Woah! Just a moment. I'll have you know Assassin's Creed Pirates did not lead me to believe that Man O War were the massive ships with 100 guns.... Sea Dogs 2 did....
it exists... its called black flag... AC5 is the one that doesnt exist. Until black flag AC games were numbered@@jefism "Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag" thats the official name, this come from ubisoft itself.
Thanks for sharing....my ancestor Captain Howell Davis was a pirate in the late 1600s to early 1700s....he was only 29 yrs old when killed.... cheers from Australia 😀
@@gilbertosantos2806 If you have sailors in your lineage, it is likely some of them engaged in occasional piracy, a lot of pirates were pirates of opportunity, the line is blurry between being a pirate and a regular sailor. For example William Kidd was originally a privateer and only became a pirate after capturing an English ship thinking it was a French ship but was pressured by his crew to keep the ship anyway.
I am wondering if there is any way to check if i am related to the great Bartholomew Roberts, bc I think I might be related (timeline lines up). Does anybody out there know of/have any sources or anything that maybe references that he had a child?
I'm more of a late 18th and early 19th Century naval nerd than a Pirate era nerd so this video is getting me hyped just like Pirates before taking a sip of their rum.
Ships from these times were so much smaller in reality than people think. I’ve visited many and the only way to put it in perspective is to see it for yourself
I have seen several of them, and nobody thinks they are bigger and in fact are always shocked at how big they are. The biggest "age of sail" ships were massive, and taller than some modern business district buildings, some weighing several thousand tons, like the HMS Victoria that weighed about 7000 tons, and was just over 60 meters tall. The fact is, these ships are bigger than everyone thinks. When tall ships come to port, people are always amazed when the mast and sails can be seen over the horizon, long before the ship can be seen. Every time!
6:14 as you say one mistake is that heavier ships were slower in general, this wasn't strictly true heavier ships were slower in light winds and sea states, however in conditions with heavier winds and rougher seas a heavier vessel was faster. This is why pirate captain could often be seen with 2 ships one smaller and one bigger, so that they can chase down ships whatever the sea state.
@@AxR558 DW, I played so much Classic WoW, I had 16 LvL 60s (2 accounts) I was so much in Stranglethorn Vale to do Zul'Gurub on Alts. I noticed the music in this video almost instantly. Cheers!
@@AxR558 Same, I just had to play Classic too, to experience all classes 2x. Not be a noob ;) which I think was important, then I realized how easy it was when everybody in my guild had basically 15 years of experience, haha still fun tho!
The Ship's Wheel was actually likely invented in the late 1600s and was adopted on naval vessels by 1701, though there is a possibility merchantmen were using it in some capacity beforehand (it was likely a nifty idea by random private shipwrights and possibly used in experimental capacity before 1700, but 1701 is when official navies likely took note of it). When it was invented is highly unclear but I find it quite possible it was used by late-golden age (1705-1725) pirates, so I believe the Queen Anne's Revenge may have very likely had one.
It did have wheels. That’s a fact. You can go on a tour and visit the actual ship wreck and look for yourself, view the reconstruction in the aquarium located nearby, or just look at photos. Source: I fucking live there and have seen it myself multiple times
Glad you mentioned Blackbeard's wreck as an accident whereas many have said it was done purposely. I was reading the other day about how both of his ships wrecked in the same spot and thought that it was very unlikely that there was some kind of plot to do so. It is my hypothesis that black beard had a plan that involved separating the crews temporarily with intentions to regroup but was detained in his plan due to unforeseen events such as sickness or laying low due to his bounty etc and not simply due to his greed like many had suggested. Many see him as a captain of one ship when he was elected Commodore of a company of ships from my understanding. The general history tries hard to make him a villain and seemingly giving all kudos to Henry Jennings. I imagine for the people who read it in the 18th century, black beard appeared like the devil incarnate and the others who were described a cut of a similar cloth.
It's very unlikely that Blackbeard would have wanted to sink the QAR since it was his greatest asset, I discuss it more in the video i've done on the QAR and also the Blockade on Charleston video so I'll refer you to those
The North Carolina Outer Banks are shifting sand dunes in the Ocean, the depths are often changing a channel may be deep then after a storm it may be shallow. Queen Ann"s Revenge was not the first to make this mistake.
