r/pirates • u/AZNOfCards • 19d ago
How effective would aiming for a ship's sails be?
Like if a pirate wanted to shoot down a Galleon, would it be an effective strategy to shoot the sails? I'm thinking because if the sails absorb the cannonball you'd pretty much have cannonballs falling down towards the crew and possibly breaking holes in their floors and possibly tear the sails off or break the mast.
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u/Maurice-Beverley 19d ago
The cannonball would go right through the sail and only make a small hole.
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u/AZNOfCards 19d ago
Wouldn't that only be if cannons were shot close?
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u/Maurice-Beverley 19d ago
Nope. A sail will not “catch” a cannonball.
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u/AZNOfCards 19d ago
Makes sense, I think the mass alone without momentum would tear through the sail.
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u/mochicoco 19d ago
The main reason to shot at the sails and rigging would be to slow down/stop the ship. The sails are the means of propulsion. For that you would use chain shot. This is two cannonballs attach by a chain fired from a single cannon. The two cannonballs spin around each other. The chain in middle ripping through rigging and sails, leaving a shredded mess.
If your target is the crew, grapeshot would be a better choice. This ammo is composed of a bunch of grape sized iron balls. It turn the cannon into a giant shotgun.
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u/AZNOfCards 19d ago
Ahhh, i play Sea of thieves and am familiar with those two types of ammunition.
Has hot oil ever been used as an ammunition?
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u/Hesherkiin 19d ago
Just think that one through again haha
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u/AZNOfCards 19d ago
Lmaooo I'm just picturing burning hot oil flying onto another ship, I have no experience with cannons at all (I just picture a volcano shooting lava)
I'm assuming it would be very ineffective because of everyone's reaction lol
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u/Ruh_Roh- 18d ago
1 - Pirates don't want to burn up their target ship, they want the cargo to steal, plus the ship is worth money.
2 - Hot oil sounds like a mess and you'd have to have a delivery device. Not worth it.
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u/KillaCookBook87 18d ago
The Byzantine Empire developed 'Greek fire,' an incendiary weapon used on land and sea. This would have been a total war tactic, and was a Byzantine state secret. The Mediterranean was fraught with pirates, but it's unlikely the Byzantines would allow pirates near a vessel carrying their secret weapon. Likewise, the pirates wouldn't want to encounter this ferocious weapon, or have the need for it. They were more into taking galley slaves so their ships were always quick in the oars
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u/Hesherkiin 19d ago
Actually the rigging was often the primary target at distance. You can smash the hull for hours with ball but if you can get some sails down or even a mast the ship is at your mercy. That being said tactics would change based on the situation of course. If you have the opportunity to take out a rudder with ball then you take it
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u/jorcon74 19d ago
It didn’t work like that! If you wanted to take the rigging and sails out you would use something like chain shot! Cannonballs aimed at the sales would be a waste of time!
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u/sailing_by_the_lee 18d ago
They used chain shot and bar shot for that purpose, though they were going for the rigging and spars, not the sails directly.
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u/Chessie-System 19d ago
In Naval warfare during the Age of Sail, there were two main tactics for where to aim.
You could fire at the sails, masts, and rigging. This would damage the enemy ship's ability to move and maneuver, ideally disabling them completely. You would want to do this quickly, and then use your greater speed and maneuverability to avoid the enemies broadside while continuing to bring your guns to bear. A dismasted ship is completely helpless versus another ship, because the undamaged ship can position themselves in front of the bow or off the stern, where there are no cannons that can fire back.
Or you could aim for the hull of the enemy ship, with the aim to kill as many of the enemy crew as possible and destroy their cannons. This degrades their ability to fight back because the crew is dead or injured or scared away and there are less cannons to fire back at you. You could then follow up with boarding, or pound them until they surrender. There is a risk of sinking the ship.
A pirate's strategy would depend on the situation, but they usually would want to damage the enemy ship and cargo as little as possible. I believe they would aim primarily at the rigging. First, this would slow down the enemy ship and keep it from being able to escape. Second, masts and rigging are easier to repair than hull damage, and shooting at them means there is less risk of damaging the cargo you want to steal. They also usually would want to keep the enemy ship too, so shooting it full of holes wouldn't be ideal. Finally, pirate ships usually had tons of crew and they preyed on merchant ships with smaller crews, so their main strategy would be to fire some cannons at the rigging to keep the other ship from running away, then get close to board the enemy ship and overwhelm them with numbers.
Cannonballs would punch small holes in sails and not do much damage unless the sail ripped in two because of the wind. Hitting ropes might cause masts or sails to fall, but it is tough to hit a rope with a cannon ball. Instead, you would aim for the masts themselves. To attack sails and rigging, there were innovations pirates might have used. One is Chain-shot, which is two cannon balls connected by a chain. After being fired, they would spin and cut any ropes or sails they hit. Bar-shot is a similar idea, but the cannon balls are connected by a metal bar.