Top 5s

Via Business Insider, a list of the greatest warships ever: Korean Turtle Ships, Nautilus, Enterprise, Dreadnought...

They're not really wrong but this article started me to thinking about such a list, I came up with:

The Greek Trireme: the trireme defeated the Persians and was then they symbol of Athenian naval dominance for the next century. The Greek Aegean campaign was most impressive.
The Spanish Galleon: Won the Battle of Lepanto via superior armor and firepower, heavy north Atlantic ships vs lighter Turkish warm weather ships. The Spanish sailed these too dominated for two and a half centuries.
The GATO class submarine: workhorse of America's brutal and ruthless sub campaign against the Japanese. Destroyed the Japanese merchant marine.
The Essex class carrier: workhorse of America's surface war in the Pacific, won lots of battles.
The Nimitz Class carrier: Symbol of Cold War Pax Americana and the greatest warships of the 20th century.