Techniques of Boarding

[Tartan Jack]

Which one in that video is Foxe?

I'm sure he's in there somewhere. Plus, they are using both "his" boats (one is actually his and one is under his care) . . . Anyone else we know in there too?

Edited May 3, 2011 by Tartan Jack

[PoD]

Which one in that video is Foxe?

I'm sure he's in there somewhere. Plus, they are using both "his" boats (one is actually his and one is under his care) . . . Anyone else we know in there too?

Foxe is the guy at the back of the long boat next to the jack sparrow impersonator wearing brown.

I'm the one right at the back/top deck trying to reload me gun in the red coat

Edited May 3, 2011 by PoD

[Bos'n Cross]

mr.fox is the one in zee trousers and brown frock coat...........PoD you look very sporting in that red coat....makes a great targ......defender lol

[PoD]

PoD you look very sporting in that red coat....makes a great targ......defender lol

so thats why they always pick me to be on the losing side

[Daniel]

Look, no grappling hooks. Instead, the boarders use boat hooks! Obvious reasons, too: the boat hooks must be a lot easier to control, although they have a lot less range. Do we know any historical case where boarders use boat hooks?

Regarding attack from multiple entry points, I think that would obviously be desirable, but very difficult to do in practice. Coordinating the attacks to start simultaneously under fire would be very difficult. Look at what happened to Captain England and Captain La Buse when they tried to attack the Cassandra simultaneously; only England got close enough to board, and that attempt was bloodily repulsed. If you have only one ship, then you have to use boats to to provide multiple attack points, again very vulnerable under fire. The fact that the defenders sometimes shoot the attacker's oars to pieces (which also happened in the attack on the Cassandra) would make it even harder to coordinate the attacks. The only reasonable chance I can see for attacking from multiple directions is attack with two or more boats at night, with silence and complete surprise.

[Fox]

Look, no grappling hooks. Instead, the boarders use boat hooks! Obvious reasons, too: the boat hooks must be a lot easier to control, although they have a lot less range. Do we know any historical case where boarders use boat hooks?

The really obvious reason for using boat hooks in this case is that we didn't want to go lobbing iron grappling hooks where they might damage the ship, or worse, the defenders. This was not necessarily such an issue for real boarders, but boat hooks would be a useful tool for them nonetheless. There is an account somewhere of the small boat action at the Battle of la Hogue, in which the English boats got close enough to the shore for a seaman to pull a French cavalryman out of his saddle with a boathook.

If given the task of capturing a moored ship I would most definitely opt for multiple boats at night with muffled oars.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

This is an old thread but.

The boarding with boats seemed to be the standard in Gaop and most of the Age of sail.

But, about side by side boarding: Pictures this time, but they are unfortunately later..

Much later than gaop (circa 1800) but these privateer sailors, it seems, are boarding larger Indiaman using their own ship's yards.

Artist is Ambroise-Louis Garneray (1783-1857) who has done a few naval action pictures and paintings. Of course he might have been mistaken about sea tactics.

Another similar one has a pirate ship but still later

Here in this earlier 1750s painting it seems that the crew is trying to get onboard using their own bowsprit and jumping to enemy rigging.

Similar tactic is pictured in not so good 19th century book Pirates Own Book.

However how common these tactics were in Gaop is hard to know.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Coastie04]

First off, those first two photos are the same picture. The second one was altered to have a pirate flag and zoomed to just a portion of the original painting. I'll chime in again about one vs. multiple boarding points. If, as Foxe mentioned, there was a moored boat at night and you could use multiple boats, that would be good. However, in realistic terms, you'd board wherever you were able to. There are some benefits to boarding in one location. Coordination of the attack is much easier, once a few boarders make it to the deck, they can set up a defensive area for the rest of the boarders to swarm on with a bit more safety. Communication is easier, and it gives you a stronger force to push through lines of defenders instead of potentially being spread out too thin. Obviously, there are also some drawbacks, as swivel guns that can point inboard might be more effective to one mass group of invaders, but if it's your only or best option, then that's a risk of being a pirate. Yes, spars, rigging, and just about anything else that is available can be used for boarding. As for the boat hooks, they were a common tool of the time and would likely be used to board from a small boat. grappling hooks would possibly be used too, if available.