I've heard that the definition of 'ship' vs. 'boat' is that a ship is any vessel too large to be carried on board another ship. A boat of whatever size, as long as it could (theoretically?) be carried on board a larger vessel. Great video, as always.
For sailing vessels it’s about standing masts, 3 or more are ships less are boats. Other vessels depends on if they carry cargo, if they do they are ships if not they are boats. Passenger ships have sleeping cabins for passengers if not they are passenger boats.
This topic is further confused by navy history as Ships of the line would often be referred to as man o' war by their crews and even officers, while this was not universal it was not uncommon.
It isn't really confusing, man o war is simply the old word for warship. It makes perfect sense to call warships warships and for pirates to try and turn their merchantmen into man o war
A navy Manowar had a Penant denoting it as such, if the navy chose to give a Penant to a rowboat with one swivel gun, it was a Manowar. If the navy chose to give a Penant to a ship armed with nothing but excessive flatulence and bad language, you guessed it. A privateer or pirate was not a Manowar no matter how heavily armed unless comissioned by a navy and a captain or higher ranked officer chose to honour the ship with a Penant.
Another top notch video with excellent infos! And thanks for mentioning Sabatini's Captain Blood, I just love the book. The best scene in it for me was when the governor gets on the Spanish ship that just had been captured by Blood, thinking that it's now his official property...only to find out that Blood's crew is loyal only to Captain Blood and that he's probably about to get hanged by them any moment, especially after treating them so badly when they were his slaves. When I read this passage I couldn't help but smiling from ear to ear. This man did some great writing for sure.
Colonel Bishop was not the governor of Barbados. The governor was called Steed. Bishop was just a wealthy planter. But later in the book Bishop became the governor of Port Royal as far as i remember
I find it fascinating that the cruiser basically took over the frigate’s role in the 19th century, carrying out long-distance voyages independent of the rest of the fleet
The whipstaff is called kolderstok in Dutch. Kolder is crazy, stok is stick, crazystick. It was dangerous, of course. Whipstaff says it all. Great word.
My ancestor was Sir Francis Drake a man who if you were a Spaniard was considered a " pirate" so pirates are interesting. Not exactly heroic but intersting.
I love both pirates and navies at the time. I love the Great Galleons, the Mighty Frigates, and the Legendary Ships Of The Line. These are my favorite ships. I just dont know why there are fewer of them during these times. Please message where can I still see and ride these types of ships. They look so adorably beautiful!!
HMS Victory at Portsmouth. The Vasa in Sweden. USS Constitution in America. HMS Trincomalee and HMS Unicorn in North England and South Scotland. HMS Terror at Portsmouth.
@@thedictationofallah thank you also i see the ship in the age of sails is french frigate ship hermoine 32 guns is replica real warship in american revolutionary war
8:00 I think the iconic wheel was invented around the turn of the 18th century (the year 1703 or 1702 pops to mind). It was adopted very early by the new navy of Peter the Great of Russia
I generally think a Man-of-War would be referring to ships that served far longer than they have any right to be serving. Like Ships-of-the-line and Frigates serving since the 1680s to the 1750s. And I liked the mindset the pirates had in regards to their ships, placing enough firepower to be a formidable, and being lean and fast to get away if things don't go their way or to run some unfortunate merchantmen down.
I'm doing a book set in the late 18th century and I have scene where the main characters are arguing with another character about leading a mutiny against a British frigate's captain and turning pirate.
Let's not forget the pirates of the English channel. I live near an island that was only inhabited to keep them away. 400 years ago, they sent 40 families to settle Sark. Now there's only 1.
If I'm right, a man of war is any ship fitted or refitted for the purpose of naval combat; a frigate is a warship with a singular gun deck and a ship of the line is anything with two or more full gun decks straight at both sides to optimise broadside firepower. I will gladly accept corrections because I probably made several mistakes.
