Techniques of Boarding

[Daniel]

If you want to rob a ship (which you, being a pirate, would like to do) you have to get onto it first. In some cases, the persons who are already on that ship are violently disinclined to allow you on board. So how do you do manage to get aboard anyway? My sources say remarkably little about the nitty-gritty of getting from your own ship into somebody else's.

Boarding from a boat

One thing that looks pretty clear: pirates' favorite way to get on board the target ship was with the active help and cooperation of that ship's crew. The usual drill was to tell the other ship's captain to lower a boat and come aboard the pirates' ship, with appropriate threats, curses, and shooting across the bow to convince said captain that rapid compliance would be good for his health. With the captain in their power, the pirates would persuade him to order his crew to allow them aboard, and a prize or pillaging crew would be dispatched, perhaps in the same boat that brought the captain, and would be grudgingly helped aboard by their intended victims.

But taking the captain hostage first was optional. At least two of Stede Bonnet's victims allowed the pirates to board, despite strongly suspecting who they were, and surrendered readily the minute the boarders put their hands on their cutlasses. There may have been no more than two or three boarders, but the mere threat of the Royal James lurking in the twilight dissuaded the captains from resisting.

Even in these cases, the actual means of getting from boat to ship is a little vague. Rope ladder? Boatswain's chair? Fixed boarding stairs? Grappling line? Presumably only very small ships had low enough freeboard that a man in a boat could have reached the target ship's gunwale standing up. Some buccaneering accounts suggest that the target ship's stern offered handholds enough to climb aboard. If boarding from the side, it may have been possible for men in a boat to reach the chains, pull themselves onto the channels, and climb up the shrouds from there. One of Stede Bonnet's victims mentions that the pirates grasped their cutlasses "as soon as they came up the shrouds," which suggests they did indeed use this route.

Boarding from ship to ship

I've never seen any source saying that pirates ever really swung from one ship to another on a line hooked in the yards in Errol Flynn/Jack Sparrow style. Nor have I seen any primary source that bears out the idea, often reported in secondary sources, that pirates fashioned stair steps out of boarding axes driven into the prize's hull. May we safely consider these two methods fictional?

Benerson Little reports one case where privateers leaped from their own deck to the prey's. This was dangerous; one man fell between the ships and was crushed between them, splattering his brains onto his comrade Duguay-Trouin. This may have been the most common method, but obviously there were situations where it couldn't have worked. First, the pirates would have needed a freeboard nearly as high as their opponent's; they couldn't have jumped onto a ship more than two or three feet higher than their own, except by grabbing the gunwale with their hands at the end of the leap and pulling themselves on board. Besides risking the fate of Duguay-Trouin's friend, this would have left the pirates' hands on a ready-made chopping block for anyone with a cutlass. Given the many cases where pirates in sloops or even smaller craft attacked large merchantmen, the freeboard problem must have been common.

Furthermore, even when two ships had equal freeboard, the distance from gunwale to gunwale would often have been too far to jump. Because of tumble-home, two ships touching each other at the waterline might be as much as ten feet apart at the gunwales. Few pirates could have jumped such a distance. Swinging aboard would have solved this problem, as would laying down gangplanks from ship to ship. Running grappling lines from the prey's rigging to the pirates' capstan and tightening until the two ships' gunwales touched each other seems impractical. But what method did pirates actually use when they couldn't jump directly to the other guy's deck?

[Mission]

Actually, as I recall it, what Little has to say on positioning the pirate vessel in relationship to the wind and the ship to be boarded probably had more to do with successful boarding than the actual mechanics of the thing. Once your prey was secured from escaping it would seem to me that the mechanics of getting aboard would have more to do with common sense than anything.

[Fox]

Presumably only very small ships had low enough freeboard that a man in a boat could have reached the target ship's gunwale standing up.

I think you should probably reverse this statement. Only very large ships would have a freeboard too high to clamber up. Nonetheless, coming up the chains and shrouds is probably the easiest route. This is my boat alongside the Golden Hind, a 120 ton ship.

[Daniel]

Very informative picture. So you can actually stand on the boat's gunwale without tipping it! I did not realize that. And that gunwale gives you a good two feet of extra height.

Another thing I didn't realize; there's a sort of "step" built into the side of the Golden Hind, at the base of the bulwark. Was that a common design feature? It certainly would have made boarding a lot easier. I assume the step is there because it's more important to be able to recover boat crews safely than to make it tough for hostile boarding parties to get onto the ship?

