Use the Core vehicle rules for ships (Core Rules, Vehicles) and Crew and Articles for the Company aboard (Era Rules). Ten hulls cover the vessels commonly encountered. The Jamaica sloop, prize galleon and Royal Navy sixth rate reproduce The Heavy Armory's Sloop, Galleon and Sixth rate rows unchanged; that source remains authoritative. Seven additional hulls use its format. For an unlisted vessel, choose the closest row.
Reading a Row
| Column | What it says |
|---|---|
| Scale | The vehicle's size category (Core Rules, Vehicles) |
| Speed | Maximum rate of movement, and the Speed used in a Chase (Sail Combat) |
| Handling | Adds Boon Dice (positive) or Bane Dice (negative) to Operate checks and to Chase checks |
| Armor | Reduces incoming Hull Damage |
| Def | Adds Bane Dice to attacks against the ship |
| Hull | Hull Points. At that much Hull Damage the ship is disabled |
| Sys | System Points: masts, rigging and steering. At that much System Damage the ship is dismasted |
| Crew | The Company's usual Size. A ship may sail short-handed and fight short-handed (Sail Combat) |
| From | The first year a hull of the type is legal in this book |
| Typical weapons | The battery the hull carries, in The Heavy Armory's terms (Batteries and Broadsides) |
The Sailing Master, or whoever conns the vessel, makes its Operate checks. The Gunner directs fire; the Carpenter repairs damage (Era Rules, Careening and Repair). Cargo uses prize classes (Era Rules, The Prize and Fence Loop). Ships are taken rather than purchased, so hull prices are not listed. The surviving probate valuation of a sloop at £168 (747 pieces) appears as Legend in Gear and Prices.
The Ten Hulls
Each block gives statistics first, followed by armament, cargo and uses.
Periauger Tender
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 8 |
Periagua and pettiauger are alternative spellings. Built in the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola, these dugouts gain capacity from added planking and carry oars with one or two masts. Eighteenth-century craft could exceed 30 feet and carry 30 men; recorded tonnage is three to six. Pirates row them against the wind, scout and raid. Crew 8 to operate; capacity up to 30.
Weapons Swivel Gun or small arms
Cargo none; a prize class of Poor at most.
Use scouting, raiding and tender service. Under oars she has Speed 2 in a Calm or against the wind.
Bermuda sloop Fast raider
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | +2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 40 |
Bermudians have built these low, narrow cedar vessels since the mid-seventeenth century. A tall, raked mast carries a large fore-and-aft mainsail. In 1700 the island had 60 sloops, 6 brigantines and 4 ships. Bonnet sailed a 10-gun sloop with 70 men.
Weapons Battery of 4 Light Guns a side
Cargo a prize class of Poor.
Use piracy, privateering and fast raids. No other hull matches its Speed and Handling. It catches merchantmen nine times in ten.
Jamaica sloop Trader and privateer
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 30 |
This reproduces The Heavy Armory's Sloop statistics (Vehicles, Ships and Aircraft). Jamaica's type developed in the 1670s, serving Port Royal turtlers, merchants and privateers.
Weapons Battery of 5 Light Guns a side
Cargo a prize class of Poor to Fair.
Use ordinary Caribbean trade and privateering. Salazar sails a Jamaica sloop. His Gaviota packs 60 pirate hands aboard, twice the listed Crew; that figure represents a merchant or privateer complement.
Brigantine Raider
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 10 | 70 |
By the early 1700s, brigantine chiefly describes a rig: square sails forward and a gaff mainsail, on vessels of 30 to 150 tons. Vane's pirate brigantine mounted 12 guns and carried 90 men.
Weapons Battery of 6 Light Guns a side
Cargo a prize class of Fair.
Use raiding, trading or accompanying a sloop. Kinsella sails this type.
Schooner Coaster
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 25 |
Two near-equal masts carry fore-and-aft sails. North Americans use the rig by the 1710s; Bonnet captures a North Carolina schooner in 1718. The claimed Gloucester origin in 1713 remains unconfirmed.
Weapons Battery of 3 Light Guns a side
Cargo a prize class of Poor.
Use coastal trade, small privateering ventures and tender service.
Merchantman The prize
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | -1 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 12 | 25 |
Bluff-bowed, deep-hulled and full-rigged, these 100- to 300-ton vessels are common prizes. Bermuda's ships measured about 100 tons in 1700. Small merchant crews leave few spare hands.
Weapons Battery of 3 Light Guns a side
Cargo a prize class of Fair to Rich.
Use merchant prizes and convoy traffic: slow turns, low Speed and light armament make these vulnerable.
Slave ship Armed merchantman
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | -1 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 12 | 35 |
Captive transport requires a refitted merchant hull. London-built Whydah Gally, a 300-ton galley launched in 1715 or 1716, mounted 18 guns before Bellamy captured her and increased the battery to 28.
Weapons Battery of 6 Light Guns a side
Cargo people held below, who are not a stat and not a price; the GM runs the people as a scene (Era Rules, The Prize and Fence Loop). The ship and her cargo of goods are a prize class of Rich to Great.
Use prizes along the Guinea coast and at Cape Coast. Heavy armament makes this the most dangerous merchant hull to board.
Prize galleon Treasure ship
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | -2 | 2 | 0 | 32 | 14 | 200 |
These are The Heavy Armory's unchanged Galleon statistics. Tall stern castles and two gunport tiers distinguish the high-sided Spanish ships. The hurricane of 31 July 1715 destroyed eleven plate-fleet vessels, including the former HMS Hampton Court.
Weapons Battery of 10 Medium Guns a side, Light Guns above
Cargo a prize class of Great.
Use treasure fleets, reef wrecks and major prizes. Apply the same statistics to a period two-decked fifth rate.
Royal Navy sixth rate The hunter
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 14 | 150 |
The Sixth rate or small frigate statistics come unchanged from The Heavy Armory. The Leewards' 1716 to 1719 station ship, Seaford, was a 248-ton, 24-gun vessel described as "a small sixth rate". Period ships of 20 to 24 guns fire 10 to 12 Light Guns per side, so this battery is powerful. For Seaford as built, use a Battery of 11 Light Guns per side. Whitcombe commands a sixth rate.
Weapons Battery of 12 Medium Guns a side, two Long Nines
Cargo none; a navy ship is not a prize but a danger.
Use naval pursuit and station duty. Catching a Bermuda sloop is unlikely; destroying one with gunfire is well within her power.
Guardacosta (balandra) Spanish coast guard
| Speed | Handling | Armor | Def | Hull | Sys | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 25 |
Spanish governors commission these colonial privateers from Santiago and Trinidad in Cuba. Accounts describe balandras, sloops carrying up to 25 men, and periaguas, two-masted half-galleys carrying up to 120. Spanish, Indigenous, African and mixed-ancestry men serve together.
Weapons Battery of 2 Light Guns a side, swivel guns
Cargo a prize class of Poor.
Use Spanish coastal patrols and Havana's response. For a periagua, use the Brigantine statistics with Crew 120; under oars it has Speed 2 in a Calm.