@@trangho5317 As I understand, most heavily armed ships had chasers either at the bow or stern or even both. They were an integral part of pursuit, whish made up a large part of ship combat. Even merchant ships were known to carry stern chasers and many ships built to pursue would have bow chasers. As I understand, it was an irregularity to not have chasers of some kind.
Ah, conventions resulted in confusion. Starboard! Does that mean rudder to starboard, or tiller to starboard? When the wheel won the ham & eggs prize, starboard got RUDDER to starboard, which is ship turning to starboard. Unless heaving to, but that is for the ship's nurd. Will you believe, such simple things as "dude, starboard!" have really gone awfully wrong?
Concerning wheels, the Nottingham Galley (wrecked 1710 off the coast of Maine) was described as a frigate rigged galley, and it was also noted that she was equipped with a double wheeled helm, and it was implied that she was not a new ship at the time of her loss. But the way her helm was mentioned repeatedly it it seems to suggest that it wasn't something that was common at the time (at least not in the trans-Atlantic trade with New England) it seems that tillers with relieving tackles were the rule at least in and aroung the New England Coasts. Of course the most common vessels at this time was also the fairly diminutive pinky schooners. Which having worked on the building, fitting out and ses trials of the Ardelle, suprisingly agile and fast....
The wheel of a large ship is not what it used to be. Today powerful and strong hydraulic machines do the hard labour for you. But the rudder of a large ship is large and incredibly strong, so in the years before hydraulics, you needed a group of strong men controlling the wheel, during rough conditions. Storm and high seas were dangerous. The other side of the picture is, when sailing, the helmsman FEELS how rough the situation is. Holding the helm, you literally feel the rudder pushing. Compare that to powersteering, you turn the wheel, but you get no feedback about the forces on the rudder. I really hope, modern ships do have force feedback on the joysticks they have on the bridge. With such feedback, the officer steering can FEEL the ship, just as the old and dangerous steering wheels did. You bet you felt the rudder taking control of that wheel. Do you hear the men screaming: all hands to the wheel! Help!?
another reason why pirates wouldn't want to engage in sea battles: gunpowder and cannonballs don't grow on trees. and while you can make charcoal from any old tree you find on an island somewhere, and you could make nitrate from the urine of your fellow sailors if you tried hard enough, you still need to buy the sulfour and the cannonballs.
Ok those of you wondering what is a Man O War... You know how in the 1940s there was a surface ship fighting surface ship that was classed as being larger than a cruiser called a battleship, and cruisers continued while battleships did not? Well at one point there was one classed as bigger than the battleship called the Man O War, and the Battleship continued while the Man O War did not. Keep in mind this was during an era when ships were made of wood and slowly being replaced by ships made of steel in order to make them bigger to be able to carry more coal.
@@trangho5317 I already know the channel owner well enough to know that if I make a mistake he can correct it, with me that is a sign of trust. But I also have memories of admitting to trust not going very well.
I believe that the thing that introduced general public to term Men-o-War wasn't Black Flag, but rather was Sea Dogs/Corsairs series which also relied too heavily on making the ships fit clear definitions and be easily recognisable from a distance(a staple of videogame design, player needs to have information on what they're facing to be able to wager the risk and reward). It had pretty much every ship name in existence used and attributed to one ship model or another. There were like 30-40 ships in first game alone😅 P.S.: Sid Meier's Pirates does the same, but it doesn't have Men-o-War.
Very nice video again. I think you could have mentioned famous Madagascar India Ocean pirate battles one between Robert Culliford's Mocha Frigate, a very heavily armed large ship, which may have had even mortars as it was reported by the eyewitnes, with an large armed Indiaman Dorrill in 1697 (found in Pirates in Their own words document 64). This illustrated pirates worry for they could not repair their ship's mainmast without port facilities and thus they retreated. In 1720 and Sea fight Between Edward England's ship and Indiaman Cassandra (Pirates in Their own words ducument 55) was another bloody incident, one which pirates won. As a more general note, I think Indiamen were also heavy armed ships, that could have been noted more. Anyway like said great video again!🏴☠
Of course, understandable. Just that you seemed to say, to me at least, that the one fight of De Graaf was the "only" pirate cannon battle among large vessels and wanted to point out two real incidents. But, hearing the part of the video again, I kinda get what you mean. Anyway, Great content again, cheers! 🏴☠
I’ve studied the design and development of wooden warships from 1550 to 1860 for 12 years and currently studying the age of establishments from the 1670s to the 1740s of the Royal Navy is there any way I could get in contact with you? To talk about the subject?
