historic boarding?

[blubasso]

Hello,

yesturday i answered in the topic about boarding and i wonder how really was in history. Which tactics are used to board and to fight and of course if there was some tactics...

If the answer is long and there's already a post for it, you can simply put a link and i will read it

Thank you 

Stefano

Edited February 3, 2018 by blubasso

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard]

Hi,

first of all boarding wasn't used all that often due to the difficulties of it,

it was mostly used against merchant vessels  or when you wanted to capture a vessel itself or sometimes someone aboard or maybe even some documents, but regular naval combat with splinters, cannonballs and limbs flying all over the place was much more common ( there exist some very graphic depictions in letters ).

Faster vessels had the advantage, since they could choose to board or escape boarding.

Obviously pretending to be tarzan and launching yourself from some line while trying to yell some warcry while biting a sword and shooting dual pistols ( therefore holding the line with your legs i guess ) wasn't the usual method.

It was rather small boats ( nice targets unless you are too low to fire at ) or grapling hooks ( to get closer, not to play tarzan ). No planks. Nobody has space or weight to spare for boarding-specific planks, and ships weren't necessarily of the same height.

During a while grenades were popular as were shrapnel shots that could "make some space" on a populated deck. Marines were also introduced or re-introduced to fight during boarding ( but also to fight on land to ( try to ) capture some fort ( and die from some sickness ).

So basically it was still rare and used rather when you already had the advantage against a crippled ship that was slower due to damage and had lost a lot of crew.

Pirates obiously had more interest in boarding, and that is also why they resorted to morale/scare tactics/reputation/propaganda to enforce quick surrenders and avoid costly boardings and damaging the ship and its goods overly.

Really boarding was much more popular with in the Mediterranean during roman/greek/venetian etc times than during the age of sail on the high seas.

Also shiny pointy swords erol flynn style weren't common among sailors nor practical, axes were much more common ( here we go again with limbs flying all over the place )

I think this book covers the subject a bit but to be fair i still haven't read it ( so many books, so little thym: https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Rovers-Practice-Techniques-1630-1730/dp/1574889117 )

 

Edited February 3, 2018 by Captain Jean-Luc Picard

[blubasso]

Thanx a lot for your explanation @Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Yes, it makes sense: boarding mostly in corsair war and not usual in line combat.

The book could be very interesting, i will see if i find it in the main library of my city, or i will buy it.

Edited February 3, 2018 by blubasso

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard]

Well it was still used by regular captains due to the prize system, which could make one rich ( as well as create a lot of trouble over jurisdiction with different people claiming the prize which might end up in lifelong rivalries etc ), it's just that it was still less common than depicted in movies and usually used more as a finish-move of an already won fight than from the start of the fight. They would rather board lone merchants or someone braving a blockade than ships of the same or higher strength. Also note that sailors might train in gunnery but i don't recall reading about any training in boarding for regular navy sailors, with maybe an exception or two for very specific operations.

Here is a famous example of a dispute caused by prize money, sorry for the Mirror link, it just came up first in the results and i'm too lazy to look up a better one, at first glance it seems good enough thought: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/admiral-nelson-threatened-navy-bosses-10048324

edit: also blackbeard had some lit fuses under his hat supposedly to scare hostiles during boardings, but i am not sure how practical it would be, maybe with some wet hair... i'd take that with a grain of ( sea ) salt.

Althought quiete a lot of ships were captured they mostly surrendered due to the initial difference in combat power ( whaler vs frigate ) or when the fight was clearly lost ( btw sand could be used to allow sailors to fight without slipping on the blood of their buddies, that's how slippery the floor was getting from the quantity of blood  -i remember some sailor mentioning goats and chicken getting decapitated by cannonballs as well since they were also onboard -it was really a bloody mess and there wasn't always sailors to spare for boarding, they were needed to replace the dead and injured manning the cannons, ships could surrender because they didn't have enough sailors left to man the cannons after battles that could last hours, so again boarding was rather a secondary mean of asserting victory rather than a primary mean of obtaining it).

Edited February 3, 2018 by Captain Jean-Luc Picard

[maturin]

5 hours ago, Captain Jean-Luc Picard said:

Also note that sailors might train in gunnery but i don't recall reading about any training in boarding for regular navy sailors, with maybe an exception or two for very specific operations.

What's to train?

Boarding skills are seaman's skills.

Nothing worse for clambering onto a heaving deck than a long red coat and a longer musket with a bayonet on the end.

 

Here's a passage of Boudriot, apologies for the fisheye: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-pwrC9JR7ahVGUzbHdWeGxuWXc/view?usp=sharing

[IndianaGeoff]

You also did not have to board if the captain struck his colors to save his crew if it was hopeless.  The ship was handed to you and you had to deal with the enemy crew until you got to a friendly port.