[callenish gunner]

Many ships also had ladders built into their sides. There were also grappling hooks that would bring the ships side by side and using ropes off the yards would not have been impossible or once grappled they could use long planks between ships

[Fox]

Very informative picture. So you can actually stand on the boat's gunwale without tipping it! I did not realize that. And that gunwale gives you a good two feet of extra height.

Depends on the size of boat and how much weight is already in it. That longboat is 27' long and 7' in the beam, with about half a ton of ballast. I wouldn't stand on the gunwale of an empty dinghy!

Another thing I didn't realize; there's a sort of "step" built into the side of the Golden Hind, at the base of the bulwark. Was that a common design feature?...

Um, it's not uncommon - but it depends a lot on the size and type of vessel. I don't honestly know if it has a specific purpose. I doubt you'd see such a feature on the kind of merchantman likely to be attacked in the Caribbean. (Random, unprovenanced thought: it may be to do with the mounting of guns, since even until quite late guns were often loaded 'outboard').

[MarkG]

Very informative picture. So you can actually stand on the boat's gunwale without tipping it! I did not realize that. And that gunwale gives you a good two feet of extra height.

Another thing I didn't realize; there's a sort of "step" built into the side of the Golden Hind, at the base of the bulwark. Was that a common design feature? It certainly would have made boarding a lot easier. I assume the step is there because it's more important to be able to recover boat crews safely than to make it tough for hostile boarding parties to get onto the ship?

The "step" is part of most large sailing ships. The mast is held in place on either side by shrouds (these are what sailors climb using horizontal ratlines). It order to get a better angle and reduce the strain on the shrouds, the are attached to the hull with a small platform to push them out further. On many ships this makes an easy way to climb on. On the Mayflower, that is how you get on and off of the longboat or the Shallop.

You can see the same feature on the kalmar nyckel. It also has a built-in ladder.

Mark

Edited April 5, 2010 by MarkG

[Daniel]

The "step" is part of most large sailing ships. The mast is held in place on either side by shrouds (these are what sailors climb using horizontal ratlines). It order to get a better angle and reduce the strain on the shrouds, the are attached to the hull with a small platform to push them out further.

I think we're talking about two different things. The platform that pushes the shrouds and chains out further is called the channel. In Foxe's picture, they're getting ready to climb onto the channel. But in Foxe's picture you can also see a step on the side of the ship, just a couple of inches higher and inboard from the channel, that runs all along the side of the ship; you can see one crewman's leg standing on it. The same step can be seen in this picture: the lower fluke of the anchor points right to it. The step could be easily reached from a boat, although I sure as hell wouldn't want to try it in a heavy sea.

I'm not sure if there is such a step in your picture of the Kalmar Nyckel, although maybe those long brown-painted strakes on the sides project out far enough to step on; it's hard to see from this angle.

I can see the fixed ladder on the Kalmar Nyckel, just between the aftermost gunport and the main chains.

[MarkG]

The "step" is part of most large sailing ships. The mast is held in place on either side by shrouds (these are what sailors climb using horizontal ratlines). It order to get a better angle and reduce the strain on the shrouds, the are attached to the hull with a small platform to push them out further.

I think we're talking about two different things. The platform that pushes the shrouds and chains out further is called the channel. In Foxe's picture, they're getting ready to climb onto the channel. But in Foxe's picture you can also see a step on the side of the ship, just a couple of inches higher and inboard from the channel, that runs all along the side of the ship; you can see one crewman's leg standing on it. The same step can be seen in this picture: the lower fluke of the anchor points right to it. The step could be easily reached from a boat, although I sure as hell wouldn't want to try it in a heavy sea.

I'm not sure if there is such a step in your picture of the Kalmar Nyckel, although maybe those long brown-painted strakes on the sides project out far enough to step on; it's hard to see from this angle.

I can see the fixed ladder on the Kalmar Nyckel, just between the aftermost gunport and the main chains.

I'm guessing that that "platform" is the main deck extending past the rail. It's in the right place and I can't think of any other reason for it. I can see it being done that way to strengthen the deck and the rail. I'm familiar with most of the 16th and 17th century ships in America and I've climbed over some of them. I've never seen this feature on any of the others. I don't know how common it would have been in period.

Mark

[Gentleman of Fortune]

The other thing to consider is, in General, we are talking a smaller FASTER pirate ship against a larger SLOWER Commercial Vessel.

