02-14-2010, 04:39 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
What crew would be required for an age of sail ship and what skills would they need?
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02-14-2010, 04:49 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: in your pocket, stealing all your change
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
I had a whole Age of Sail campaign planned, with ship stats and everything.
My computer got formated though, and my notes are burried in my mess... I recall something though. And if I recall correctly, a "skeleton crew" (minimum possible to make a ship move), the kind pirates would assign to a captured vessel until you were able to crew it properly, was around 8 depending on the size of the ship it could be up to 15. That's just to get the ship moving and tagging along with your main vessel, it won't fire cannons, and you'll run into problems if you hit a storm. Shiphandling is for whoever is commanding/guiding the ship and Professional Skill (Sailor) for everyone else. This is all off my memory, and I'm not even at home now, so I can't check what little I have. When I get back home (Wednesday) I'll give you a better answer. IDHMBWM either, but 3e books like Swashbucklers and Low-Tech can give a little insight. Edit: 3e Vehicles may generate some aproximations, although I never had it and if I recall correctly it's very poor in the "build your own sailboat" department. Last edited by Gudiomen; 02-14-2010 at 04:53 AM. |
02-14-2010, 06:29 AM | #3 | |
Icelandic - Approach With Caution
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Reykjavík, Iceland
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
Quote:
Frigate? Line of Battle Ship? Sloop? Merchant ship of some sort? |
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02-14-2010, 07:04 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: The Great White North
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
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A merchant ship would have a minimum crew to safely reach their destination. A warship would have a deck crew (to work the sails), a gun crew and probably marines. Longer voyages would have more crew in case some die, especially if they don't plan on going to any port that may have trained replacements for hire.
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02-14-2010, 02:20 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
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All of the non-officer crew were expected to turn to to handle ropes and such unless they were disabled to some degree (the Afterguard, the ships boys and such). In combat each gun had a core crew, plus men who could be detached to assist the sail teams, frequently a marine assigned to help handle the gun until he was needed somewhere else and what have you. Other key specialists in the crew would be the carpenter, the ships master (navigator) and his mates, the gunner (essentially the ship's armourer), the boatswain (responsible for the rigging) and the sailmaker. The purser (who would be called a quartermaster in modern terms) and the cook did not get their positions on merit. In game terms the gun captains probably have Gunner (artillery) but a lot of people are mainly there as manual labour. Climbing is a key skill for anyone who might find themselves aloft (most of the crew) as is the ability to use ropes. In the Royal Navy at least, alcohol tolerance was virtually compulsary. |
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02-14-2010, 02:51 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: The Great White North
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
Also the coxswain, who steered the ship during battle.
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02-14-2010, 03:17 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
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Bill Stoddard |
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02-14-2010, 03:56 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
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In naval vessels, the post was civil rather than military. Like a ship's surgeon, he was supposed to be a trained expert in his field.
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02-14-2010, 05:14 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
All of the above
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02-14-2010, 05:45 PM | #10 |
Icelandic - Approach With Caution
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Reykjavík, Iceland
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Re: Crewing a ship in the Age of Sail
Updated for modern times, your question reads like this "In the latter half of the 20th Century how many people were required to crew a ship?" You are, in my opinion, completely ignoring the fact that there are and were many different types of ship and each type had a different crew requirement.
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age of sail, pirate, ships, swashbucklers |
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