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Greatest Admiral's


Ryga

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During the liberation wars, Sweden bought a fleet from Lübeck so getting ships out of country wasnt something new.

I'm aware that the Hansa sold mercenary vessels during its prime, I just don't know of many other countries than Sweden whom have hired them. Also, if I remember correctly this force didn't fare well as Søren Norby defeated the Swedes/Hansa.

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It was common for armies to have mercenaries(The Swedish Army post-1630 consisted almost completely of German Landsknechten), but it wasn't that common to have mercenary naval vessels.

 

Bear in mind that Medieval and Modern States aren't considered Nation-States in a XX century fashion so was totally legit and universal to use manpower from other countries in fact whole armies are """mercenary""" like Albrecht von Wallestein army. It was pretty common to "rent/hire" Genoan or Venetian galleys to compliment navy squadrons, between 1500 until the control of Barbary Coast.

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Instead of a big list of meaningless names I would appreciate that people put some effort and write or link some sourced information about admirals.

 

The idea of "Greatest Admiral" is a sloppy definition and could begin a "who had the largest..." competition between nationalistic historiographic schools inherited from XIX century traditions. 

Edited by Karnaught
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Alright then who would you like to remove? :)

 

Isn't a matter of removing is doing a small summary of the biography of the Admiral. In that way we can all learn about other renowned admirals from other countries. :) 

 

Cosme Damián Churruca y Elorza (1761 -1805)

Born in Motrico (Peninsular Spain) he spends his early life in Burgos seminary. At the age of fifteen (1776) Churruca enlisted in Cadiz Naval school. In October 1778 he served in the San Vicente he catch the attention of his superiors and start a meteoric rise in the Armada. He took part in the 1781 siege of Gibraltar and later on various cartographic expeditions in South America as a cartographer he discovered an alternative route in the Straits of Magellan. He reached the rank of Captain in 1798 obtaining the command of the Conquistador where he shows as captain a high degree of discipline.  He returned to Cadiz in 1802 reorganizing the Principe de Asturias and later on San Juan Nepomuceno.

 

Churruca before 1802 was well known by his academic and geographical books but he turns out to be a competent Captain that fought under Silvestre de Villeneuve command at the Battle of Cape Finisterre 1805.  He opposed to the incautious decision of leaving Cadiz to hunt Nelson. In the battle of Trafalgar he fought alone against six British ships losing both legs in the combat staying in the bridge putting the leftovers of his legs in a bucket full of sand. He died from blood loss but before that he ordered to nail the flag to prevent to his crew to raise the white flag after British boarding. San Juan Nepomuceno was engaged by two british ships and later on by another four and finally surrendered after 100 crew was killed and 150 wounded, was one of the last spanish ships to surrender during Trafalgar Battle. He only obtain the rank of Admiral after his dead before Trafalgar Battle he was Brigadier (Navy). 

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An apology in advance if some grammar is wrong English is my third language. If somebody is interested in online sources in English I can research a bit.

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Online sources (in Spanish):

# Villarejo,E/Villatoro,M (11-03-2014). Churruca, el español que murió combatiendo contra seís navíos en Trafalgar. ABC.

(http://www.abc.es/historia-militar/20130125/abci-churruca-espanol-murio-combatiendo-201301242018.html)

# Martinez,A.  Biografia de Don Cosme Damian Churruca y Elorza. Blog: Todo a Babor.

(http://www.abc.es/historia-militar/20130125/abci-churruca-espanol-murio-combatiendo-201301242018.html)

 

Further readings (in Spanish):

# Cayuela Fernandez,J/Pozuelo Reina, A.(2004)  Trafalgar: Hombres y naves entre dos épocas. Barcelona,Spain: Ariel

# González-Ripoll,D. (1994) , A las Órdenes de las estrellas: la vida del marino Cosme de Churruca  y sus expediciones a América. Madrid,Spain: CSIC

Edited by Karnaught
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  • 1 month later...

I think you have missed Anson... there would be no Nelson without Anson.. his reforms allowed Britain to become dominant power. plus he was quite a good admiral as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spanish Cpt. not already mentioned.

 

Antonio Barceló y Pont de la Terra. Worth to read about his life.  Quite a great seaman, a brave guy, and the inventor of the gunboat.

 

Juan Leon Fandiño

Edited by IonAguirre
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Vasco da Gama was an explorer, these are admirals. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 You're right.

But ... at those old times, being an explorer and an admiral was almost the same, and in fact it was.

Explorations were a political and militar business, more than a purely echonomic thing, and were done by appointment of the king and not privately.

Most of the world was already unknown and those guys had to be ready for everything.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Admiral or no admiral, he was an explorer not a millitary man.

 

Btw. At which time did Vasco do all his exploring.

 

 1460-1524

 

Over his numerous years serving the Portuguese crown, da Gama was rewarded with many different titles, distinctions, and offices:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ages for Danish admirals -

 

Niels Juel - 1629-1697 (67 years old)

Peter Tordenskiold - 1690-1720

Cort Adeler - 1622-1675 (52 years old)

Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve - 1678-1719

Peder Skram - Between 1491 and 1503-1581

Olfert Fischer - 1747-1829 (81 years old)

Christian Carl Gabel - 1679-1748 (68 years old)

Ivar Huitfeldt - 1665-1710 (45 years old)

Søren Norby - 1470-1530

King Christian IV - 1577-1648 (70 years old)

 

There ones where I've written the age is because they died before their birthday that year.

Edited by Kontreadmiral
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Some other British Admirals to add would be Edward Boscawen (Battle of Lagos), Adam Duncan (Camperdown was a rather fantastic display) William Cornwallis (The Cornwallis Retreat) and an Admiral who was as important to the development of signals as Lord Howe and won some fantastic victories outnumbered also and that would be Richard Kempenfelt. A man who died before his time as he could not escape from his cabin in the HMS Royal George when she went down.

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