The Largest Pirate Ships

[Mission]

I am doing some research for my next article and I was hoping to enlist the help of some experts and maybe start an interesting topic.

The question, then:

What were some of the largest pirate ships that we know of and how many decks did they have?

[Capt. J...]

A great topic!

Edited October 16, 2012 by Capt. J...

[Brit.Privateer]

A few of questions before proceeding:

1) What restrictions do you have on time period for this?

2) Are we just dealing with Atlantic and Indian Ocean pirates (no Barbary pirates of the Meditteranean)?

3) Are we counting prize ships that had pirate crews on them? Also, in terms of guns on a ship, we are only counting mounted guns (I am thinking of the Quedah Merchant here from Captain Kidd).

4) Besides counting guns, are we also looking at the size of crews?

Beyond that, a couple other things you should consider. While saying "two decker" might seem simple, consider this. There is a difference between a proper gun deck and arming the spar/weather deck on a vessel. A "two decker" will actually have two proper gun decks that aren't the weather/spar deck. The other thing to think about is that the counts of guns differ greatly from source to source. Some count rail-mounted guns (like swivels) while others don't and only look at guns mounted in gun carriages.

Now, without going off the top of my head, your largest pirate vessel is problably going to be either one of Bartholomew Robert's (I think he might have had a legitimate two decker, definately a one decker with a heavily gunned upper deck, I'll have to go read up on it again) or one of those Red Sea raiders in the 1690s or 1720s. Most of the large pirate vessels that come to mind to me don't go beyond the 40s in terms of guns (though watch, someone here will find that one example with 50 or more).

Edited October 16, 2012 by Brit.Privateer

[Mission]

Actually, what I'M trying to figure out is where the surgeon would be located on a pirate ship. He was often put on the Orlop deck in the Naval ships, but most pirate ships were far too small to have an Orlop Deck from my understanding. So I was curious to see what the biggest ships were and if they might have a deck close to the waterline that's above the hold.

As for where and when, I am willing to be pretty flexible for this particular article since I know so little about it and I doubt there were very many large pirate ships. My surgical articles all use surgical material from 1625 - 1750, so I think that's a fair target. As for location, my focus is on European pirates, so where ever they turn up would suit my needs.

Of course, the question is pretty open-ended. Personally I'd prefer we stick to the above constraints, but I am game for whatever people come up with. I've not seen this discussed before and I am a fan of making this forum a repository of interesting piracy-related knowledge.

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

I would think they'd keep the surgeons quarters/sick bay where it origonally was, or somewhere easily accessable, but protected, during a battle

[Mission]

I think you're right, but I was sort of looking for some facts to back it up with.

My thought (at this moment) was to progress in my article from a large naval ship with an orlop deck and cockpit to the largest pirate ships to a more typical sloop.

[Coastie04]

No facts to back up right now, but maybe look at where they'd be on an East India ship or a smaller naval vessel (even though I doubt the smaller ones would usually have a proper surgeon on board, they'd probably have some sort of sick bay for injured crew). Would something like that be in a captain's standing orders? If so, you might be able to find something in a Naval archive. Just my two bits.

Arrrgh!

[Capt. J...]

Queen Ann's Revenge......31.4m lg........beam.....7.5m.........hold depth 4.1m......approx 200 tons...36 guns......comp 125

These demensions are a little larger than the Wydah.

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

I just recalled seeing in a DK cross section book, that the sick bay, where wounded sailors were kept on HMS Victory was near the bow above the water line, where there was good ventalation, but the actual room where they operaated was the orlop deck Amidships, though i don't know how accurate that would be considering the book was probably written for children.

[Mission]

I just recalled seeing in a DK cross section book, that the sick bay, where wounded sailors were kept on HMS Victory was near the bow above the water line, where there was good ventalation, but the actual room where they operaated was the orlop deck Amidships, though i don't know how accurate that would be considering the book was probably written for children.

That's pretty accurate, although I wonder how many merchant and pirate ships would have bothered with a formal sick bay.

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

I just recalled seeing in a DK cross section book, that the sick bay, where wounded sailors were kept on HMS Victory was near the bow above the water line, where there was good ventalation, but the actual room where they operaated was the orlop deck Amidships, though i don't know how accurate that would be considering the book was probably written for children.

That's pretty accurate, although I wonder how many merchant and pirate ships would have bothered with a formal sick bay.

probably not many, pirate ships had more crew than merchant ships, as you know, so room was probably scarce. they might've kept them in the same place as they operated on them, to keep them close to the surgeon, or even on deck under tents, then moved them below during battle if they were'nt yet recovered.