Ship warfare before cannons

[Dangerious P. Cats]

How can naval warfare be conducted without cannons at Tech levels 0-3 (maybe 4 even) outside of boarding actions?

[Christian]

The mediterranean did see a lot of ramming action pre gunpowder. Also ballistas, scorpios and catapults with greek fire where the tools of choice.

[Sir Tifyable]

Archers and crossbows as well. More importantly, why would you want to conduct naval warfare without boarding actions? If you're badly outnumbered you might want to take out some of the opposition by using Greek fire or fire-arrows on their sails, but basically ships (and their cargoes, and their crews) are valuable.

If you can board and take a ship at Tech 0-3, you not only get a nice "new" warship to add to your fleet, but you can grab their sailors to sell or use as slaves. (OK - GURPS doesn't have much on slavery because of modern morality, but it was a firm fixture in economic life in most societies at those tech levels. Especially if the ships concerned are galleys...)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Sir Tifyable

why would you want to conduct naval warfare without boarding actions?

Ships that have dangerous cargoes spring to mind: fire ships, plague ships and so on.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Christian

The mediterranean did see a lot of ramming action pre gunpowder. Also ballistas, scorpios and catapults with greek fire where the tools of choice.

It should be noted that only lightly built galleys were ever likley to be sunk by ramming. By the time you approach the european seasoned timber sailing ship being rammed by a galley won't stave in the sides. Ramming was a smple way to set up boarding.

Either yoiu're trying to capture the target ship by boarding or you're trying to escape it or drive it off with fire arrows. The masts and sails were particularly vulnerable to catching on fire.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It should be noted that only lightly built galleys were ever likley to be sunk by ramming. By the time you approach the european seasoned timber sailing ship being rammed by a galley won't stave in the sides. Ramming was a simple way to set up boarding.

Only true if the targets are too tough to sink by ramming, or the rammers strike prow to prow. The ancient Athenian and Rhodian navies made a specialty of ramming their enemies in the sides or rear, or shearing their oars, and leaving them to sink. Fleets with heavier ships or less skilled crews preferred to ram prow to prow and then board.

To confuse matters, in some periods (eg. the 16th century Mediterranean) 'rams' were basically reinforced boarding bridges designed to impact at deck level, not below the waterline. This confuses students of one period who glance at the other.

I would also add that the 'heavier hull designs are too tough to ram' theory is speculative (except for possibly some incidents in the 15th century and later). In the case of ancient ships, we know waterline rams fell out of use around the time that a new tradition of hull construction took over, but I don't recall contemporary statements or modern experiments proving a link.

Some warships have had good-sized torsion engines or trebuchets onboard. The ancient world has incidents of shooting heavy stones: one luxury roundship carried engines to shoot 12 cubit darts or 80 kg stones, and there are several incidents of shooting jars of pitch or noxious creatures.

[Azinctus]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

The ancient Athenian and Rhodian navies made a specialty of ramming their enemies in the sides or rear, or shearing their oars, and leaving them to sink.

The brutality of shearing oars cannot be overestimated. If a rower or rowers on the rammed ship doesn't lift his/their oar fast enough then they will be struck in the chest by their oar, with all the weight of the ramming ship on the other end of a well braced lever.

Nigel Tranter described the tactic quite graphically in his novel The Lord of The Isles.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Azinctus

The brutality of shearing oars cannot be overestimated. If a rower or rowers on the rammed ship doesn't lift his/their oar fast enough then they will be struck in the chest by their oar,

...well,... or in the back by the oar of the crewman sitting behind him.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It should be noted that only lightly built galleys were ever likley to be sunk by ramming. By the time you approach the european seasoned timber sailing ship being rammed by a galley won't stave in the sides. Ramming was a smple way to set up boarding.

Either yoiu're trying to capture the target ship by boarding or you're trying to escape it or drive it off with fire arrows. The masts and sails were particularly vulnerable to catching on fire.

Not always so simple given that the numbers on each galley were roughly equal. Finding the right place to board was important.

See Gunpowder and Galleys by Guilmartin

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

How can naval warfare be conducted without cannons at Tech levels 0-3 (maybe 4 even) outside of boarding actions?

Ramming. But the ramming was generally a prelude to dropping the ramps and boarding..... Even after cannon, boarding remained a viable tactic until the ironclads.

There was a certain amount of using catapults w/pots of greek fire to try to set enemy ships aflame, but this was unreliable and dangerous.