The Rejects' Guide to Ark Royal's 17th Century Shipping Part 3

Part 3

This is the lightly armed variants of code ARD017. One addition is a whaling ship which has boat davits either side of it quarters. The Dutch whaling fleet was the largest in the world for decades and dominated the whaling industry. These can be used for merchant shipping of any nationality as the design was almost universally adopted.

Brigs were ubiquitous and served both civil and military purposes. Fleets composed of hundreds of these black ships brought coal from Newcastle to London and were a prime target for the Dutch. These ships can be used as fire ships and as privateer, pirate, revenue and coastal defence vessels. One piece castings easy to paint and rig.

The Herring bus was a fishing vessel, variously rigged. Fleets consisting of hundreds of these boats fished close to the British coast making Holland rich and hugely annoying the locals and the government alike. Herring was one of the prime causes of the wars between England and Holland. Remember the Cod Wars of the 1970s between UK and Iceland? The Royal Navy and Icelandic Navy clashed in protecting British trawlers off Iceland - same thing, only in the 17th century it was magnified hundreds of times. Busses can be used as fireships, troop transports, landing craft and of course, fishing boats.  Several variants making them really interesting little vessels.

These ships are useful for a variety of purposes - to be what they are described as - Old merchant ships, but also as earlier warships from the period 1580 - 1640. They have longer beakheads, no spritsail top (the 2nd from the right is a conversion with a spritsail top added). They can be used for Spanish and Portuguese ships up to the 1670s. The largest has 38 guns, the mid ship 26 gns, the two smaller varying numbers less.

These small galleys have enormous scope of use from the Lepanto period right into the early 18th century. They can be used by the Ottomans, Venetians, Spanish, Maltese, French, Berbers, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedes and Danes. They can be used for riverine, colonial and open sea actions. They have no guns and can be used with or without a mast/sail. Fantastic for south America, The Mediterranean, Aegean, Gulf, Indian Coast, Batavia etc or the muddy waterways of the Low Countries during the 80 Years War, the Baltic is also an option.

Follow the text for the previous code as it applies. These are bigger than bergantines but smaller than war galleys. Extremely wide usage.

These are also useful for the navies mentioned previously but rarer amongst the northern European fleets. Spanish, Venetian, Ottoman, French Mediterranean Galley Fleet and Berber fleets would all use these vessels.

These are large flagship galleys with heavy forward facing cannons. They would be used by the navies mentioned in the previous code.

The largest and heaviest galleys. Used by the Spanish during the Armada period and also at Lepanto. Later, the Venetians did use them Quite uncommon but very impressive. They have turreted fo'c'sles with cannon mounted all around.