In this video we'll take a look at the most common ship types used by pirates to terrorize the Seven Seas... And I say pirates, but to specify: European Colonial Sea Rovers active during the 1630 to 1730 period. If this sounds very niché to you, yeah, it is, because my channel specializes in a niché topic. This allows me to go deeper into the details rather than presenting a bland overview, which you'll be able to find anywhere on Youtube. The pirates of this period were very much unlike any other group in history, and the societal ramifications which spawned and allowed them need to be studied separately from other piratical groups. So you won't find me covering ships used by the Barbary Rovers, or Mediterranean vessels. Or vessels in the 1500s, like the Carrack, Galleon or Caravel. Or vessels invented afterwards - The cutter for example, a 19th century name for a type of sloop. Ships of the line or rated ships, never used by pirates and never built in the colonies. Asian ships, like the junk. The list of stuff I won't cover probably goes on and on, but yeah, that should give you the gist of it. This video is an overview, but don't worry, I will make individual videos about all of the ships featured here, and some of them are already made and published! I want to start out with some terminology explaining the roles assigned to pirate ships in a fleet. "Man-of-War" means...any ship outfitted for combat. It basically just means "Warship"(a term never used in the period). Pirates used "Man-of-War" in reference to their flagship. "Privateer", is an abbreviation of "Private Man of War". It was any ship outfitted for raiding commerce. Pirates used "privateer" in reference to the smaller fighting ships in their fleet. These were used for scouting, chasing, etc. "Tender" was a ship used for carrying supplies. It was usually the least seaworthy and slowest ship in the fleet. A Tender was sometimes called a "Dogger" in the 17th century. "Hospital ship" was...you guessed it: a vessel of the fleet used for keeping the sick and wounded. It was preferably large and heavy, meaning it was more stable and comfortable. Take Blackbeard's fleet, for example. At the peak of his career he commanded a 300-ton ship named the Queen Anne's Revenge; two English-built sloops; and a Spanish sloop. The Queen Anne was designated as "Man-of-War", the flagship. The English sloops, being fast and well built, were designated as "Privateers". The Spanish sloop, being slower, was designated as their "Tender", and used for carrying supplies. Blackbeard did not have a hospital ship - he may have kept the sick and wounded aboard the Queen Anne, or aboard the tender. With the fleet hierarchy out of the way, let's get into the ships. Let’s start out with the most used pirate ship, that being the sloop. Now, you might’ve noticed that technically the sloop isn’t a ship. By definition, a ship is full rigged, meaning it has three masts and square sails... ...but period writers, including pirates, used the words interchangeably, so I’m just saying "ship" for simplicity’s sake. Technically the sloop is a sailboat. Anyway. The sloop was one of -the- most common vessels in the Caribbean. It’s rather cheap and easy to make, since the colonies didn’t have the same level of industry and economy as europe. They were used for a lot of purposes like trade and fishing, and came in a lot of sizes. Some were purpose-built for privateering aswell. Indeed, the best sloops were produced in Jamaica, which was pretty much a pirate nation throughout the entire period, arguably for the rest of the 18th century. After the Jamaican cedar almost went extinct, the island of Bermuda became the sloop-capital of the new world. With the sloop you can do a lot of things. You can sail into shallow waters, you can row it in calm winds. If you had a bigger flagship, you could use the sloop as a scouting vessel or tender, a supply ship. So yeah very good. If you want to learn more about the sloop, I already have a video about it published, but I will also publish a second edition later this year. Whilst the sloop was a very popular pirate ship, the galleon, hmm, not so much. Now, I’ve given the galleon a pretty hard time on my channel. It’s seen as very iconic to pirates, even though they literally never used them. Now, "galleon" refers to two things. During the Renaissance, it was a broad category of ships used for a variety of purposes: War, trade...these were often the same. They were full rigged, and had very high sections in the front and back of the ship. These sections made them considerably unwieldy at sea, so, by 1650, ships were built more slim. The galleon as a ship type, had died. The second meaning of "galleon" was Spanish Treasure Ship. These were massive cargo freighters travelling in convoys between Spain and the New World. They were slow and clumsy, so even if a pirate could capture them, which they couldn't, they'd have no interest in commandeering them. There were some exceptions. The Manila Galleon travelling between Asia and Mexico, was smaller and travelled alone - pirates did sometimes capture them. There were also ships built "galleon-style," meaning they had high castles and galleries. (called "Galeon-fashion" and yes he spelled galleon with one L so take the other one) If a pirate commandeered either of these vessels, they cut these sections down to make the ship faster and more stable. And you know, what people usually like about the galleon is their imposing look. And pirates, you know, didn't agree! It's kind of funny. So yeah. Galleons? Never used by pirates. Just like the sloop, I have a video about galleons on my channel - it goes deeper into the treasure convoys, the Manila galleon, and also the Honduras ship! Next