Towing ships into port (Possible Spoilers)


Skull & Shackles

Liberty's Edge

So I started playing Skulls & Shackles with my group. Started off great but now that we started the second book, I found out the hard way that this will not be a swashbuckling adventure but a tragic story about a cruel evil pirate crew that works their way to the top one cruelty at a time. They attacked their first ship and after some especially creative slaughter, not much of the enemy crew was left. Now they want to tow the ship to port to sell it off.

I saw on page 19 that splitting a large enough crew would allow players to pilot ships into port to sell but I don't see anything about towing. I know very little about sea faring in real life, but it seems to me that rolling in with a merchant ship in tow to a pirate port would just make the PCs easy targets to other pirates. I imagine towing would hamper speed and maneuverability.

Has anyone else had players try to do this and are there any suggestion on how to handle towing?


Towing is extremely difficult with sailing ships (mostly, because a lot of the angles you need to tack are much harder with towing). You might do some in an emergency, or you might have boats pull, but honestly to travel any long distance you really need to have masts and sails up.


I think that if this comes up in my game, I'd judge that it could be done with a very hefty penalty to the prof. sailor check. Trying to sail a ship without enough crew incurs a -10. I'd say while towing a ship, the penalty would be at least -15 and it would stack with the -10 for not having enough crew. Additionally, if combat broke out, I'd judge the towing ship would automatically lose evasion & pursuit and also automatically lose combat initiative. I'd also reduce its tactical and travel speeds by half.

Make them realize this is a bad idea insofar as they're severely handicapping themselves in speed and manuverability and they may decide on other means.


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It never came up in my game, but if it did, I would not have allowed them keep a ship captured on the high seas without the minimum crew to run both ships. That's kinda the point in having minimum crew requirements. And it also serves to teach the PCs a lesson about their actions having consequences. Be as evil pirates as you like, but you may well let your evilness cost you -- aka every toy-based cartoon made since 1985.


Towing :

Very hard with sailing ships, since basically the towed ship acts like a sea anchor, espeially if of larger size and displacment than the pirate ship (which is usually sleeker and lighter than its prey.

Sailed towing was in RL used almost exclusively to prevent a dismasted ship from slipping to leeward (usually towards a reef or shoreline) to prevent wrecking the valuable vessel. Which was later re-rigged, even if only provisionally, to gain some sail speed of its own.

Most towing was done by lifeboats being rowed

Sideways drift of the towed verhicle would be massive, draging the towing vessel constantly to leeward. Less forward movement but constant sideways drift.

Tacking would become difficult, not because of the angles on the tacks, but simply the slower speed would mean greater drift to lee, and less way made good to windward. Square riggers tacked poorly in the first place, and towing would make it almost impossible.

I'd half the towing ship's speed and consider it becalmed in anything of beaufort 3 or less. Halved speed above that. No way to tack closer to the wind than say 80° (7 points) on the compass. And each and every tack would put strain on the tower, with the towline going slack, then going stiff when maximum extension is reached - probably so, at an awkward angle.

There is also the major problem of stopping a towed ship, since you normally need to use the wind to absorb the vessels inertia. Going "in irons" - by turning the ship into the wind, and backing the sails to stop. Impossible with a towed craft.

Towlines are a major problem, as is anchoring them, without ruining the trim of the towing vessel (tugboats have their towing hook midships - pretty difficult on a man o war with the raised sterncastle. One will also need serious amounts of strong cordage... say a 3"+ hemper (one may use the anchor cable, but that may likely prove to short ) of sufficient length.

Also the towed ship would either roll and yaw (due to not having sails set, which actually stabilize it through pressure from the wind ) or need a minimum crew to keep enough sails raised to stabilize it. A constantly rolling ship, loaded with cargo will have a good chance to burst a seam from the persistent strain, and hence take on water, sinking slowly.

Just speaking from experience with some smaller square riggers and yachts, plus some book-gained experience on the matter. No naval engineer, but 30+ years of maritime sailing.


I don't know any more about the topic than any of the other posters do, but a quick Googling suggests that one ship towing another was both possible and practical in the Age of Sail.

Seamanship in the Age of Sail: Ch. 14, Towing on Google Books

Pg. 207, 'One Sailing Vessel Taking Another in Tow' wrote:


This might be necessary when one vessel had sustained grave battle damage, or in convoy as a means of speeding a laggard. Bonnefoux (228) claimed that a man-of-war, or 'better sailer' in the convoy, could tow up to five or six vessels!

