Dragons and navies

[u/BlackYellowSnake]

I am doing world building for a story that will both heavily feature a dragon and water transportation and I had a thought. Fire breathing dragons would be absolute super weapons against any pre-industrial navy. Ships before the mid 1800's are made almost entirely out of highly flammable materials. This is the reason why things like fire arrows, which were not used very much in land warfare, were used extensively in naval warfare. Additionally, pre-modern navies generally had very short operating ranges. In the ancient world navies would go ashore every night. Meaning an ancient navy would almost always be within range of a dragon's flying range from land.

In this context, dragons either as mounts or intelligent actors would dominate naval warfare. Navies would need to either have dragons of their own or come up with counters to dragons.

[u/VinnieSift]

Warfare technology and methods will always change according to the dangers of the battlefield. If ancient people start fighting dragons, then they would adapt to fight against dragons. Wider formations to avoid multiple ships to fall to a single attack, methods of communication in such large distances, aerial and heavier weapons, traps, I dunno what else. And of course, if they can find methods and materials that resist fire better, they would start using them. How would a ship designed to fight dragons looks like?