we have a boat which is, kind of unknown to the modern audience, but was very common and popular in the period. That is the bark. Now, it’s a simple name, for a simple vessel. Of varying size, usually small, it was really just a wooden tub with two masts Yup, that’s it. It was used from the thirteen colonies down to chile, by merchants, fishermen, smugglers…and you guessed it, pirates. And pirate hunters too. There’s even an incident of a stranded privateer building his own bark. They were very flexible. They were fairly fast, could be fitted with cannons, performed well with oars, and were excellent auxiliary ships. It should really get more attention, and I look forward to making its own video about it. And I hope you look forward to it aswell! I should also note that...the word "bark" is really simple. Meaning it has been used to describe a lot of different vessels throughout the Age of Sail! ! In the late 18th century it was a full-rigged ship but oh look - it's the late 18th century. And as I said this video is only focused on the colonial world in the 1630 to 1730 period. You find other examples of names changing meaning in different time periods, and even regions at the same time. A sloop in the Caribbean was a one-masted sailboat. But in England, it was any small (unrated) Man-of-War, regardless of rigging. In Scandinavia and The Netherlands, it was a masted ship's boat. The brigantine is part of a family of vessels with a similar rigging and hull construction. All of them were built long and sharp, lean and fast, and were very much perfect pirate ships. Being built with two masts, the brigantine had only square sails, and performed very well with oars. And yeah, I know that in the 1700s the brigantine rig had more sails added to it. But during the Golden Age of Piracy - only square sails. As I said: terminology changed, ships developed... The brigantine was most popular with the French who called it “corvette”. If you want to learn more about the Brigantine - and its cousins - I have a video about them published! Pretty much identical to the brigantine is the…brig. The only difference is that it has a gaff or lateen sail on its mizzen. There isn’t much more to say about the brig, otherwise used the same way as the brigantine, but it’s more well known. People usually think that pirate brigs had the same rigging as brigs in the late 1700s, which is completely wrong. It's mostly thanks to Assassin's Creed IV which (re)used the brig from the previous game which was set in the 18th century(American Revolution) You know... rigging in the early 18th century and especially the 1600s, it was much more rudimentary. Next in the brig family we have the snow, which looks exactly like a brig! Well! The difference is that the snow actually has three masts, not two... It carries its back sail on a really small mast just behind the mizzen. Pretty weird, I don’t know why they did it, it’s kinda troll, but I like the snow. Does that rhyme? If you thought we’re going bigger, hell no, we’re going back to the stone age, baby. Next we’re talking about the canoe. This was one of the most common watercraft found in the Caribbean. They were often used as ship's boats instead of the more european-style rowboat. The most common canoe was initially designed by the Carib, an indigenous tribe that lived in the Caribbean - they weren't native, though. They had invaded in the previous centuries. Their canoes were long, sharp, and really fast. They would also decorate them with wooden carvings. One canoe was described, as having a monkey carved into the back of it. The canoe itself was made from hollowing out a tree trunk. Either with axes or stone tools or even by burning them. But some Europeans built them with keels and planking. It was often made by pirates themselves! They were fast, could go anywhere, even be modified to head into deeper waters. Whilst they didn’t carry cannons, you could only fire muskets from them, pirates have been recorded as capturing actual ships with them! My personal image of a pirate isn't some guys on a big ship... ...but a bunch of half-naked, sunburned savages, reloading and firing muskets, while lying prone in stone age canoes and piraguas. You know, you should learn to love it baby. Next up we have the canoe’s big bad cousin: The Piragua. It’s basically just a large canoe that has been fitted with one or two masts and somesort of sail. Essentially, just a superior canoe. Could carry more men and plunder, could move faster, yeah. Some of the largest piraguas were even called “man of war” piraguas. Pretty troll. They could sail up rivers, shallow waters, you name it. Very underrated, cool name aswell. Essentially the viking longship of the Caribbean. So here we have a variety of vessels which I prefer to call “launch”, though they went by a bunch of names like pinnace, shallop, double-shallop…whatever. They are really just large, masted rowboats, that could carry more men, a sail, and sometimes cannons. Usually they were fitted with swivel guns atleast, and were very useful for hunting targets in calm winds. Woodes Rogers used them alongside his flagship for this purpose. Having those small, nimble vessels alongside a frigate…mmhm, very sexy. The launch greases my gears. However as far as I know it was only really used by European privateers, not any colonial pirates. But, if you want to learn more about the launch, and piraguas and canoes, I have a video published about them. Next we have the half-galley. These vessels originate from the Mediterranean galley of the renaissance, except that they were smaller and built in the Caribbean. They were primarily propelled by rowing, and were used for coastal patrolling, pirate hunting, and pirating. They carried