Where were ship's boats stored?

[Daniel]

I know of three basic ways ships carried boats.

1. On davits, basically timbers or metal beams shaped like upside down versions of the letter "J," with the boats hanging over the ocean from the short end of the "J." I think I read somewhere that davits didn't come along until the 19th century. Is that right?

2. On the open deck, upside down to keep rainwater out of them. This has to take up a huge amount of deck space.

3. Towed astern. This is actually shown in many of the pictures in the Osprey books on pirates. This has the obvious advantage of keeping the boats out of the way, and saves the time spent launching them, but I shudder to think of what would happen to them in heavy weather: getting swamped, running into each other, being thrown into the ship's stern by high swells, tow lines parting, etc.

So which of these methods were used when, and by which vessels?

[William Brand]

The boats on deck are sometimes elevated on spare spars resting on a cross post or deck or an elevated post with a cross bar for this purpose. I have also seen evidence that they were stored perpendicular to the weather deck aft against a wall formed by the next rising deck, so that a small boat might sit on the main deck, just below the quarter deck, but this seems to be a rare exception.

[Coastie04]

Sometimes the boats on deck would be stowed right side up instead of upside down. In extremely hot, dry weather, they could be filled with water in order to help keep the wood from shrinking (and thus creating a leaky boat when launched). Towing astern also helped keep the seams tight, and would often be done by vessels going in to battle to keep them away from damage. Sometimes they would even be cut away before the first broadsides, to be picked up later after the battle. Another advantage of being towed is that it was easier and quicker to man them than if they are stowed on deck. Many fishing boats had a large number of smaller boats/skiffs that would nest neatly in each other (sometimes with some bulwarks removed, to then be replaced before launching) and would have them anywhere on deck that they could stow them. Often, these would be launched daily for fishing, then either towed in very calm weather, or brought back on deck overnight (or when the weather prevented launching/fishing). A little off topic here, but many cruising sailboats today try to keep their boats on deck or down below when out on the high seas, but often tow them astern when on a short coastal voyage in fine weather. Safety to the boat vs. ease of use. Davits, though a later invention, give some tradeoff of safety to the boat and ease of launching, but can leave the boats more vulnerable than having them stowed inboard of the bulwarks.

Here's the Endeavour replica (original launched in 1764) with a boat upright on deck spars (with a canvas covering to keep water out).

And here the USS Constitution (1797) with her quarter davits:

So, sometime in those 30 years or so, davits came in to use (or at least became more popular).