A boarding net is a type of

rope A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...

net used by ships during the

Age of Sail The Age of Sail is a period in European history that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid-15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the int ...

to prevent boarding by hostile forces. Designed to hang from a ship's masts and encircle its deck, the boarding net could be deployed during battle or at night when a ship was at anchor in unknown or hostile waters. In the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, boarding nets first gained widespread use in the 1790s. Boarding_Axe

Description and use

The boarding net was a rope net that could be raised from a ship's masts so that it encircled the vessel's deck. A ship's captain could order the net deployed during battle if it became apparent that enemy naval infantry might attempt to capture his vessel through a boarding action; it might also be raised at night if the vessel was at anchor in unknown or hostile waters. Once deployed, enemy forces would be unable to gain access to the deck without first cutting through the heavy rope netting, a process that would slow them considerably, during which time they would be exposed to attack by the ship's defenders using standoff weapons such as

firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

s or pikes. To overcome the boarding net, boarding parties could be equipped with boarding axes – lightweight hand

axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

s designed to cut through rope.

Observations and accounts

According to the

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

of George Pegler, while employed aboard the merchantman ''Blendinghall'' in the early 19th century he observed that the ship's boarding net was made of "ratlin rope with here and there a small chain running through its entire length, to prevent cutting by the enemy". When a French

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

engaged ''Blendinghall'', the ship's boarding net kept the attackers from successfully gaining access to her deck. Francis Liardet's 1849 book ''Professional Recollections on Points of Seamanship'' suggests that a boarding net could be made more resistant to cutting by first covering it with

tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black b ...

Royal Navy

In the Royal Navy, boarding nets first gained widespread use in the 1790s, though were typically limited to use on ships of frigate-size and smaller, as

ships of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which involved the two column ...

were unlikely to be targets of boarding in the first place. However, individual examples of naval vessels from the British Isles using boarding nets extend back at least to the ''

Mary Rose The ''Mary Rose'' was a carrack in the English Tudor navy of Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII. She was launched in 1511 and served for 34 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in ...

'' in the 16th century. In the case of ''Mary Rose'', the crew became trapped on the deck by the boarding net when she began taking on water, leading to the loss of almost all hands during her sinking. The SS ''

Beaver Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

'', chartered by the Royal Navy to survey the coast of

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, reportedly kept her boarding net deployed at all times "to prevent access by the natives otherwise than by the gangways".

United States Navy

The 1864 capture of the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

gunboat USS '' Water Witch'' by the

Confederate States Marine Corps The Confederate States Marine Corps (CSMC), also referred to as the Confederate States Marines, was a branch of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. It was established by an act of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate State ...

was accomplished despite ''Water Witchs boarding net having been deployed, leading to a recommendation from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron that ships be outfitted with wire boarding nets instead of rope ones.

References

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External links