Lend an ear me hearties for some delicious red-decked mayhem!
In support of Black Box Volume 33: Pirate Boarding Ax Tactics: The Melee Edition I offer the following historical support.
For a podcast version of this essay--Click Here!
First things first, we are discussing pirate endeavors more than
privateer endeavors—a subtle but important distinction between sea raiders.
Your definition of pirate is likely the correct one, that of a ship of
villains who have declared “War upon all” and see each sail in the
offing as a potential prize ship for plunder.
Whereas a privateer was a ship sailing under a letter of marque,
that is, a decree that would allow merchant ships to attack enemy ships in
times of war.
It would be as if, let’s say today the United States has declared war
against Norway, and each Carnival cruise ship [a British-American company] under
a letter of marque would be allowed to attack any Norwegian Cruise ship they
come across.
The privateers of old would be prepared for battle whereas the Carnival
cruise ship would not. Privateer and pirate ships existed for one
thing—plunder.
Pirates plundered as they were thieves and that was the only way to
turn a profit and Privateers, were essentially the same thing. Privateers operated
under a “purchase” system, that is, if they went into battle, they would not
receive combat pay from the crown for fighting, they were expected to plunder
the attacked ship’s resources and make what they obtained their pay.
Hence the phrase, “No Purchase, No Pay.”
The lot of privateers was worse than the pirates as the pirates owed
no commission whereas from 1589 on, the Crown took 10% of the purchase.
Pirates kept 100%.
BTW-If one has any privateer plans for their next cruise, Privateering
was abolished by the Treaty of Paris in 1856.
The Reality of Plunder
Now, some may be thinking what does all this have to do with bad-ass
pirate/privateer boarding axe tactics?
My strategic minded ones already see the conundrum of sea-rover battle
tactics.
We often picture sea battles in exchanged cannon fire as in the film Master
and Commander, or in the novels of Patrick O’Brien or C.S. Forester
but…these were sea battles between war ships.
The goal in these instances was victory over plunder.
Plunder could be taken if boarded but…sinking and/or crippling vessels
of war was the foremost goal.
To pirates and privateers, a ship at the bottom of the sea means zero
return on investment.
Battle tactics must be altered to address minimizing damaging fire to
the attacked vessel so that she could stay rails above wave long enough to take
all worth taking, often times the ship itself.
Unlike pirate movies where maximum damage is delivered before boarding,
the reality was to minimize damage so that anything worth salvaging was taken.
Seamanship and battle-tactics weighed heavily on the piratical mind.
Boarding and man-to-man melee with minimal damage to hull, masts,
sail, and rigging was the watchword.
Firing grapeshot, cannister, and cannonade willy-nilly was the way of war-ships
not of the pirate.
[Perhaps another day we will delve into the brilliant maneuvering to
minimize exchanged fire, fascinating to this sailor but for today…boarding is
the watchword.]
“Cutlass Battle!”
When one pictures hand-to-hand fighting, literally a sailing term,
sailors being hands, hand-to-hand meaning man to man, not empty hand as it has
been perverted to today…when we picture such deck-bound melees we have been
helped by cinema to envision scores of men with cutlass in hand.
Yes, the cutlass was in play, but so was a vast variety of weaponry [as
to that variety, again, another day.]
But a weapon that held high utility was the boarding axe, which is
essentially identical to your standard hatchet.
Some featured the short haft as one finds in today’s camp-axe, others
could be more along the extended handle as one finds in most forms of tomahawk.
Notice the Terminology
An axe is an axe, not a boarding axe until it is designated for use in
boarding.
A no-brainer there, but often it is overlooked that that single word
“boarding” changes the timbre of how this tool is wielded.
A Multiple Use Tool
Before we move to the boarding axe as a weapon let us look to it for
its singular utility in the midst of ship and purchase-prize preserving battle.
To board a vessel, one must be close enough to move from one pitching heaving
deck in the open sea to another.
This is no easy prospect—all the more so once a deck becomes
red-decked—that is blood-slicked.
A common enough footing hazard that buckets of sand were kept at the
ready during cannonade to spread over gushing gore to aid surviving hands
keeping one’s feet.
During boarding the beard of the axe would be used to hook rail, to
provide surer purchase for that precarious step over to the other side.
Pirate boarding axes often were made with a blade side and a poll side
[the “hammer” side.] The blade was used to cut non-essential rigging to disable
the ship without bringing entire acres of canvas, tons of spar and boom on top
of one’s skull.
Needless to say, it takes an experienced seaman to know what is and is
not essential on vessels were hundreds of miles of line [rope] could be found
doing their mysterious magic of leverage.
The poll-side was used to break down doors and bulkheads during the boarding
melee.
The blade of the axe could also be used to chisel out hot cannonballs
embedded in timber so that the ball could be pitched overboard and prevent
starting a fire.
The “Bible”
Let’s look at one more, perhaps unexpected non-weaponry use of the
pirate boarding axe.
Each new crewmember to be accepted into the Brotherhood [the ways of
piracy] would be asked to swear to the that ship’s particular articles of
conduct.
Instead of a Bible as on a ship of state, the prospective pirate would
place his hand upon a boarding axe and swear to the ways of the sea-dog.
It don’t get more cinematic than that!
Melee
A melee by strict definition is a “confused fight.”
This is apt.
Confused is the correct word as confused itself means not only to
befuddle but to “fuse” elements generally not meant to be fused together.
This reflects the tight quarters of piratical boarding mayhem.
“Not enough room to swing a cat.”
This sailor’s phrase refers to how tight the quarters are in a hand-to-hand
melee.
The “cat” in the melee refers to a cat-o’-nine-tails, a length of hemp
cordage crafted in braid or macrame ending in nine “tails” with knotted ends.
During shipboard punishments these would be used to flog/whip the punished
one.
It was cruel, vicious and often led to exposed bone and death of the receiver.
To say of a deck battle “There was not enough room to swing a cat”
means exactly that. No room to swing the referred to punishment tool AND no
room for the use of the boarding axe as a weapon in the swinging chopping sense
of the word.
Different tactics must be adapted.
Historical Accuracy vs. Cinema Assumptions
Melees in real battle did not and do not permit the John Wickian dueling
we have come to expect.
Zumbrada, flow chains, tit-for-tat did not exist in the wild.
Although not a pirate source let us look to a description of the melee
at Tannenberg in 1410 to get at the true flavor of a melee.
“Breaking spears and armour hitting against each other produced such a
great clatter and bang, and the clang of swords resounded so loudly, as if some
huge rock had collapsed, that even those who were several miles away could hear
it. Then knight attacked knight, armour crushed under the pressure of armour,
and swords hit faces. And when the ranks closed, it was impossible to tell the
coward from the brave, the bold from the slow, because all of them were pressed
together, as if in some tangle.”—Jan Dlugosz
Let us keep in mind, this melee was on dry land.
Now picture a pitching, rolling deck on the high seas and let us add miles
of rigging and acres of canvas and booms and spars to be preserved and maneuvered
around.
Let us add red decks, rolling cannonballs loose from the brass monkey.
Then, then we are getting closer to why what we assume about boarding
axes, tomahawks and battleaxes may be wide of the mark.
The ingenious truth of the matter is of far more value for the serious
Warrior.
To move from the academic to the axe in hand tactics of these Rovers
of the Deep Blue have a look at Black Box Volume 33: Pirate Boarding Ax Tactics: The Melee Edition
For historically accurate and viciously verified Old School Combat Tactics
and Conditioning, none of it based on assumption see the following
resources.
The Black Box Combat & Conditioning Training Warehouse
The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast
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