Marine 8th Branch

The division's centerpiece is a flagship unlike any standard Marine vessel, debuting in Episode 54. Heavily gilded and built on an oddly shaped, unusually wide hull, it carries a rudder fitted with a house-like structure. Three frontal towers rise from the deck, the tallest of them topped by a seven-pointed red roof, and Nelson Royal typically keeps to that central tower. Additional structures sit toward the stern, and the number eight is emblazoned across the sails. Rather than built-in gun ports, the ship relies on portable cannons rolled around the deck, with its retractable Superpower Cannon serving as the primary armament.

Conduct within the unit is shaped by Nelson's domineering leadership, since he is willing to put even his own sailors in danger to reach his goals, and this abuse of authority steadily eroded what the branch could accomplish. Hoping to strengthen their ranks, the Marines brought the mercenary Eric the Whirlwind on board for his fearsome name. Eric, however, only ever exploited the arrangement, abandoning the division the moment it stopped serving his own ends.

Beyond Nelson's command vessel, the branch musters a fleet of no fewer than ten battleships. Its signature pirate-hunting method is the Crane's Wing Formation, in which warships ring a target and seal every escape route by linking each hull to the next with heavy chains while the flagship strikes. That flagship's chief weapon, the retractable Superpower Cannon, met its end when Usopp landed a cannon shot squarely into it as it was being readied to fire, causing it to blow apart. The ship itself was later cleaved in half by a single devastating kick from Luffy in Episode 60, delivered with help from a Sennenryu.