Say what you will about 'Pirates' or Assassins Creed, but the only reason a lot of younger folk are interested in history at all are because of those media franchises.
Wouldn't it be great to capture a fast frigate, round up a motley crew and make her faster! Have an excellent cannon master and head to South America to capture Spanish galleons hauling treasure...
7:20 Not to mention that many accidents occured because most types among pirate crews who acted perfectly reliable and psychologically disabled at first, later after the rum got into them, were show to actually be rather indisabled 💩🤦🏻♂️🤦🏿♂️🙎🏿♂️
Very few Pirates had Ships of the Line (Men O' War). They took too many hands (over 200, usually closer to 400) to man, were FAR too costly to provision and arm, and un-handy in maneuvering. A Man O' War would be a 64 gun ship at least-watch "Master and Commander" and compare and contrast "Surpize" with the French Frigate Privateer "Acheron". The French Privateer was an exception to the rule, indeed! Around the West Indies, and Bahamas where most Pirates "earned their keep", two-masted 16-20 gun ships, would dash-out between islands, grab what they could from slow tubby cargo ships, and dash back to hide. Trading shot with another ship wasn't in a Pirate's best interest. Damage and causalities were too costly versus the gains.
There's a YT short explaining that Black Cats were seen by Pirates as good luck charms, for catching vermin (rats) on their ships and even flag designs. Don't know about them joining fights though, lol.
my friend, I love your videos, do you have the chance to play the famous games from akella?, pirate games based on the caribbean 17 century, I mostly loved sea dogs to each his own.
El Santísima Trinidad lucho en Trafalgar contra 6 buques y estaba destruyendo a varios de ellos cuando uno de los navíos franceses, por incompetentes de los marinos franceses, se cruzo en la libra de tiro del Santísima Trinidad y no pudo seguir destruyendo a los británicos. Las pérdidas británicas fueron mucho más grandes de lo que dijeron. En Cádiz hubo una epidemia y gran parte de los marineros eran campesinos sin experiencia.
Yes they did as an Indiaman is any European ship engaged in trade with the East Indies. As it is engaged in trade they are merchant men but are large given the long voyage and heavily armed for a merchant man.
Sloops I understand, but how exactly would a crew plunder a prize using a periagua, it just always seems like too small a vessel to hold enough men or armament to actually take a (presumably at least slightly larger) merchant vessel. Also, do you know of any good sources on the life of Benjamin Hornigold, I’ve found that sources often disagree on all sorts of information, especially the kind of ships he commanded and his ‘mentorship’ of Teach? Love the content, keep up the great work.
Hey GG can you do a video on pirate captain clothing please and can I do reactions to your videos on my RU-vid channel I’ll link your amazing channel and everything I love your videos as will and I join your discord server as will
Lookout: “sails” Rackham “what kind of ships?” Degroot: “what difference does it make.” Rackham: “shut up” Lookout: “three large ships, two sloops, and… Rackham: “one man o war.”, make for that flotilla pls.”
In Master and Commander both HMS Surprise and USS Acheron are frigates. By that time a frigate is a ship rigged Man of war of the 4th, 5th or 6th rate. Always even at the low end the command of a Post Captain. I am not sure why the film kept the title of Master and Commander which is the rank below Post Captain and implies the absence of a sailing master on the ship.
8:16 I don't think this is correct - running downwind is not the fastest way to sail as far as I know. But maybe you meant wind from a general point of behind and I am overanalyzing.
I didn't understand what the expert meant with the end of the line of rowers being attached to a spindle and extra men. Can you rephrase it in layman's terms?
can you explain whats with those ships back in the day and their names? did many of the ships had same names? sharps trinity isnt the santissima trinidad of the trifalgar that got sank right? did nations have multiple ships of the same name?
