasn't saved as a museum ship.

Manstein's revenge

USS Enterprise (the carrier in WW2)...I believe the US got its money worth with this vessel...

What he said!!  Enterprise came to mind when I saw the thread title in the Forum.

But only Enterprise of any ship in modern history can put in a legitimate claim to altering the course of a war in a single battle herself. Her air group alone sank two of the four Japanese carriers at Midway and shared the destruction of a third. Had they taken the choice of Hornet's air group and gone searching in a different direction, the battle likely would have turned out far differently.  Add to that Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz, Philiipine Sea, and finally Leyte Gulf plus the multiple carrier raids before and and after all those battles...

A similar tip of the hat must go to HMS Illustrious in the Mediterranean. In a single strike her air group took the Italian battlefleet out of action for several months.

stikpusher

A similar tip of the hat must go to HMS Illustrious in the Mediterranean. In a single strike her air group took the Italian battlefleet out of action for several months.

Not to mention inspiring the Japanese to use carrier aircraft to attack the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl harbor.

Iowa class BB's. Used in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Beirut, and Desert Storm. That adds up to some 50 years of military operations.

I would think that the USS Constitution would definately qualify as one of, if not THE biggest winner, IMHO.

214 years old, still on "active" duty, still in the water, numerous wars,never defeated in battle, defeated five British warships in battle in the War of 1812and even sailed under her own power on her 200th birthday.

I know that HMS Victory is older  but I'm a bit biased,  my vote goes to Constitution.

Wooden ships & iron men!

Adrian

The CSS Alabama didn't do too badly, either.

My vote would be for the US Coast Guard's "Secretary" Class cutter. Built in the 1930's, these  ships were referred to as "pocket cruisers" owing to their wooden decks, steam turbines and heavy armament. The CGC TANEY was in nearby Pearl City on December 7 1941 and fired at the attacking Japanese aircraft. Later that same day the cutter spent the next 48 hours  cruising the waters off Pearl Harbor  on anti submarine patrol . Today the TANEY is a war memorial in Baltimore Maryland, one of two exising vessels that were present during the  December 7th attack.  The Secretary cutters were deployed in  WWII as  Atlantic convoy escorts, in the critical U boat battles of 1942-43. The USCGC HAMILTON was torpedoed  by a German sub off of Iceland during  escort duty. Another of the cutters, the USCGC CAMPBELL, blasted a U boat to the surface and in the ensuing gun battle, rammed the sub and sank it.  Later in the war this class  were converted to  Amphibious landing Flagships carring the command flags of Admirals and Generals during the Pacific Campaign. 

After the War, the cutters served as mid ocean weather stations, supplying weather updates to the US mainland and serving as a plane guard for the fledgling overseas airline routes. One of the ships, the cutter BIBB, performed an incredible rescue saving  the entire group of crew and passengers aboard the airliner "Burmuda Sky Queen" when it ditched in the Atlantic near the cutters patrol area.

   All cutters of this class saw service in Vietnam in Operation "Market Time" and served as coastal gun fire support ships. These proud vesselss were active in the war on drugs often underway 8 months out of the year. Finally in 1985, the last ship of the class was decommissioned, serving the US continuously  for over 50 years. The Revell model of the CAMPBELL (later TANEY) has been in production since 1957,  it's an accurate representation as the ship appeared in the early 1950's.  

At the time of Campbell's encounter with the U-boat she rammed I was 14, living on the south cost of Long Island, in view of the occasional convoy vs u-boat encounter, via flashes of gunfire at night. I remember her atory well.

This from wikipedia:

USCGC Campbell was sunk on 29 November 1984 as a target in the mid-Pacific ocean by the United States Navy, and rests at 2,800 fathoms. A final message was trasmitted as the ship, which remained largely intact after a harpoon missile strike, went down. It said:

"UNCLAS //N05752// SUBJ: FINAL FAREWELL

1. I SERVED WITH HONOR FOR ALMOST FORTY-SIX YEARS, IN WAR AND PEACE, IN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC. WITH DUTY AS DIVERSE AS SAVING LIVES TO SINKING U-BOATS, OCEAN STATIONS TO FISHERIES ENFORCEMENT, AND FROM TRAINING CADETS TO BEING YOUR FLAGSHIP. I HAVE BEEN ALWAYS READ TO SERVE.

