"God-'elp-us" Appl

Hi, new member here with a question. I'm collecting a army for a table top battle game and some units will have a "piratey" theme to them. One unit I'm thinking of using is some Pirates with pikes. I've heard that Pirates used a type of pike called a "boarding pike". I've search the 'net and wikipedia, but to no avail. Does anyone here know what they look like, how they were used, etc? Thanks in advance for any help you can give, Gibbon "God-'elp-us" Appleby