Who is history's greatest Admiral or Naval Commander?
Discussion
As much as it's an 'obvious' answer, there's a reason why Nelson is studied and respected to this day, not just in the Royal Navy but virtually every navy in the world.
True, that respect has at times (in the RN and elsewhere) sometimes drifted into reverence and slavishly copying his tactics rather than understanding his methods, but that's not the man's fault. Any one of Nelson's three major victories would be career-crowning achievements for anyone else. Trafalgar was a literal epoch-making victory, and one that displayed tactical brilliance against a worryingly superior enemy. And Nelson had many other military successes to his credit outside his 'big three'. And he was respected and loved as a commander and leader of his men. His personal life ashore may have been a wreck and displayed rather less integrity and brilliance, but that's not really relevant to the question.
Yi Sun-sin doesn't get the attention or recognition he deserves in Western circles. He fought over 20 major engagements and was victories in all of them, including leading a fleet of 13 victoriously against an enemy with ten times as many ships. Like Nelson he was more than a battle leader but an innovator and an effective and respected leader. I believe he rated somewhat better than Nelson when it came to the conduct of his personal life!
The thread title is "Admiral or Naval Commander?", which is interesting because there is a big difference between being a ship commander and an admiral, and some who excel at one do not excel at the other - whether that's by circumstance or their personal abilities.
Thomas Cochrane has been mentioned, and I think that's a good suggestion. He was a supreme ship commander in this time with the RN, and was then a fleet commander (nay, a fleet creator in some cases) with several other countries. Most of the familiar naval fictions are either his exploits or those of Edward Pellew with the names changed.
Andrew Cunningham? A man who seems to have had a truly meteoric career at sea, peppered with military success and a reputation as a first-class seaman throughout. A DSO in WW1, a diplomatic tour-de-force in the Baltic in 1920 and again at Alexandria in 1940, the C-in-C for Taranto (another seminal naval action) and Matapan and the pyrric 'success' of the evacuation of Crete (which caused his "It takes three years to build a ship. It will take three hundred years to build a new tradition" dictum), naval commander for Operations Torch and Husky, 1SL during the Normandy Landings and another strong diplomatic presence as the new world order was being forged. Truly something of a 'renaissance man' in naval warfare terms. And he seems to have been a model of personal leadership qualities - aggressive when needed, strategically relentless, decisive (to the point of bluntness) but extremely protective of his men (willing to use that bluntness to resist potential losses when he didn't see the tactical value - but willing to carry the responsibility of losses where he judged them necessary) and personally modest and unwilling to self-promote (very unlike Nelson!).
There are others who I don't think are the greatest but whose contributions are majorly unrecognised - like Robert Blake who as well as a string of successes (the Blockade of Kinsale, the Battle of the Knock, the Battle of Porto Farina and the Battle of Santa Cruz) is basically responsible for creating the Royal Navy as a professional, permanent, regulated sea-fighting force. And because of that he was the first British naval leader to maintain a fleet at sea through a winter, thus starting the era of English/British maritime power. Unfortunately for history he did all this while serving the Parliamentarians and the Commonwealth, so he was never going to be a hero after the Restoration, and his only recognition is some obscure statues and some RN ship names.
Or Vice-Admiral Gilbert Stephenson, who had a respectable but undistinguished career in the 1900s, retired in 1929 and then came back to service in WW2 as the commander of HMS Western Isles, the RN's Anti-Submarine Training School. From scratch he developed the methods of turning newly-minted crews of reservists and national servicemen into the force which fought and won the Battle of the Atlantic, and he basically single-handedly created most of the principles of sea training that the RN (and many other navies) use to this day. He had a huge and direct effect on both WW2 and naval warfare as a whole but hardly anyone has ever heard of him, even in naval circles.
True, that respect has at times (in the RN and elsewhere) sometimes drifted into reverence and slavishly copying his tactics rather than understanding his methods, but that's not the man's fault. Any one of Nelson's three major victories would be career-crowning achievements for anyone else. Trafalgar was a literal epoch-making victory, and one that displayed tactical brilliance against a worryingly superior enemy. And Nelson had many other military successes to his credit outside his 'big three'. And he was respected and loved as a commander and leader of his men. His personal life ashore may have been a wreck and displayed rather less integrity and brilliance, but that's not really relevant to the question.
Yi Sun-sin doesn't get the attention or recognition he deserves in Western circles. He fought over 20 major engagements and was victories in all of them, including leading a fleet of 13 victoriously against an enemy with ten times as many ships. Like Nelson he was more than a battle leader but an innovator and an effective and respected leader. I believe he rated somewhat better than Nelson when it came to the conduct of his personal life!
The thread title is "Admiral or Naval Commander?", which is interesting because there is a big difference between being a ship commander and an admiral, and some who excel at one do not excel at the other - whether that's by circumstance or their personal abilities.
Thomas Cochrane has been mentioned, and I think that's a good suggestion. He was a supreme ship commander in this time with the RN, and was then a fleet commander (nay, a fleet creator in some cases) with several other countries. Most of the familiar naval fictions are either his exploits or those of Edward Pellew with the names changed.
Andrew Cunningham? A man who seems to have had a truly meteoric career at sea, peppered with military success and a reputation as a first-class seaman throughout. A DSO in WW1, a diplomatic tour-de-force in the Baltic in 1920 and again at Alexandria in 1940, the C-in-C for Taranto (another seminal naval action) and Matapan and the pyrric 'success' of the evacuation of Crete (which caused his "It takes three years to build a ship. It will take three hundred years to build a new tradition" dictum), naval commander for Operations Torch and Husky, 1SL during the Normandy Landings and another strong diplomatic presence as the new world order was being forged. Truly something of a 'renaissance man' in naval warfare terms. And he seems to have been a model of personal leadership qualities - aggressive when needed, strategically relentless, decisive (to the point of bluntness) but extremely protective of his men (willing to use that bluntness to resist potential losses when he didn't see the tactical value - but willing to carry the responsibility of losses where he judged them necessary) and personally modest and unwilling to self-promote (very unlike Nelson!).
There are others who I don't think are the greatest but whose contributions are majorly unrecognised - like Robert Blake who as well as a string of successes (the Blockade of Kinsale, the Battle of the Knock, the Battle of Porto Farina and the Battle of Santa Cruz) is basically responsible for creating the Royal Navy as a professional, permanent, regulated sea-fighting force. And because of that he was the first British naval leader to maintain a fleet at sea through a winter, thus starting the era of English/British maritime power. Unfortunately for history he did all this while serving the Parliamentarians and the Commonwealth, so he was never going to be a hero after the Restoration, and his only recognition is some obscure statues and some RN ship names.
Or Vice-Admiral Gilbert Stephenson, who had a respectable but undistinguished career in the 1900s, retired in 1929 and then came back to service in WW2 as the commander of HMS Western Isles, the RN's Anti-Submarine Training School. From scratch he developed the methods of turning newly-minted crews of reservists and national servicemen into the force which fought and won the Battle of the Atlantic, and he basically single-handedly created most of the principles of sea training that the RN (and many other navies) use to this day. He had a huge and direct effect on both WW2 and naval warfare as a whole but hardly anyone has ever heard of him, even in naval circles.
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