The Crew Last update 18th May 2001

Unfortunately for the rule writer there is a distinct lack of information about the crews of sailing ships. I know generically what they were doing, and who was aboard, but the specifics of how they did their job and how long it took is still pretty vague territory. There are plenty of sites about sailing training on square ships, you'd think someone would write something! All references to male can just as easily be female for these rules.

Any hoo, here are the jobs you could have on a ship of the time.

Captain

The captain is to command all things on the ship generally. On pirate ships this is not strictly so. He shall tell the bosun their destination, and the bosun shall arrange the travel thereof. Military captains are expected to sit on admiralty court cases and are often found as judges in the trials of pirates, however the captain of a ship that captures a pirate may not sit in judgement of said pirate, for he shall be giving evidence against him. Military captains do not associate with the crew at all, dealing with them through the lieutenant or bosun. Due to the small crews of merchantmen, the captain is not remote from the crew and may perform labour on the ship as is the captain's personality. Captains of pirate ships are different again. As they were once crewmen themselves, they may labour on the ship as is their want, but generally this does not occur and is mostly frowned upon. Pirate ships have large crews. The captain is expected instead to lead in times of battle and be an inspiration to the crew. To detail a captain and his skills, refer the Captain page.

Lieutenant
The lieutenant is to associate with the Captain, and in his absence shall take his place. He is to ensure the marshall and corporal do their duties, and assist them in instructing the marines. In battle he is to command the fore castle/deck/area and its marines. Not all ships may have a lieutenant, especially merchant men and pirate ships, whose job shall fall then to the bosun.

Bosun (Master)

The bosun is to direct the course of the ship from the captain's orders, and he shall instruct the sailors in the manner of stearing, trimming and sailing the ship. On pirate ships the bosun has the unusual position of being the ships judge. His word is law, and he is expected to be a fair tolerant man, but such is often not the case. On merchantmen and pirate ships he maintains discipline of the crew and ensures that all work is done efficiently and conscientiously. A good bosun is a major assett for any ship. Where a second ship is taken as a prize by naval or pirate vessels, the bosun will usually command her.

Bosun's Mates (Master's Mates)

The mates act as the bosuns eyes and ears, in pirate & merchant ships, being alert for mutiny. They also aid the bosun to maintain discipline and morale. In pirate ships these men will lead small sections of pirates acting in essence as sergeants to the bosun's lieutenant and the captain as leader.

Pilot

The pilot is a skilled helmsman who controls the ship near land. Usually a pilot is used who has local knowledge, to aid in navigating reefs, shoals and shallow waters. Many ports have pilots who row out to guide visiting ships safely into harbour. Unfortunately many of the Spanish ports in the western Caribbean had absolutely pointless pilots who would be better placed slung over the ships railings.

Navigator

The navigator is the master of the charts, maps and the course for the ship, as set by the captain. Any sort of reasonable navigator has experience in the Caribbean and at least a small compendium of maps. Some ships operating in the western reaches of the Caribbean were prone to getting lost due to the long uneventful coast line and lack of settlement. The helmsmen were generally instructed by the navigator in the course settings. In smaller ships there was commonly no navigator, the captain or bosun doing this job. The navigator needed to know the time of year, his location and the likelihood of prevailing winds. For the basics of his equipment refer the navigation page here, and for his skill refer the navigation skill page, and for the impact of his skill on the game refer the navigation page here.

Surgeon

The surgeon is to be exempted from all duty but to attend the sick and cure the wounded. For naval vessels he was expected to have papers from the Barber Surgeons Hall declaring his competency. He was to ensure he had a stock of medicines and tools of surgery which were to be kept as clean as possible, due to the known impact of cleanliness on infection. For this game, all naval vessels have a surgeon. Large pirate crews (10% greater than a merchant crew for the same vessels) will also have a surgeon. The surgeon will not appear as a seperate figure in combat as he will be below the hold somewhere and not involved until things are almost all over. The surgeon only comes into effect in campaigns under the recruiting & recovery page.

