Part Three of Boarding for Yardarm to Yardarm
Ships’ Boats
William James was gracious enough to record very specific details of a cutting-out expedition carried out by H.M.S. Surprise. Knowing Surprise was 126 feet in length, we can determine the size of the boats she used in the operation. The launch carried 26 men, the pinnace and the first cutter carried 18 men each, the second cutter and the gig each carried 17, while the little jolly boat carried 10. Finding this information for specific vessels can be done by trying out the section, appropriately titled, “The following section is for total fanatics.”
Note- With the addition of the rules for allowing target vessels to fire,* an optional rule would be to decrease the target vessel’s crew by 25%. This would help balance things out. The standard rules, without the possibility of losing crew members before boarding, were set up to be absolutely even. Boarding crews losing men to cannon fire would take away that balance. An example of this would be if 35 men, in three boats of a Cherokee class vessel, were attacking a French privateer. Normally, the crew size of that vessel would be generated by multiplying 35 times the difference between the two boarding numbers. 9 would be divided by 5, to make 1.8 times 35, resulting in 63. With this OPTIONAL rule the French player would multiply this 63 by .75. The result would be a new crew total of 47 (rounded down.) Like everything else, it’s totally up to the players to decide.
Note- Another method would be to begin the scenario with the original amount of men on the target vessel (as in the case above of 63 crewmen), then reducing the crew by 25% only if any of the boats attacking were lost to cannon fire on the way.
* Only if they qualified to beat to quarters before the battle started.
This is the fun part. Players can be lazy and simply use a generic boat type, then assign a certain amount of crew to each, or try to be realistic. I used three main sources for determining facts about ships’ boats. None were complete, but using all of them pretty much allowed me to get close to reality. The most difficult part of my research, and it goes back to 1981, was determining the specific types of boats carried by ships of the Royal Navy and the U.S.N. H.M.S. Surprise was a former French vessel, so was probably not typical of RN sloops. One specific piece of information from my ancient notes states that a British brig-sloop of 1808, being of the 235 ton class, carried one cutter, one gig, and one jolly boat. Research shows these to be the Cherokee class. They carried a total of 8-18#c and 2-6#, with a crew of just 75. Following the rules set forth, her cutter, which I assume was supposed to be the size of the 1st cutter, would have carried 13 men, her gig 13 men, and her jolly boat 8. In actual fact, they changed the rules on that one. The cutter is listed as 24 feet, while the gig is 25, and the jolly boat 14 feet. This means the cutter could carry 15 men, the gig still 12 men, and the gig still 8. 35 men, in three boats, would make for a good boarding party. (Note- the parent vessel is NEVER present on the game table. The cutting-out party just appears at 23cm. from the target vessel.) With this one could set up a battle between many nationalities. Those 35 could go after 60 Russian Navy men, 63 French privateers or Batavian Republic Navy men, 91 regular French Navy men, 98 Danish Navy men, 147 Spanish Navy men, 161 Spanish privateers, or 175 men from the Kingdom of Italy or Kingdom of Naples. Conversely, they could increase their number against American privateers. 39 Brits boarding a vessel with 35 Americans, or 50 Brits boarding a U.S.N. vessel with a crew of 35. During the American War of Independence they could battle 35 Americans, 49 United Provinces of the Netherlands Navy men, or 63 Royal French Navy men. In a post-1815 world they could tackle 105 West Indian pirates or 154 North African States Navy men. (This is assuming the optional rule about reducing crews of vessels firing cannon by 25% is not used.
Another source of what boats to use can be found in the boarding action in part two of this series on boarding in YtY. I’m not 100% sure of a Cruizer class brig-sloop’s boats, but what I’ve used seems very logical. I know that the real H.M.S. Dotterel sent four boats against the American letter-of-marque Pilot in the War of 1812.
Still another source I found lists boats for a U.S. Navy schooner from 1821. This would have been the Alligator class. This is very specific. They mandated a 23 x 7 foot launch, a 20.33 x 5.25 foot cutter, and an 18 x 4.58 foot stern boat. The stern boat looks to be a similar size to a second cutter, so I’d use the same divisor for the crew. This would give a crew of 18 for the launch, 11 for the cutter, and 10 for the stern boat. Alligator was one of five schooners built to combat the West Indian pirates. That’s why I accounted for those guys on the boarding chart. You may also use them against the Royal Navy during the early 1820s, since the Brits did their share of fighting pirates and slavers in that area of the world.
The Following Section is for Total Fanatics:
If you are really serious about the Age-of-Sail, you MUST have copies of Rif Winfield’s excellent books on the British Navy. From those, you can get some key info on the length of vessels which can determine the correct length of their boats. Real fanatics will own his books on both the AWI era and Napoleonic. (Not stopping there, one should purchase his French books which cover the same period. In the same format, but with no less wonderful detail is the book The Russian Navy in the Age of Sail 1696-1860 by Eduard Sozaev and John Tredrea. I’m currently looking forward to the arrival of John and Rif’s new book on the Spanish warships.)
The size determines how many men can fit into a boat. The old measurement of the square root of the length of a vessel times 2.6 will give the length of a launch. The length should be multiplied by .28 to find the width. I like to multiply the length times the width to get the square footage. From that, I can determine how many men can fit in a boat. The next most important boat will be the first cutter. That is .9 of the length of the launch, while the width is .25. If a pinnace is carried, it appears to have the same dimensions as the 1st cutter. The second cutter is .9 the length of the first cutter on frigates and smaller vessels, but on ships of the line, the 2nd cutter is the same size as the 1st. Again on ships of the line, the 3rd and 4th cutter are .9 the length of the 1st cutter, and also have a width of .25. If a gig is carried, it seems the dimensions should be the same length as the launch, but only .1785 the width. Last would be the jolly boat. This took some educated guess work. My best estimation is that the length should be .58 of the length of the 1st cutter. Again, the width should be .25. Once you’ve made your calculations, and gotten the square footage of the boats, I’ve included a simple divisor to show how many men may fit in each boat.
Launch- Divide the square footage by 9. (Example- H.M.S. Surprise was 126 feet long. The square root of 126 times 2.6 equals 29.18. A launch’s width should be .28 of the length. This gives 8.17. 29.18 times 8.17 equals 238.41. This divided by 9 rounds out to 26.)
1st cutter/pinnace- Divide the square footage by 9.5. (Did you remember that the width of the cutter should be .25, not .28?)
Gig- Divide the square footage by 9. (Again, recall that the width of this boat is .1785.)
2nd cutter- Divide the square footage by 8.
Jolly boat- Divide the square footage by 5.8.
A Note on Translation
Many years ago I purchased some British wargame rules and found myself puzzled by some of the concepts. I simply put that down to the gulf between American and British English. Owing to that, I understand that the way I write might not be as clear as intended. I actually lived in England, for sixteen months, when Harold Wilson was P.M. I’m also a great lover of British movies and TV shows, not to mention football. Also, my grandmother was from Victorian Ireland. As a child, I thought she had some odd sayings, but later experiences taught me that they were straight out of Britain. I’d like to think that I can communicate my ideas to a mainly British audience, but if something isn’t clear, please ask any questions you have on the reply of the particular article. I don’t have the time to volunteer to be an editor, but I would be happy to explain specific points about what I’ve written.