Ancient era, first uses (960–1279) The
Tyrians launched a fire ship that destroyed two
Macedonian siege towers and other siege engines at the
Siege of Tyre (332 BC). During the
Third Punic War,
Carthaginian fire ships destroyed many
Roman vessels and came close to burning the entire Roman fleet at the
Battle of Lake Tunis in 149 BC. During the
end of the Han dynasty, at the
Battle of Red Cliffs (208 CE) on the
Yangtze River,
Huang Gai assaulted
Cao Cao's naval forces with a fire ship filled with bundles of kindling, dry reeds, and fatty oil. Fire ships were employed to decisive effect by the
Vandals against the armada sent by the
Eastern Roman Empire, in the
Battle of Cape Bon (468). The invention of
Greek fire in 673 increased the use of fire ships, at first by the Greeks and afterward by other nations as they came into possession of the secret of manufacturing this substance. In 951 and again in 953
Russian fleets narrowly escaped destruction by fire ships.
Age of fighting sail, refinement ; and grappling hooks on the yardarms. While fire ships were used in the Medieval period, notably during the
Crusades, these were typically ships that were set up with combustibles on an
ad hoc basis. The career of the modern fire ship, as a naval vessel type designed for this particular function and made a permanent addition to a fleet, roughly parallels the era of cannon-armed sailing ships, beginning with the defeat of the
Spanish Armada in 1588 and lasting until the Allied victory over the Turks at the
Battle of Navarino in 1827. The first modern fireships were put to use in early 17th century Dutch and Spanish fleet actions during the
Thirty Years War. Their use increased throughout that century, with purpose-built fireships a permanent part of many naval fleets, ready to be deployed whenever necessary. Initially small and often obsolete smaller warships were chosen as fireships but by 1700 fireships were being purpose-built with specific features for their role. Most were adaptations of the usual small warships of the day –
brigs or ship-rigged
sloops-of-war with between 10 and 16 guns. The practical design features of purpose-built fireships included a lattice-work false deck below the planks of the main deck – the planks would be removed and the combustibles and explosives stacked on the lattice, which gave good draught and ensured the fire would hold and spread. A number of square-section
chimneys would be let into the forecastle and quarterdeck to also help ensure a good draught for the fire. The gunports would be hinged at the bottom (rather than the top as on other warships) so that they would be kept open by gravity rather than ropes (which would otherwise burn thorough), further ensuring a good air supply. On the other hand, the lower parts of the masts would be surrounded by 'coffer dams' to ensure that the fire would not bring down the masts prematurely and thus deprive the fireship of motive power.
Grappling hooks would be fitted to the ends of the yardarms so that the fireship would become entangled in its target's rigging. A large sally-port door was let into the rear quarter of the ship (usually the starboard side) to allow easy exit for the crew once the fire had been set and lit. There was often a chain fixed here for mooring the escape boat rather than a rope that may have been damaged by the fire. Because fireships were used relatively rarely and only in specific tactical conditions even in their heyday, and there was always demand for small cruisers and warships, most purpose-built 'fireships' served long careers as ordinary warships without ever being used for their actual purpose. Of the five fireships used in
Holmes's Bonfire of 1666 three had been in service with the Royal Navy for over a decade before being deployed on their final mission. While only used sparingly during the
Napoleonic Wars, fire ships as a distinct class were part of the
British Royal Navy until 1808, at which point the use of permanently designated fire ships attached to British squadrons disappeared. As the small fire ships were much more maneuverable than enemy
ships of the line, especially in the coasts of the Aegean Sea where the islands, islets, reefs, gulfs and straits restrained big ships from being easily moved, they were a serious danger for the ships of the Turkish fleet. Many naval battles of the Greek war of independence were won by the use of fire ships, notably the
burning of the Ottoman flagship off Chios in June 1822. The successful use of fireships required the use of the element of surprise (a visible similarity with modern-day naval special operations). It is considered an important landmark in
Greek naval tradition.
19th and 20th centuries, obsolescence From the beginning of the 19th century,
steam propulsion and the use of iron, rather than wood, in shipbuilding gradually came into use, making fire ships less of a threat. During the
American Civil War, the
Confederate States Navy occasionally used fire rafts on the
Mississippi River. These were
flatboats loaded with flammable materials such as pine knots and
rosin. The fire rafts were set alight and either loosed to drift on the river's current towards the enemy (for example at the
Battle of the Head of Passes) During
World War II in September 1940, there was a British sortie codenamed
Operation Lucid to send old
oil tankers into French ports to destroy barges intended for
the planned invasion of Britain; it was abandoned when both tankers broke down. Ships or boats packed with explosives could still be effective. Such a case was
Operation Chariot of 1942, in which the old destroyer was packed with explosives and rammed into the dry dock at
Saint-Nazaire,
France, to deny its use to the battleship
Tirpitz, which could not drydock anywhere else on the French west coast. In the Mediterranean, the
Italian Navy made good use of high-speed boats filled with explosives, mostly against moored targets. Each boat, called by the Italians
MTM (Motoscafo da Turismo Modificato), carried of explosive charge inside its
bow. Their best-known action was the 1941
assault on Souda Bay, which resulted in the destruction of cruiser and the
Norwegian tanker
Pericles, of 8,300
tons. The successful
attack by Yemeni insurgents in a speedboat packed with explosives on the guided missile destroyer in 2000 could be described as an extension of the idea of a fireship. Another explosive ship attack took place in April 2004, during the
Iraq War, when three motor craft laden with explosives attempted the bombing of Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal in the
Persian Gulf. In an apparent
suicide bombing, one blew up and sank a
rigid inflatable boat from as it pulled up alongside, killing two US Navy personnel and one member of the
US Coast Guard.
21st century, revival with kamikaze USVs In October 2022, during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, several kamikaze
unmanned surface vehicles were used against Russian naval vessels at the
Sevastopol Naval Base, with support of
UAVs. During
Operation Prosperity Guardian,
Houthis used several kamikaze
unmanned surface vehicles to attack ships in the
Red Sea. ==Notable uses==