There follows several pages of description of just how it was done, but the point is yes, it seems to have been quite possible even over long distances.

Liberty's Edge

Coriat wrote:
There follows several pages of description of just how it was done, but the point is yes, it seems to have been quite possible even over long distances.

Inasmuch as it was possible in the general sense, I don't think that your source helps much with the OP's situation. The text you're pointing to is basically just describing how towing vessels could increase the speed of slower ones, not actually drag dead weight through the water. In fact, toward the end there is a description of communication methods the two ships would use to adjust steering, sail and so on to keep the tow going smoothly, which pretty much means both ships would have to be crewed normally.


I think you would need at least some presence on the other ship, yeah. At minimum, steering would need to be done and tow lines would need to be managed.

If you look at some of the illustrations and captions, however, several of them are clearly not ships in normal conditions of sail and crewing. Whether that is Lady Kennaway ("found abandoned and disabled in the Bay of Biscay") or the two Trafalgar illustrations, both of which seem to show greatly (Santa Ana) or totally (Neptune) sail-free ships.

I would say that if you are towing an undercrewed ship in Skull and Shackles, perhaps a good shorthand is that you can move it at the price of the towing ship suffering part or all of the undercrewing penalty. If an emergency were to arise however you could always quickly cast off the lines.


Coriat wrote:
There follows several pages of description of just how it was done, but the point is yes, it seems to have been quite possible even over long distances.

If both ships have nearly full crews for sailing and helping the tow. Which would be rare if one has recently been raided by pirates.

In medium winds. After Trafalgar a great part of the towed fleet was abandoned, or sank ( after parting cable ) when the winds increased, others were lost because of combat actions.

yes it can be done. In a dire emergency and/or for a very valuable and crewed prize.


Here is how towing was done in the old days.(almost the same as today)This info is from Historic Naval Ship Association(HNSA). Below it talks about ship A towing ship B in which both are tall ships. There would be a strain on both ships and a great cost to manuverability and speed, with only a few crew to help steer the towed vessle. (there are different rules for towing a ship into port.

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/luce/part10.htm

TAKING IN TOW AT SEA.

(a) There is a fresh breeze blowing, and A is wholly disabled, or nearly so. B steams along the weather side and throws a heaving line, if prudent, then puts helm hard a starboard, and stops when she can maintain her position on the bow of A, for some little time. If it be desirable to send a boat with a heaving line she is in a good position for doing so.

(b) It is blowing a moderate gale. A is totally disabled, and in the trough of the sea. B dare not lower a boat, but slings a water-tight empty cask to the end of the deep sea lead line. She steams up on A's weather quarter at a safe distance, veering or hauling in line to bring the cask alongside of A. B then puts his helm hard a starboard, and holds his position till the towline is fast on board of A.

(c) There is a heavy sea, and A is under control. B steams ahead at a safe distance, head to wind. A barrel, full of holes, is slung, and the rope paid out until alongside of A. The barrel being full of holes will sink to the water's edge and will not be affected by the wind. A cork fender and grate bar may be used instead of the barrel.

(d) Calm and smooth sea. A is disabled. B steams along her port side and throws a heaving line, puts helm hard a starboard, stops and hauls hawser on board.

(e) In a seaway. A has rudder disabled, but motive power is good. B wishes to help her into port. B takes hawsers from A's quarters. A tows
and B steers. By this disposition, both steamers being large full powered vessels, B can steam at least at half speed, thus relieving A of that much work. If A were being towed, she would take rank sheers at short intervals, obliging B to slow or stop to prevent parting towlines.


you are aware that the HNSA manual is from 1883/1891 ?
Which means, it deals with an entirely different generation of ships, especially since at that time structural strength and integrity is massively increased by switching the building material to iron/steel plates, same for the masts, spars, frames and bulkheads.... Different masts, different sailing plans (easier to raise/maintain stabilizing sails), differing winches and power-management aboard the ship (like modern winches instead of a windlass ).

Which means tower and towed ships act under entirely different parameters. We are talking wooden ducklings (16th-17th century), not fully fledged (steel-built)geese^^

Besides the entire text is limited to carrying over the hawser (and a plurality of hawsers for a rudderless ship), not about actually towing. the reality of towed vessels (e.g. post-trafalgar) is telling

And a towed merchant vessel is not a dinghy being pulled after a yacht... just saying.

Liberty's Edge

Sorry I didn't post sooner but thanks a lot for all the very in depth responses. I really appreciate it.

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