Purser

The purser has the charge of all the cargo & merchandise, and keeps a log book of all that is received and delivered. I would expect he would also be able to function as a merchant, knowing the value of his goods etc, and so be able to barter over buying or selling of wares. I don't really find any thing on this, but I assume from his desription he could also do this. On merchant ships generaly the captain would be in a merchants position with the purser being the bookman. Again, the distinction between merchant captain and pursers responsibility in regards to trading and goods is not clear to me, and I assume on small merhantmen there is no purser.

Master Gunner

The master gunner is in charge of the guns and ammunition, associated equipment and the men to work the cannons. In large ships with many cannons, particularly with Man'O'Wars, the master gunner has several quarter gunners who act as commanders of sections of guns i.e. all guns, port side on deck 1. For the details on the gunners rank, refer the cannon skill page.

Carpenter

The carpenter controls all the nails, spikes, iron & timber ship components, and he also controls the work of repairing the ship. He is in charge when the ship is careened, and in combat he or his mate is often lowered over the side to repair damage as the action proceeds. For information on careening, for information on repairs in action.

Botswaine

Botswaines Mate

Trumpeter or Musician

Each ship had a trumpet stored in a stern cabin. The trumpets were used as a simple form of communication between passing ships, and could also be used by Captains to pass signals across the ship during battle. Obviously the amount of information transferable by trumpet call was limited, but better than no command system at all. The other side of musicians was obviously entertainment. As is the case in modern times, a good proportion of the people could play musical instruments and sing. There was not alot to do in ships but sail, so music was a grand form of entertainment on many ships and a good way of maintaining some morale . Some pirate ships articles even specify what nights musicans could have off. Music could also be used to keep beats or tempo during monotonous tasks such as turning capstans on larger vessels to raise the anchors.

Marshall

Corporall

Steward

Quarter Master

Cooper

Coxswaine

Cook

The cook is to prepare and serve the food at meal times. He maintains a store of quarter cans, small cans, platters, spoons, lanterns. Wounded or incapacitated sailors who wished to remain at sea could often be found as cooks. For the purpose of this game, the cook does not appear in combat except in specific scenarios, such as Pork!

Swabber

The swabber is to wash and keep clean the ship & cleaning equipment. He has the lowest general job on the ship. He does not appear as a figure except in specific scenarios. His position is shown for historical reference.

Sailors

Sailors are the older men of the crew [this does not mean old men, as crewmen were usually quite young] who hoist the sails, get the tacks aboard, hale the bowlings & steer the ship.

Tops Men (Fore Mast Men, Younkers)

The tops men are the young crewman who operate in the rigging, take in the top sails, level the yards, furl the sails or sling the yards, bousing or trising, and take their turns at the helm in smaller ships. They are the younger crew because the job is strenous, requires some form of physical stamina and agility, and is also dangerous.

Lookout

Not every ship had a dedicated lookout. This persons job was to sit in the crows nest and look about for signs of other ships, land and approaching weather conditions. If there was no lookout, the officer on watch and the operating Tops Men would keep an eye on such things. My assumptions for these rules are: Lookouts have the benefit of looking glasses, they are a dedicated specialist crewman with no other function but to be knowledgable about other vessels, captains and weather conditions. They have one primary skill, defined on the lookout skill page. All warships have a lookout. Large pirate crews have a lookout. By large, I am assuming crew numbers in excess of 10% of a merchant crew for the same vessel. Merchants do not have lookouts, except for merchant players who may desire one. Lookouts usually are armed with musket and act as snipers from the crows nest during combat. They may also be lobbing grenades and on larger vessels, there may also be a swivel gun on the crows nest.

Liar (Fool, unlucky sailor, miscreant)

The liar is to hold his place for no more than a week, and the first one caught as a liar shall be proclaimed each Monday before the whole crew. He is the lowest of the low of the ships crew, lower than the swabber, and shall keep the beak head and chains clean (the ships latrines). For this game, there are no specific crewmen set aside for this job, unless a scenario specifically makes an issue of it. This is included for historical reference.

