a mirror
According to legend: The warriors were instructed to polish their bronze shields and aim the reflected sunlight from the shields at the ships.
Quintus Arius as per the movie BEN HUR, was the consul and commander of a roman fleet in the mediterranean who was asked by Emperor Tiberius to seek and destroy a macedonian pirates fleet.
The Spanish Armada
Philippines
George Dewey was the US admiral that destroyed the Spanish fleet.
.... to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
In the defence of Syracuse, he used parabolic mirrors to focus the sun's rays into a column of heat directed at approaching wooden warships of the Roman fleet, setting them on fire.
The Spanish Armada in 1588
No. Archimedes, as a citizen of the city-state of Syracuse, helped to defend the city against the Romans during the Second Punic War, inventing many war machines that caused damage and losses to the fleet and army that besieged the city. During the sack of Syracuse, which followed the capture of the city in 212 BC, he was killed by a Roman soldier who, not having recognized transgressed the order to capture him alive, given by the Roman commander, the Consul Mario Claudio Marcello.
battle of iwo jima
Midway.
Take Midway Island & destroy US fleet at sea.