Admirals & Captains
Nelson, Nimitz, Yamamoto, Dönitz, Prien — the admirals, captains and U-boat aces who ruled the seas. [49 commanders]
49 commanders
Age of SailYi Sun-sin
Undefeated in 23 battles — the turtle-ship admiral
Age of SailMichiel de Ruyter
The Raid on the Medway — the Dutch master of the fleet action
Age of SailPierre André de Suffren
The aggressive admiral who fought the Royal Navy to a standstill in India
Age of SailJohn Paul Jones
'I have not yet begun to fight' — father of the US Navy
Age of SailHoratio Nelson
Victor of Trafalgar — Britain's greatest naval hero
Age of SailFrancis Drake
Circumnavigator, privateer and scourge of the Armada
Steam & WWIDavid Farragut
'Damn the torpedoes!' — the first admiral of the US Navy
Steam & WWIWilhelm von Tegetthoff
Rammed and beat a bigger Italian fleet at Lissa, 1866
Steam & WWIGeorge Dewey
Destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay without losing a man
Steam & WWIAlfred Thayer Mahan
The strategist whose book on sea power shaped every navy
Steam & WWITōgō Heihachirō
Annihilated the Russian fleet at Tsushima, 1905
Steam & WWIAlfred von Tirpitz
Architect of the High Seas Fleet and the naval arms race
Steam & WWIJohn Jellicoe
Commanded the Grand Fleet at Jutland — the man who could lose the war in an afternoon
Steam & WWIMaximilian von Spee
Won at Coronel, died at the Falklands with his squadron
Steam & WWIFranz von Hipper
The battlecruiser commander who sank Queen Mary and Indefatigable
Steam & WWIReinhard Scheer
Commanded the High Seas Fleet at Jutland
Steam & WWIDavid Beatty
Led the battlecruisers at Jutland — 'something wrong with our bloody ships today'
Steam & WWIGeorg von Trapp
Austria's top U-boat ace — the real Captain von Trapp of The Sound of Music
WWIIErich Raeder
Built the Kriegsmarine and sent Bismarck to sea
WWIIErnest J. King
Commander-in-chief of the US Fleet — the hardest man in the Navy
WWIIWilliam Halsey Jr.
'Bull' Halsey — the fighting admiral of the Third Fleet
WWIIAndrew Cunningham
Taranto, Matapan — Britain's greatest fighting admiral of WWII
WWIIBertram Ramsay
Organised Dunkirk — then commanded the D-Day armada
WWIIMax Horton
Won the Battle of the Atlantic against the U-boats
WWIIIsoroku Yamamoto
Planned Pearl Harbor — shot down by P-38s in 1943
WWIIChester W. Nimitz
Commander of the Pacific Fleet — from Midway to Tokyo Bay
WWIIRaymond A. Spruance
The cool calculator who won Midway and the Philippine Sea
WWIIChūichi Nagumo
Led the carrier strike at Pearl Harbor and lost four carriers at Midway
WWIIMarc Mitscher
Commander of the fast carriers — 'turn on the lights'
WWIIGünther Lütjens
Commanded the Bismarck sortie and went down with the ship
WWIIKarl Dönitz
Master of the U-boat wolfpacks — and Hitler's successor
WWIIRaizō Tanaka
'Tenacious Tanaka' — master of the Tokyo Express destroyer runs
WWIIErnst Lindemann
Bismarck's captain — sank the Hood, lost with his ship
WWIIHans Langsdorff
Scuttled the Graf Spee off Montevideo and took his own life
WWIIPhilip Vian
Rescued the Altmark prisoners and shadowed Bismarck with his destroyers
WWIIFrederic John Walker
The greatest U-boat hunter of the war — 20 kills
WWIIArleigh Burke
'31-Knot Burke' — destroyer ace and later Chief of Naval Operations
WWIINikolai Kuznetsov
Put the Soviet fleet on alert the night before Barbarossa
WWIIDudley 'Mush' Morton
Skipper of the Wahoo — the most aggressive sub captain in the Pacific
WWIIGünther Prien
The Bull of Scapa Flow — sank HMS Royal Oak inside its home anchorage
WWIIRichard O'Kane
Tang's captain — 33 ships sunk, Medal of Honor, survived his own torpedo
WWIIOtto Kretschmer
The top U-boat ace of the war — 47 ships sunk
WWIIErnest E. Evans
Charged the Japanese battleships off Samar in USS Johnston — Medal of Honor
WWIIEugene Fluckey
'Lucky Fluckey' of the Barb — the sub that blew up a train
Cold War & ModernElmo Zumwalt
The reforming CNO who modernised the fleet — and its culture
Cold War & ModernHyman G. Rickover
Father of the nuclear navy — 63 years on active duty
Cold War & ModernMichelle Howard
First woman four-star admiral and Vice Chief of Naval Operations
Cold War & ModernSandy Woodward
Commanded the Falklands task force in 1982
Cold War & ModernSergey Gorshkov
Built the Soviet blue-water navy over three decades