Watercraft

Trading ships with purple sails - by Paolo Puggioni

Nordic longship - by Marc Simonetti; ©Fantasy Flight Games

Watercraft in the known world range from small river and fishing boats, raider vessels, various warships and trade ships, up to the huge war dromons.

Types of Watercraft

Some of the descriptions are based on real world parallels.

Ships

• Galleys are propelled by sail or oar power and are used for warfare, trade, and piracy. Due to their low setting they are primarily coastal ships, preferring to thread through archipelagos rather than risking even a moderate sea. Their large rower crew makes them manoeuvrable and swift but also require frequent stops for food and water. The galley has supplemental sails to replace or augment the effort of the rowers, particularly during long journeys. The ability to travel swiftly without regard to the direction or strength of the wind becomes invaluable for daylight expeditions across open water. The real world, practical upper limit for a galley fast and manoeuvrable enough for warfare was around twenty-five to thirty oars per side. By adding another level of oars, the galley could be made shorter with as many rowers, while making them strong enough to be effective ramming weapons.

• Longships are a smaller type of ship primarily used by the Nords, but also coastal lords and the Atmorans of antiquity. They are long, narrow, light, wooden craft with a shallow-draft hull designed for speed. The ship's shallow draft allows navigation in waters only one meter deep and permits beach landings, while its light weight enables it to be carried over portages. Longships are also double-ended, the symmetrical bow and stern allowing the ship to reverse direction quickly without having to turn around. This trait proves particularly useful in northern latitudes where icebergs and sea ice pose hazards to navigation. Longships are fitted with oars along almost the entire length of the boat itself. Later versions sport a rectangular sail on a single mast which is used to replace or augment the effort of the rowers, particularly during long journeys.

• Cogs are mostly propelled by sails, which make them difficult to sail, especially upwind, and they are hostage to breezes and currents in a way that the swift galley is not. However, it can better manage rough seas and its small crew and ample storage space give it greater freedom of movement, making it perfect for trade or equipment transport.

• Merchanters are trading vessels.

• Carracks are large ocean-going vessels. They are stable in heavy seas, and roomy enough to carry provisions for long voyages.

• Whalers are fat-bellied ships from High Rock, with hulls black with tar, used to hunt and process whales in the Azurian Sea. Breton ships, though ungainly and smelly, are renowned for their strength, as they are built to weather any storm and withstand the assaults of the largest whales.

• Hulks are ships which still float but are unable to put to sea.

Boats

River Runner - by Niten; ©Fantasy Flight Games

• River galleys are shallow draft boats used to patrol and defend rivers. Some can hold eighteen oarsmen and more fighters.

• River runners are long and lean boats used to navigate rivers.

• Ferries are used to transport passengers across bodies of water. Wherries are also used for transport on rivers.

• Barges can be used to transport goods like grain and wood, or armies and their equipment. Opulent and ornate pleasure barges are popular with the well to do. Troupes of mummers use gaily-painted barges.

• Skiffs are small sailboats popular with fisherfolk and smugglers.

• Poleboats are used to traverse canals.

Notable Fleets

An escort ship - by Marc Simonetti; ©Fantasy Flight Games

Suicide raider - by Marc Simonetti; ©Fantasy Flight Games

In Tamriel, lords whose lands abut the coast might keep a war galley or three for coastal defence against pirates, but only major houses like the X have larger and grander fleets of twenty to thirty ships. Usually for major battles, the lords call the ships of their various bannermen.

Summerset Archipelago

The major fleets of the archipelago are the Sun Fleet of the X lords, and the royal fleet, based at Alinor.

Warfare

Ships are used in small skirmishes, raids, and full-scale naval engagements. Lords whose lands abut the coast might need to maintain a few war galleys to defend against piracy. Ships are also use for support roles, such as providing provisions and transporting troops.

The basic tactic of naval battles is to get the ship close enough to ram the other ship, board her, and fight the rest of the battle on the deck. Up until they close, longbows and crossbows can be used. Sometimes siege weapons are carried on the largest war galleys.

• Longships of Skyrim are used as fast raiding ships. They can travel twice as swiftly as a merchant cog. The standard tactic for engaging is to board the enemy ship. The whole crew being doubling as both marines and oarsmen, as well as the Nord preference for wearing armour despite the risk of drowning, gives the Nords an advantage when boarding.

• War galleys or dromons are larger than normal galleys and carry more tonnage as a result of being equipped with a ram, and they may equip siege weapons like ballista or catapults. They also have a larger compliment of oarsmen and soldiers onboard. The standard tactic for engaging is to ram the enemy ship, causing it to sink, or to board it if the attacking ship has a greater number of soldiers and wishes to capture the enemy ship intact. The standard war galley in Tamriel has a hundred oars and oarsmen, with the larger ships adding more decks of a hundred oarsmen. During boarding actions, oarsmen equipped with boarding axes, shortswords, and other weapons are expected to fight, though only a tenth of the crew (marines, rather than oarsmen) are wearing armour. There are roughly thirty-five marines, archers, and artillery crews for every hundred oarsmen.

  

  A ship's crew, by Henning Ludvigsen; ©Fantasy Flight Games

See Also

• List of all known ships.
• List of all known warships.
• Images of Ships.