So the speed and maneuverability edge is in the pirates favor.

Next is numbers. A pirate ship would have 40, 60, 120 men or more on board... the "Victim" would probably have just enough men to sail her... 12, 20, 32?

So the scenario is that a Smaller Faster Ship with a crew that outnumbers you 4 or 5 to one says, "Stop where you are or we will catch you and kill everyone of you"

Your average sailor on the commercial vessel really doesn't have a dog in the fight... its not his ship or his cargo.... so, you can have it.

[Fox]

I'm glad this topic has been bumped, because I can't resist posting this video of last weekend...

Edited May 5, 2010 by Foxe

[Bos'n Cross]

.........damn you mr foxe.......having a good time....... real ships...*grumble grumble......real accents......damn you.......

[Capt. Sterling]

Wait and you want to come here and play... how bout we switch things around a bit?

[michaelsbagley]

.........damn you mr foxe.......having a good time....... real ships...*grumble grumble......real accents......damn you.......

Well Cross, one might have to live overseas for the real accent... But one doesn't need to live in the UK to attend a pirate event with a boarding action. We did one back in September(not nearly as good as Foxe's), and will be doing it again in a week and a half (with improvements over September, but still not likely as good as the one in Foxe's video). Maybe if we're lucky someone will have a video camera there and we can post that in a few weeks.

Mark G and I completed the second rope ladder this past Sunday so we can have more than one person going over the rail at a time.

[Fox]

I am reliably informed that planning for next year's event is already in hand. Any of you colonials who wish to come and play would be most welcome to do so. Next year I want four boats attacking instead of one and a whole heap more people...

[Tartan Jack]

I am reliably informed that planning for next year's event is already in hand. Any of you colonials who wish to come and play would be most welcome to do so. Next year I want four boats attacking instead of one and a whole heap more people...

Help me pay for the flight and I'll be there!

[Capt. Sterling]

Keep us posted

[PoD]

I am reliably informed that planning for next year's event is already in hand. Any of you colonials who wish to come and play would be most welcome to do so. Next year I want four boats attacking instead of one and a whole heap more people...

I think I need more Guns then for next year. Them Muskets they were using next to me at the back of the boat are making me think I need one too. They were louder than the bloody cannons.

[MarkG]

I got to see the Bounty recently. It has a nice ladder built into the side. Perfect for taking the ship.

[Jib]

Would not boarders want to climb aboard a ship at multiple points? A single set of stairs could be more easily defended by a few men. To swarm over a ship at various points would allow the pirates to take advantage of the larger crew they typically enjoyed.

[MarkG]

Would not boarders want to climb aboard a ship at multiple points? A single set of stairs could be more easily defended by a few men. To swarm over a ship at various points would allow the pirates to take advantage of the larger crew they typically enjoyed.

You would be surprised. During his Indian campaign the Duke of Wellington (who was still Aurthur Wellesley) took a city with only two seige ladders.

Mark

[Coastie04]

Look at today's pirate boardings. They board MUCH larger ships from little, fast inflatable boats. I've heard many accounts of them using grapnels to get aboard (including one first hand tale). Plus, very few of the crews fight back. The standard proceedure today is to barricade the crew in a safe area and wait for help to arrive. Some ships will even weld the doors to the crew quarters shut from inside. Now, this was not necessarily an option back then, but remember that there is a very big difference between a merchant crew and a pirate or naval crew. The merchant crews are not generally paid to defend the ship, but just sail it. If they are out manned and out classed, then these untrained, civilian sailors would give up the ship and hope that the pirates are leniant. Blackbeard would often send captured crews back in a slow boat with only barely enough provisions to make it to shore instead of killing them. With the prospect of living to sail again, many merchant sailors would not think twice about the owners' cargo, since to them it was just another hold full of bags and barrels.

Coastie

[Bright]

Edited May 3, 2011 by Bright

[William Brand]

Would not boarders want to climb aboard a ship at multiple points? A single set of stairs could be more easily defended by a few men. To swarm over a ship at various points would allow the pirates to take advantage of the larger crew they typically enjoyed.

Yes. You can grab on in so many places (i.e., chainwales, headtimbers, onboard stairway, shrouds, and any hanging line or timbers damaged in the battle itself)

[Jib]

My thought was that if the pirates created a "choke point" while trying to board it might allow the defenders (with a smaller crew) to hold out against them. Approaching the ship from multiple locations would not allow the defenders to all gather in one place.