Ships
Buying a boat or a ship, the drydock, sailing, keeping a hull afloat, and the guns.
Ships are bought, kept and fitted at a dock, and sailed on the open water of the Northern Ocean off Aurin and the Western Ocean off the Warfleet Docks. The plantation's boathouse launches rowboats onto its pond.
Docks#
| Dock | Where | Takes |
|---|---|---|
| Drydock, Aurin Docks | At the end of Mistwood Road, north of Aurin | Every hull |
| Drydock, Warfleet Docks | The waterfront of Kranos | Every hull |
| Plantation Boathouse | Aurin Plantation, east along Dawnshore Road | Rowboats only |
Buying#
At a dock, purchase lists the boats the dock sells and purchase <boat>
buys one. The docks sell only rowboats and sloops. Every larger hull is sold by
a merchant of the guild with sellship, and a merchant must have reached the
level for each hull (see Merchant). Prices follow
the guild's price book and change over time; tariff ships shows today's.
The price is taken from your purse first and then from your bank.
A new boat waits in the drydock where you bought it. You may own as many ships as you like, several of one kind included, and each is its own hull with its own damage and guns.
| Hull | Hull points | Speed | Sold with | Most it can mount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rowboat | 40 | 1 | No guns | No guns |
| Sloop | 80 | 3 | 2 swivels | 4 swivels, 2 light broadside |
| Cutter | 100 | 3 | 4 swivels | 6 swivels, 4 light broadside, 1 chaser |
| Clipper | 120 | 5 | 2 swivels | 4 swivels, 4 light broadside, 1 chaser |
| Schooner | 160 | 3 | 2 swivels, 4 light cannons | 4 swivels, 8 broadside up to medium, 1 chaser |
| Brigantine | 220 | 3 | 2 swivels, 8 light cannons | 6 swivels, 12 broadside up to medium, 2 chasers |
| Caravel | 280 | 2 | 4 swivels, 12 medium cannons | 6 swivels, 16 broadside up to medium, 2 chasers |
| Frigate | 350 | 3 | 6 swivels, 20 heavy cannons | 8 swivels, 24 broadside up to heavy, 2 chasers |
| Galleon | 500 | 1 | 8 swivels, 30 heavy cannons, 2 chasers | 10 swivels, 32 broadside up to heavy, 2 chasers |
| War galleon | 750 | 1 | 12 swivels, 44 heavy cannons, 4 chasers | 12 swivels, 44 broadside up to heavy, 4 chasers |
A merchant fits extra guns one at a time with fitship, within the mounts the
hull has.
The drydock#
| Command | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
listships |
Anywhere | Every ship you own and where she lies. |
retrieve <ship> |
At the dock she lies in | The longshoremen bring her out and tie her up at the quay. With two of a kind there, name one by its number, as in retrieve sloop 2. |
drydock |
Aboard, at a dock | Puts her away. Only her owner can do this. |
repair ship |
At a dock, with her out of drydock | The shipwrights mend her hull, paid from your bank. |
A ship keeps her damage and her guns through drydock and back. A dock that has no berth for a hull will not take it or hand it out; the boathouse takes only rowboats.
Aboard#
board <ship> or enter <ship> takes you aboard a ship in the room, and
disembark, leave or out puts you back on shore. overboard shows the
room outside the hull. The flagstaff by the helm lists the ship's commands:
look flagstaff.
Only the owner and a first mate can sail. The owner names a first mate with
mate <player>, who must be aboard. sail <direction> moves the ship one room
of open water, or into a dock. A ship's speed is how many moves she can make
in a burst before a twelve second pause; a hired navigator or ship's captain
adds a move. Sailing snaps the line of anyone fishing aboard.
Keeping her afloat#
damage reports the hull. At sea a ship loses a point of hull a minute, and
tied up at a dock she loses one only now and then. A hired sailor or ship's
captain halves the wear at sea. The crew are warned when the hull falls to
half, a quarter and a tenth.
At no hull points she breaks apart. Everyone aboard is thrown into the water,
the owner is told, and the ship is struck from the harbor register: she is
gone for good. A merchant's underwrite policy pays the loss of an insured
ship. A rogue's Spike can make a moored ship take on water ten times faster for
a while; repairing her at a dock pulls the spike out.
Guns#
| Command | Who | What it does |
|---|---|---|
munitions |
Anyone aboard | The ship's guns and her stores of each shot. |
load <round, chain, grape or fire> |
Owner or mate | Loads the cannons with that shot. |
fire broadside <port or starboard> |
Owner or mate | Fires that side's cannons, half the broadside guns. |
fire swivel <ship> |
Anyone aboard | Fires a swivel gun at a ship in the same water. |
fire chase <ship> |
Owner or mate | Fires the chase guns. |
resupply <shot> [amount] |
Owner or mate, at a dock | Buys shot from your bank. resupply all fills every store. |
Guns fire only in open water. Each kind of shot does something different:
| Shot | Effect |
|---|---|
| Round shot | Full damage to the hull. |
| Chain shot | Less damage, and slows the target. |
| Grapeshot | Little damage to the hull; it is aimed at the crew. |
| Fire shot | Half damage, with a chance to set fires. |
Swivels reload fastest and hit lightest; heavy cannons hit hardest and reload slowest. A newly armed ship starts with a full locker of round shot.
Guns can be turned only on ships no player owns, such as pirates. Player ships cannot fire on each other. A black sailed pirate brigantine hunts the Western Ocean; she fires broadsides and chain shot, sweeps decks with grapeshot, holds ships fast with harpoon lines so they cannot sail, and sends boarders. Sink her and another puts out some minutes later.