2. TODAY WAS MY FINAL DUTY. I WAS A TARGET FOR A MISSILE TEST. ITS SUCCESS WAS YOUR LOSS AND MY DEMISE. NOW KING NEPTUNE HAS CALLED ME TO MY FINAL REST IN 2,600 FATHOMS AT 22-48N 160-06W.

3. MOURN NOT, ALL WHO HAVE SAILED WITH ME. A NEW CUTTER CAMPBELL BEARING MY NAME, WMEC-909 WILL SOON CONTINUE THE HERITAGE. I BID ADIEU. THE QUEEN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN."

Poignant! The coast Guard story in WW2 is largely ubtold. My brother commanded a CG picket boat patrolling NY Harbor at the time. On one occasion he took 20mm fire just outside of sandy Hook. Few know how close wew were to the war in those years.

Here’s a cuckoo for the list: Mulberry ‘B’

Zuiho...

Another cutter deserving mention would be the Bear. Built as a sail/ steam sealer in 1874 she was bought by the U.S. government in 1884 and took part in the search and rescue of the Greely party in arctic Greenland. From 1885 to 1926 she served with distinction as a Revenue Cutter stationed in Alaska. During one of its yearly trips to San Francisco she assisted in rescue opewrations after the 1906 earthquake. She was used in Admiral Richard Byrds second antarctic expedition. At the start of WWII she was involved in the American evacuation of antarctica. From 1941 to 1944 she was part of the Greenland patrol and made the first capture of a vessel by the U.S. when she found the German ship Busko setting up a U-boat radio station.

Sold by the government in 1948, she eventually was sunk in 1963 while being towed to Philadelphia to become a floating restaurant. It's a shame no kit of her was ever made especially since the Airfix Discovery and Heller/Zvezda Pourquoi Pas? had much less distinguished careers.

I forgot the Bears Hollywood moment. While a museum ship in Oakland she served as the Macedonia in the 1930 film version of Jack London's  The Sea-Wolf.

How about the "newer" Enterprise CVN-65? With the exception of refits and overhauls, she has seen 50 yrs. of frontline service.

Mike

The Navigator

How about the "newer" Enterprise CVN-65? With the exception of refits and overhauls, she has seen 50 yrs. of frontline service.

Mike

How much longer will she be kept in service?

As of right now, she is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2013. She is currently on her last deployment.

Now the question is- Will the Navy name one of the new carriers "Enterprise" or after some politician?

Mike

The Navigator

As of right now, she is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2013. She is currently on her last deployment.

Now the question is- Will the Navy name one of the new carriers "Enterprise" or after some politician?

Mike

Hmmm, for some reason, Mike, what comes to mind is christening the USS Lindsay Lohan (with HOW MANY bottles of champagne?).

Full or empty bottles? And what happened to the white stripes on the deck ?

Mike

I would have to second the CSS Alabama.  She single handedly kept the Union navy afraid to sail the Atlantic for months and single handedly sank over FIFTY ships.  Kearsarge got lucky only after the French refused to back an ally.  Something the French have tended to do with alarming regularity.

My other nomination would be the DDs in Leyte Gulf.  They held off the point of the spear of the Japanese navy which must have been rather red faced after they realized a battleship task force was turned back by a couple of destroyers.  

Another would be the first PTs in WWI which had BB skippers afraid to sail until they were sure the waters were clear of these annoying little gnats.  An 80 foot boat that effectively held off Battleships and inspired the creation of a new category of ship, the Patrol Boat Destroyer which later had its name simply shortened to Destroyer.

