Rowing

[Captain Tito]

M'lady asked me a fine question the other day.

Did the large ships of the Pirate days (either Pirate or otherwise) need rowing with teams of oars and bound slaves to row them?

I wasn't sure about this. I told her that they were the sailing ships and that quite a few inventions had been generated since, say, the days of the Vikings and Ancient Romans where they DID have teams of rowing slaves. I pointed out that in Pirate days, ships had stearing, compasses, and the beginnings of ship-going mechanisms that made such ancient rowing mostly unnecessary.

But it kinda leaves me a-pondering. What did happen when the wind totally died down? Did they need to row? And, if so, who did it, slaves or regular crew?

[Lady Seahawke]

Ahoy, to answer your question....from my reading and understanding...the crew did at times use oars...either during no wind or even to give an extra boost ....now how often it occurred can't say.

"Pirates and Patriots of the Revolution...an illustrated encyclopedia of Colonial Seamanship" by C. Keith Wilbur...pg 67 section "To Chase"...number 5. A failing wind....even though every last knife aboard be stuck inthe mainmast, there are times when such powerful persuasion cannot muster a breeze. Oar power must be broken out and used to close with the enemy. Captain Jonathen Haraden, comanding the privateer "General Pickering" (sixteen six pounders and thirty men - the prize crews having left) was making little headway under a failing breeze. At the entrance to Bilboa harbor, a Spanish port on the Bay of Biscay, she met with a rugged enemy, the British privateer "Archilles" (forty guns and one hundred and fifty men). One witness said the American looked like a long boat alongside a ship! the "Archilles" did her best to grapple, but, the "General Pickering" manned her sweeps and pulled away. Not only that, but she maneuvered again and again under the enemy's stern and raked her fore and aft. For three hours she tore away at "Ardchilles" heel until the crippled enemy limped out of range.

So you do what ya got to do to get what ya want...especially if ya want to keep your hide on yer bones...

[John Maddox Roberts]

To correct the false impression given by movies like "Ben Hur,": ancient galleys of the Mediterranean were not rowed by slaves, but by free men. In Athens and many other Greek maritime cities, the poorer men, who could not afford the armor of hoplites, rowed the galleys instead. It was not a degraded calling, because rowing an ancient, multi-banked galley required great skill, it was not just pull-and-heave. Besides, once ships were locked together, the rowers could fight, unlike chained slaves, and so added to your fighting force. Roman galleys, likewise, were rowed by free men, though they certainly had plenty of slave labor.

The far simpler galleys of the Middle Ages had only a single bank of oars to each side and required little but muscle power. These were indeed rowed by slaves and POWs. At least one Grand Master of the Knights of Malta put in a stint rowing a Turkish galley. Spain continued to use galleys right up into the 19th century. At first they were rowed by Muslim power, later by Protestant power. France used galleys as well. but they were little more than floating prisons, used mainly for towing ships during a calm. The design was no good on the high seas, but small, shallow-draft vessels like Kidd's Adventure Galley could be rowed during calms and taken up creeks and so forth.

[Captain Tito]

Thanks mateys Clears up a lot.

[hitman]

The ships from the golden age of sail and beyond sometimes came with sweeps. (as seen in the P.O.T.C.) but in general were rarely used. Often it was found more effective in a calm to use the boats instead of the sweeps. Also only the navy and pirate ships (presumably) would have enough men to man the sweeps as most merchant vessels carried as small a crew as possible. (Often lacking the man power to fight both sides at ounce.) The great ocean going frigates were however about as big as ships with sweeps could get and most of the ships twoard the end of fighting sail didn't carry them as ship size was just too large for them to be effective. However ships the size of say the Royaliste would have carried them till the end of thier service. (If you like a bit of fictional refrences there are several mentions of sweeps in Patrick O'brien's Audbrey Mautrin series. Praticulary noted for Lucky Jack's distain of them and prefrence for pulling with the boats.)

[Black Deacon]

There were times where horses were caried on board and when hitting the doldrums they were lower over the side and pulled the boats to windier areas. Unfortunatly they were cut loose to drown and not brought back on board.

[hitman]

Don't tell that too PETA they'll try and sue the desendants of those reponsible for any profits said actions might have generated.