swivel guns, and sometimes even a full carriage gun in the fore. Being incredibly effective, the Spanish used them in raiding several pirate towns, and pirates likewise captured and used them aswell. It's a very cool vessel, and the subject of an upcoming ship video - so stay tuned. Alright, we’ll finally move down to the fan favorite, the frigate. Now, I’ll kindof include any full-rigged ships used by pirates in this. The reason why is that pirates couldn’t just build a frigate perfect for piracy. They had to capture whatever full-rigged ship, which wasn’t an easy task, and then refit it for their purposes. They could capture anything, they could capture merchant ships. In the Indian Ocean they usually captured East Indiamen. And preferably they would capture a ship that was already quite fast, such as slave ships. Of course it should be noted that just because a ship was a frigate or full rigged, doesn't mean that it was necessarily big. There is this image for example of a frigate which seems to be about 100 tons burthen, which is about the size of the largest sloops. But most full-rigged ships would've weighed between 200 to 300 tons burthen. Atleast those used by pirates and people in the colonies. When pirates captured them they would modify them by cutting down unnecessary sections, adding more cannon and swivels…making them lean, mean, killing machines. Large ships were quite rare in the new world since they were more costly to use, and unwieldy. But they were really common with pirates in Africa and the Indian Ocean since in the open ocean you need a more seaworthy and reliable ship. So, a lot of frigates and full-rigged ship were built to be partially propelled by oars. These were called galleys, galley frigates, oared frigates…what have you. They either had a separate deck for the oars, or had the oarports fitted between the cannons on the gundeck. These were fast and flexible, and really some of the best pirate vessels out there. I'll also cover the Oared Frigate in the upcoming galley video. The Ketch! A two-masted vessel with a square-rigged mainmast and a lateen mizzen. She had a thick hull, a rounded stern, and was overall described as being quite clumsy and unwieldy. She made long voyages longer, and that didn’t make her too favored by pirates. But, in one incident, she was able to escape the spanish coast guard, who used very fast vessels. Pirates could also use the ketch deceptively, making their targets think they were weak, and then bait them in for the attack. This very recognizable ship is the flute. Whilst originally a Dutch design, she was eventually adapted by all other European countries. Especially the Spanish. She was a very good merchant ship, since she could sail into shallow waters, carry a lot of cargo, and could be managed by a small crew. However, she wasn’t that fast, often having very short masts. So I don’t think she was ever used by pirates. Not that many atleast. Some speculate that the Queen Anne’s Revenge was a flute - that was Blackbeard’s ship. One eyewitness described the Queen Anne as having a dutch look to her, and though she was captured from the French, she may originally have been built in the Netherlands. But I don’t buy it personally, since most eyewitnesses described the Queen Anne as looking French. I have a video remake about the Queen Anne coming up in a few months, and I will discuss this a bit more. And I'll also go into the differences between the Dutch and French ships of the period. Anyway, the flute was a common target for pirates, but not often used by them. The Pink was essentially a small flute, though it described a sort of hull, not the rigging. The hull in question had a rounded front and a small, high stern - very similar to the flute. They were described as being very fast, and could be rigged in a multitude of ways Some were rigged like Ketches, others were full rigged, like the 90-ton HMS Paramour commanded by Edmond Halley, the astronomer. Pinks were common prizes and sometimes even commandeered by pirates. The largest (that I know of) was probably the 140-ton, 20-gun La Paix commandeered by Louis Guitarr in the year 1699. There's a guy in my Discord server obsessed with the Rose, a pink commandeered by Ned Low. There's next to no information about her though, a few mentions in A General History of the Pyrates. But yeah, pinks were relatively common amongst pirates - more than the flute. The schooner. Now, this is a very iconic vessel. While it was built longer than the sloop, you can most easily tell it apart by its iconic rigging, and it is incredibly common in pirate media, especially the older stuff. The Hispaniola in Treasure Island is a schooner, for example. Though the schooner rigging may have been around in the 1600s, the term did not appear until the early 1700s. And the vessel did not become popular until a few decades. But a few pirates did capture and use them, like Edward Low. And they do look nice. There’s also an element of risk reward to using schooners. They are very fast, but hard and dangerous to sail - they can easily tip over. Since most light vessels were rowed, schooners likely had oars too - and though I’ve never seen any picture of an oared schooner, the image is very sexy in my head. Well my friends, that concludes the overview of the ships. I may have forgotten or left out some vessels, but these should be the most common ones used by pirates. Like I said in the opening, I intend to cover all of these ships in their own videos: some of which are already published. You'll find them on my channel, I even have a playlist about pirate ships. I'll post it at the end of the video. The next video will be about Galleys, it's coming out in a month. I hope you look forward to it!