The American Gato class subs which succeeded where Donitz's U-boats failed.  They actually did strangle the Japanese home islands off from their supply lines which Donitz's boats failed due in part to those other nominees of mine, the Flower Class Corvettes.  Cheap, easy to build and easy to fight with but more effective than I think history gives credit for.  I'm not sure I could feel a great martial swell for a ship named the Daisy or Baby's Breath but they got the job done.  Imagine you are a fallen U-boat skipper and you just arrived in Heaven and ran into your fellow U-boat skippers who gallantly fell before you and you are comparing notes and your comrades ask you something like, "Who sunk you?" and your fellow skippers get to say they were sunk by the Warspite or the Invincible or the Indefatigable or the Battle Axe or names like that and you have to say you were sunk by the Bluebell or the *** Willow.  It would be a long eternity to have to live that one down.

That's just my worth or more accurately a dime's worth.

In-Re: USS Lindsay Lohan sub-thread

Well, I suppose they would have been full… once. I have this sick image of a bloodshot Aegis radar though.

Taking another tack, I recall back in 1968(?) when DoD was planning the USS Nimitz (CVAN-68), there were 4 hull designs in contention. #1 was a near clone of the Enterprise, #2 was a conservative improvement, #3 was the more radical alternative (that eventually won the selection), and #4 was a [dinkywongo] catamaran hydrofoil! Yeah, it was what is known in the biz as a sacrificial choice, one that doesn’t have a hope in Tophet of actually being accepted. “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’”

Pavlvs

......... the Flower Class Corvettes.  Cheap, easy to build and easy to fight with but more effective than I think history gives credit for.  I'm not sure I could feel a great martial swell for a ship named the Daisy or Baby's Breath but they got the job done.  Imagine you are a fallen U-boat skipper and you just arrived in Heaven and ran into your fellow U-boat skippers who gallantly fell before you and you are comparing notes and your comrades ask you something like, "Who sunk you?" and your fellow skippers get to say they were sunk by the Warspite or the Invincible or the Indefatigable or the Battle Axe or names like that and you have to say you were sunk by the Bluebell or the *** Willow.  It would be a long eternity to have to live that one down.

Or how about being sunk by HMS Buttercup. I do have a soft spot for flowerclass corvettes.

I seem to remember a comment mad by a British Admiral complaining about the method Canadian corvettes used to sink U-boats. "You are supposed to sink them with depth charges not bludgeon the bastards to death"  this was supposedly after a string of sinkings by Canadian corvettes where they rammed the U-boats.

Zuiho...

Manstein's revenge

Zuiho...

I believe that would fall under "Loser" Herr Field Marshall. , unless you want to say "successful decoy".

I take inspirations from the brave destroyers in the Batlle of Leyte gulf who engaged the superior enemy force. Some were sunk but the ships will go down in naval history.

constructor

I take inspirations from the brave destroyers in the Batlle of Leyte gulf who engaged the superior enemy force. Some were sunk but the ships will go down in naval history.

Classic example of David vs Goliath. Some very brave sailors who fought against overwhelming odds.

John Lyle

 

Pavlvs:

 

......... the Flower Class Corvettes.  Cheap, easy to build and easy to fight with but more effective than I think history gives credit for.  I'm not sure I could feel a great martial swell for a ship named the Daisy or Baby's Breath but they got the job done.  Imagine you are a fallen U-boat skipper and you just arrived in Heaven and ran into your fellow U-boat skippers who gallantly fell before you and you are comparing notes and your comrades ask you something like, "Who sunk you?" and your fellow skippers get to say they were sunk by the Warspite or the Invincible or the Indefatigable or the Battle Axe or names like that and you have to say you were sunk by the Bluebell or the *** Willow.  It would be a long eternity to have to live that one down.

 

 

Or how about being sunk by HMS Buttercup. I do have a soft spot for flowerclass corvettes.

I seem to remember a comment mad by a British Admiral complaining about the method Canadian corvettes used to sink U-boats. "You are supposed to sink them with depth charges not bludgeon the bastards to death"  this was supposedly after a string of sinkings by Canadian corvettes where they rammed the U-boats.

I'm sorry I was not clear.  I, too, have a soft spot for the flowers.  I have my second Revell one on deck to be built for R/C.  I think they were not only a great winner according to this category but I love the look of them as well.  As for you, Tigerman, try reading the book Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer.  It is beautifully written and reads like a great adventure novel but the history is well researched and very complete.  It is also available on Kindle.