[OOC] Golden Age of Piracy: Caribbean 1655 (OOC)

[TheyMostlyComeAtNight]

I think the Galleon was a jack of all trades but master of none at this time?

Ships of the Line were much better in battle and ships like the Fluyt were better as tradesmen.

[Kho]

TheyMostlyComeAtNight said
I think the Galleon was a jack of all trades but master of none at this time? Ships of the Line were much better in battle and ships like the Fluyt were better as .

Pretty much. They were used by the Spanish for everything, but depending on the purpose they could be more lightly or heavily armed, and therefore easier or more difficult to capture, hence the distinction between trading and war galleons.

I don't think we're going to see many ships of the line unless we get into the later period, 1670's onward. Though of course there is no telling what the powers that be may decide to do...

[Kho]

The summaries are now up in the OP. I would suggest you read them and if you have any problems with what I've written about your characters let me know. Let me know if you are happy with it (a simple 'aye' will do) and I can get working on the opening IC post, then we can get this thing off the ground.

[DAWNSTAR]

I'm good with my summary.

[TheyMostlyComeAtNight]

I'm good with mine too.

[Jangel13]

Can you change it from sloop to lightly armed frigate, or say I was in tortuga to buy a ship. A sloop seems a little. ... sad for a pirate

[Kho]

Hmm, no pirate would own a frigate, you probably wouldn't even be able to buy one. Unless you capture a frigate (which is highly unlikely) the best ship you can hope for is a trading galleon or a brig.
The sloop is underestimated, there is a great deal a skilled captain can do with a quick sloop. If you want to buy another ship, Tortuga is full of them, or you can try to capture one.

[Joegreenbeen]

Aye!!

[Jangel13]

I'll just buy a brig while I'm their, now aye!

[Click This]

Since I'm the only non-pirate here, I'll do it more formally with a proper "Aye sir!" ;D

Yeah, pirates having frigates were very rare. The only pirate with one that I recall was Blackbeard; the Queen Anne's Revenge was an old decommissioned frigate, and was being used as a slave ship by the time Teach captured it.

[Jangel13]

I just don't get why it was so rare, honestly I remember that size wasn't always the issue but how the captain used their ships, with frigates or brig's a pirate could take down a gallon or frigate. If the hull could handle the strikes and dish out enough damage in the process they could steer circles around a fat gallon and a brig against a frigate wouldn't be so different

[Joegreenbeen]

Jangel13 said
I just don't get why it was so rare, honestly I remember that size wasn't always the issue but how the captain used their ships, with frigates or brig's a pirate could take down a gallon or frigate. If the hull could handle the strikes and dish out enough damage in the process they could steer circles around a fat gallon and a brig against a frigate wouldn't be so different

I think that pirates didn't use them often because they couldn't get a hold of a ship like that. It would either be too costly or dangerous.

[Click This]

It was difficult because the crews of frigates were highly trained and would obliterate or scare away most pirates. Figures such as blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts were the exception, because they already had a powerful ship through some stroke of luck.

On that note, a brig taking a frigate was nearby unheard of. The only instance of a brig capturing a frigate in open battle was the capture of the Spanish frigate El Game by the brig HMS Speedy. Underhanded tactics such as cutting-out expeditions may yield better results.

From Wikipedia: "The skirmish is notable for the large disparity between the size and firepower of El Gamo and her opponent, the British brig Speedy; the former was around four times the size, had much greater firepower and a crew six times the size of Speedy, which had a reduced crew of 54 at the time of the engagement."

It can be done, but you gotta be some of the best out there. :p

[TheyMostlyComeAtNight]

How rare was it for a Privateer to have a Frigate type vessel? Some Privateers walked a very thin line between piracy and legitimate warfare.

Could you get a letter of Marque from Port Royal or did you have to receive it in England?

[Jangel13]

Well that's disappointing. However their is the fact that pirates were once privateers for their crowns so it wasn't like they didn't have allot of practice taking down ships of equal or greater strength.

[Click This]

Somewhat rare. Perhaps one could be obtained when sold out of the service, but I'm not too familiar with the fate of decommissioned vessels in the 1600s. Corvettes, however, were common among privateers, and were essentially lightly armed, fully rigged ships with frigate lines. They usually had an armament of ~22 guns, and were referred to as a "sloop of war." Basically, the frigate's smaller cousin.

Letters of marque or an equivalent can be given by a governor, so I'd say it's possible.

[TheyMostlyComeAtNight]

@Click This; I just dug out my book on warships to discover that it only covers 1798 to 2006, I was wondering if you could suggest any good resources for learning about ships of this era, I know a little from reading historical fiction (well researched) but it's been a while :P

[Kho]

You can get a letter of marque from any governor. Port Royal was the favourite during this period.
Completely forgot about Corvettes ^^' will add them when I'm not feeling lazy.

Edit:

Ahem. Ninja'd.

[Jangel13]

so can we start and deal with all the politics later?

[Click This]

You might want to look at the book series British Warships in the Age of Sail. They cover vessels from the 1600s until the mid 1800s. I haven't read it myself, but I heard it's a very good resource and I'll eventually buy it myself. :p