Hey, everyone,

I was just wondering if any of you pirate afficionados might know about how many men it would take to crew a ship the size of The Maiden.

Also, could anyone suggest a good resource for finding this kind of information on line (or in book form)?

Thanks,

Shawn

(By the way, I came across this site, which has info on pirates, as the URL suggests, but it doesn't go into much detail on anything: )

The closest real world equivelant that I have found is a three masted pinnace - 180 crew 50 passengers, 12 demi-cannon per broadside, 120 displacement tons of cargo.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* Though somewhat longer the East Indiaman also works.


200 crew, 24 culverin broadside, 60 passengers, 160 displacement tons cargo.

For a D20 gaming sourcebook for ships I can recommend either Corsair or Skull & Bones. Corsair covers just ships and sea battles while Skull & Bones is a pirate setting for D20. Both are quite good.

These are with military crews - as merchantmen or pirates they would likely run short handed. But not much - ships could expect to lose a third of their crew on long voyages, disease, bad water, bad food, injury, and desertion were problems on military and merchant vessels alike.

Pirate ships stayed closer to home and suffered less from some of these problems, but sanitation on a pirate ship could lead to severe problems, especially since the preferred runs were in warm waters.

It was not until frigates and the ships of the line that specialized military vessels were created. Even the galleon was primarily a cargo vessel, just one with a lot of guns. It wasn't very good as either a warship or as a freighter I am afraid, but very impressive to look upon. The Spanish wanted an all in one design, and got a bad compromise.Many sank immediately upon being launched. The fast galleon was a vast improvement in stability, but at the cost of guns.

The Dutch in comparison created the first specialized freighter - the Fluyt (flute), which was cheap, big, and could function with a small crew. It was less devestating to lose ten fluyts than one gallleon. Despite being designed as a pure merchantman one fluyt became the most famous pirate ship of its time - , owner Edward Teach - aka Blackbeard. Another famous fluyt was named The Mayflower.

One of the ships mentioned on Burke's wonderful television program The Day the Universe Changed, the other thing that the fluyt is remembered for I am afraid is that it was the principal ship of its time for the slave trade.


Not quite a match for the Maiden, however converting the Maiden to a Fluyt would be a fairly easy task, mostly a change to the aft rigging. I have made an alternate stern mast for when I run Skull & Bones, and a temporary nameplate for The Queen Anne's Revenge And this is the Roger she will fly.


Using an established and well documented villain can make research really easy, and Tim Powers book On Stranger Tides gave me a very good starting point, as did H. P. Lovecraft's The Terrible Old Man, The Call of Cthulhu, and The Strange High House in the Mist... Pirates and the Cthulhu Mythos, who could ask for more?

The game will range from the Spanish Main to the Polynesian Islands, with a portion dealing with blackwater pirates near New England. Kingsport, and a small city called Innsmouth...

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* Fixed image links.

For those still looking for crews, a whole whack of new undead Pirates has just been released for Iron Kingdoms.

The Surprise in the O'Brian books had a crew of approximately 200 (I believe the movie starts with some text on screen mentioning the ship's complement @ 190-something, which fits) and was a small ship (one of the smallest serving at the time). The big seventy-fours and ships of the line might have 300, 400 or even over 500 men. This was a Man O War and you had to have 2 watches of men. So -for just seaman to sail the bugger- you'd have to have X number of sailors x2. Then there are the warrant officers (surgeon, purser, cook), the midshipmen, the lieutenant(s), the marines, etc.

In action, everybody is busy. Those not manning the sails, etc. are working the guns, or fighting from the decks with muskets, pistols, or cutlasses.

There was a saying in the British Navy "14 inches to a man." That's the space (width) allotted to a sailor to sling their hammock. In reality it was more like 28" because of the watches where half the men were on deck when your shift was sleeping.