Hellburner

Hellburners (Dutch: hellebranders), also known as explosion ships or Antwerp fire, were a pair of specialised explosive fireships built and fielded by the defending Dutch rebels in the Fall of Antwerp (1584–1585), part of the Eighty Years' War against the Habsburgs. The hellburners functioned as extremely powerful floating bombs and did immense damage to the Spanish besiegers, leaving a lasting impression on the Spanish sailors as to the fireship capabilities of their enemies. Hellburners have been described as an early form of weapons of mass destruction.