Ghost Ships! Last update 3rd April 2002

Ghost ships are the apparitions of the sea, crewed by undead warriors bent on wreaking destruction on the living. Ghost ships may take the form of any regular ship, but look in a state of major disrepair. The sails are tattered and flutter in the breeze, some even have the masts shattered and laying across the deck, or missing altogether.

Movement - While the sails and masts may be long gone, and the hull suffering from decomposition, the ship still moves at a reasonable speed. For game purposes they move at a 10% higher rate than a normal ship of the same type. The speed of the ships is also determined by the location of the wind as would a normal ship. Their movement is controlled by the undead captain, and should he be destroyed, the undead bosun. If both of these are destroyed by luck, the ship will draw to a stop, and remain motionless in the seas current. It will take many days before a new undead captain is 'elected.' The Ghost ships speed is unaffected by damage to sail or mast, only damage to its hull will reduce the speed at which it will pursue a target. For every 10% of hull points damaged, the speed is reduced by 5%. At 100% hull damage the ship will slip into the water half submerged where it will remain until storms pull the hull apart. Given time the undead aboard will be destroyed by the elements and wild life. If a ghost vessels sights a corporeal vessel, it will follow for upto 24 hours if it can't overtake the quarry, or until land is sighted (ergo it is not encountered along the coastline).

Armament - Ghost ships carry whatever armament they may have had in corporeal life. As they are usually the remains of merchant vessels, they are fortunately only lightly armed. The undead crew are not particularly speedy at cannon loading either, being 20% slower at the job than normal crews. The main thrust of the ghost ships assault is the same as a pirate vessel - boarding action!

Crew - The ghost ship is fortunately only lightly crewed as they are lightly cannoned. They are led by an undead captain and bosun. The rest of the crew are simply undead sailors. For numbers of crew, refer the merchant stats for the ship type. However, undead crew have only one function - combat leading upto, and including boarding action. They have no need to climb the masts to set sails, to fish, repair and maintain the ship, sleep or even eat. The crew are armed with cutlass, axe, pike and dagger. They do not use muskets of any description except as clubs. The powder in their guns have long become useless. This applies to their main cannons well, though I have made the concession that these can still shoot. It is upto the referee, but undead pirates can have working muskets if you so choose.

Cargo

Figures - Suitable pirate skeletons are available from Eureka miniatures. They are multi part lead figures, and may not suit the novice. Suitable skeletons and zombies may be made cheaply and easily from Games Workshops plastic box sets of skeletons and zombies, and then embellished with muskets and pistols available from CannonFodder Minatures and painted in suitable sailor colours and patterns. An excellent, though very large, skeleton pirate captain is made by Reaper Miniatures.