High and low points for major navies

What were the finest and worst moments for the major navies?

For the Royal Navy, the examples are Matapan or Cape St Vincent and the Medway Raid; the U.S. pair is Pearl Harbor and Midway, with further cases for France, Rome, and Spain.

For the Royal Navy, Matapan is preferred to Trafalgar because Trafalgar is unusually bound to Nelson himself, while Cape St Vincent is another contender. The Dutch raid on the Medway provides the darker counterpoint. Pearl Harbor and Midway form the U.S. Navy's fall and recovery, France's high point is placed in the American War of Independence and its low point at Mers-el-Kebir, and Roman success comes from the Punic Wars. A later exchange offers Lepanto and the Spanish Armada as possible Spanish high and low points. These examples begin the comparison without claiming to settle every navy's record.