Frigates and Men o' War | Pirate Ship Types

If you look at most pirates during the Golden Age, they were content with going on short trips, stealing a bit of money, and then going home to blow it all away on rum and women. For this purpose they didn't need anything bigger than a sailboat the likes of a sloop or brigantine.

But there were pirates that wanted to achieve more. They wanted to capture large merchants, blockade cities, or travel across the ocean. For these purposes, they needed a much bigger boat. Huge ships that could travel far and fast, carry large crews and lots of cannons. In the right hands, these vessels had the ability to destabilize local commerce, or even cause international crises. In this video we will cover the ship that you NEVER wanted to meet at sea: the pirate man of war.

0:00 Introduction
0:46 Man-of-War
3:41 Frigate
4:54 Ship
6:11 Construction
11:25 Acquisition and Refitting
14:12 Usage

I know the slide to "Acquisition and Refitting" says "Construction". Feel free to leave a comment telling me about it...

Sources:
The Sea Rover's Practice - Benerson Little
The Buccaneer's Realm - Benerson Little
A General History of the Pyrates - Charles Johnson
Warfare at Sea - Jan Glete

#pirates #ships #history #manofwar

[robertdavis]

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 😀

[thedictationofallah]

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.

[rachdarastrix]

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....

[heisenfeis]

I sure love the WoW music. "Stranglethorn Vale Music Complete (WoW Classic Music) - World of Warcraft Music"

[CosplayZine]

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.

[Alex-cwrz]

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.

[jackrice]

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.

[PewDiePie]

You are a hero for combining this amount of hard researched information to really explain what these really are.

[funnelvortex]

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.

[itslit]

Using the strangethorn music from classic wow and it acually fitting very well is so funny😅

[vilstef]

I'm presently reading Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturan books so your content is really up my alley.

[AlexanderWernerJr]

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.

[bonefetcherbrimley]

The music in the background is stranglethorn vale, from the game world of warcraft.

[gasfrommyanusii]

This is barely 300 years ago and we've lost so much information on history

[cherub]

That's got to be the Stranglethorn Vale music at the start right? Great choice.

[BeerBreakfast]

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

[voornaam]

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.

[kingofcapp]

12:15 The adventure galley was built too swiftly -5 months- caulking was loose and she basically started to fall apart rather quickly.

[lukesams]

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

[skeletor]

Awesome video. So much detail. I loved it!