The English vice-admiral Sir Francis Drake used fire ships -- aging hulks set ablaze and allowed to float freely into the Armada -- to devastating effect, forcing the Spanish ships to break formation.
More than 400 years later, however, and fire is still one of the gravest threats to shipboard life.
Shipboard procedures such as fire drills, on-board alarms and locking fire doors may have gone a long way to mitigating the danger of fire at sea, but the US Navy is looking at new technology to help it battle the threat.
Read More