Marines (Soldiers, Musketeers)

For simplicities sake I term the soldiers on a boat as marines, while those that are in towns and forts are musketeers or soldiers. The marines are led in battle by the Captain, Lieutenant, and the Bosun and his mates. At sea they perform no general function on the ship but take up space, eat food, act superior and defend the ship. In many ways they are considered lesser than the sailors, and in fact are paid less! For this game, marines are only found on naval vessels. I assume for the purpose of this game they have a standard uniform which was not the case historically - refer clothes page.

It is quite probable that on small ships the crew will be multi skilled and may well do several of these jobs. Remember that merchant ships might have a crew as few as a dozen or so men where as a pirate ship of the same type might have upto 80 men aboard her. There is also some slight difference between the jobs and command on a Man'O'War and a merchant vessel.

For how the crew functions together in watches & messes refer the Crew as a Society page

How Big is My Crew?

So you've nailed a few sticks of wood together and sewn a few strips of cloth together and made a floating vessel. How many people will you need to sail it?

Well, in desparate situations, surprisingly few! There are many examples of crews being reduced by sickness to almost no capable sailors, with the vessel being manned by one or two people. For example, a brigantine called the Johanna left Mauritius in 1890 bound for Australia. Within 2 weeks most of the crew were striken by yellow fever and dead. Those left alive were the captain's wife and first mate who had to handle the sails, the captain's baby, and the delirious captain. After almost 100 days at sea, the ship arrived in Perth, Australia, after being crewed only by the wife and mate. An epic journey if ever there was one.

One might say, well, this is almost 200 years after the particular time period of these rules, and ships must have been designed to be so much more "user friendly".

However, there is ample evidence from actual pirate accounts of how few men were required to work the ships purely for sailing. This is geneally clarified when detained merchant captains are given a prize ship to be on their way in. In these cases they might be set on board a sloop with their cabin boy and one or two sailors, which was generally considered enough crew to get the ship to port as long as the weather was fair.

Merchant ships of the time were crewed by between 8 and 20 sailors, about 16 being normal. My judgement is this is based on economics and reasonable safety, being the number required to make the work relatively reasonable per sailor while allowing the merchant an acceptable wages bill. This gives a crew distribution of four men per three hour shift, working two shifts per day. In all seemingly easy work and for long journeys probably very tedious.

Sadly for merchant sailors, it wasn't always a dream run. When weather ran foul, the sails needed hailing in and constant trimming, and the decks and cargo lashed. Work could become both frantic and dangerous. In particularly hazardous weather, such as typhoons, it was all hands on deck keeping minimal sails in operation without them ripping to shreds. In the worst cases they'd have to cut down masts to prevent the ship keeling over.

Worse still was the fear of pirates. Merchant ships carried few cannon, and for the most part they were rarely used in defence, except under bold captains. The sailor/cannon ratio on merchant ships was not a governing factor for the fitout of the ship. Many merchants accepted that from time to time they would be overtaken by a pirate and instituted a few practices to minimse the effects. As a consequence, the crew numbers were not governed by the need to defend the ship.

Technical Details of the Crew

Covers how fast they move and their basic skill ranks.
 
Skill Rank Summary

All crew commence the game with the following skill ranks.

Specialist Crew have the following specific Skill Ranks as variants of the above

If a Skill is unlisted, it means that person may NOT participate in any activity involving that skill. Also remember that the captains Primary Skill may also impact on the skill rank of some or all of the crew.

A sailor promoted to a specialist position will have a maximum skill rank of 1 (or 0 if the specialist skill rank is normally 0) in all her applicable new skills until one campaign point has been alloted to improve her. Generally this isn't an issue unless you're replacing a special specialist (hehe). For example, the pirate ship Cut'N'Thrust has a regretable run in with the convoy escort Dodge'N'Parry. She loses her gun captain and bosun in a horrible explosion caused by some excellent dice rolling by the convoy escort. The pirate captain therefore needs to promote two sailors to fill the now vacant positions. The new bosun automatically improves to the 1 skill point (or 0) in all the skills a bosun has, as all the bosun skills are no higher than rank 1. However, the sailor promoted to gun captain can rise only to cannon skill rank 1. It will take the spending of one campaign skill point to promote to her a usual gun captain of skill rank 3.