Archived from groups: alt.games.adnd,rec.games.frp.dnd (
More info?)
In article <3a7p0jF69l8njU1@individual.net>, user@example.net wrote:
>Ubiquitous wrote:
>> Has anybody ever spent some time working out real-world ship analogs for
>> a D&D campaign, such as most ships are this size and which ones are
>> used where?
>
>I haven't used much ships in AD&D, but I have the shiprules from Birthright to
>use in case I would need them. For light use of ships the PHB is more than
>enough IMHO.
When does a boat become a ship? A rule of thumb says a boat can fit on a
ship, but a ship can't fit on a boat, but obviously this is subjective. During
the age of sail, the term “ship†signified a vessel with three
square-rigged masts and a bowsprit. Later it was the convention that a vessel
with three or more masts was called a ship, and any other vessel was called a
boat. More recently the standard was that a ship was any floating craft which
transported cargo for the purpose of earning revenue, although this did not
seem to apply to fishing boats or ferry boats. So what is the answer? Often
local law and regulation define the exact size, or the number of masts, at
which a boat becomes a ship.
Barge: A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river, canal or bayou
transport of heavy goods. Canal and bayou barges are towed by draft animals on
an adjacent towpath, or pushed forward by people with extra-large quant poles.
Bateau: A 20-ft. long, 18-inch draft, punt boat with a flat end and bottom
(18-inch draft), balanced so that a fisherman can stand upright to handle nets.
Canot, Shrimping: A small rowed boat with a rounded hull and shallow keel, used
for shrimping. Add a lug sail to a canot and you get a lugger boat.
Chalan, Moss: A flat-bottomed skiff (12-inch draft), rowed standing up, with
long oars raised and attached to a central platform. Its draft is 9â€, length
5 ft., width 2 ft., speed 50 ft. and has a cargo capacity of 1,200 pounds.
Clinker Built: Also known as lapstrake, it is a method of constructing hulls
for boats and ships by fixing overlapping wooden planks to a frame. The
technique was first used by the Vikings.
Curragh: A lightweight rowed vessel made with strips of wood and covered with
animal skin, employed frequently by Marshfolk. The curragh [the Gaelic word for
canoe] is a more advanced form of a hide boat.
Dhow: A sailing vessel with triangular sails, a square stern, timbers rubbed
with shark oil, and an ability to carry more sail in proportion to size than
any other sailing vessel, thanks to the mast tilting forward, and the
stern-to-bow slope.
Dromon: A light warship consisting of two banks of oars and a central tower
near the main mast from which arrows or spears can be propelled. Local dromons
are the very smallest of these ships.
Fishing Boat: Locally, this generic boat description typically refers to a
skipjack boat.
Goelette: A small, specialized shallow draft, two-masted sailing craft similar
to a schooner.
Gufa: A gufa is round boat made of tightly banded reeds, not unlike a modern
round life raft in shape. The reeds are gathered, joined into bundles and
fastened with rope made from dried grass. These seemingly fragile vessels are
actually very seaworthy and virtually unsinkable. When waves break over the
sides the water is filtered through thousands of fissures instead of being
trapped inside. The gufa is used by dwarves on the rare occasions water travel
is necessary.
Hide Boat: A primitive form of a curragh boat, made with animal hides stretched
over a frame of bent branches, used almost exclusively by Bushmen.
Houseboat: A boat which has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a
dwelling. They are typically moored in a fixed location.
Keelboat: A keel is a large beam around which the hull of a watercraft is
built. The keel runs through the middle of the vessel, from the bow to the
stern.
Knarr: A knarr is a ship that is broader in the beam and has a deeper draught
than a longship. They are less reliant on oars as a means of propulsion and
more on the use of sails.
Longship: A one-level ship with oars along both sides, and a rectangular sail
on a single mast. Longships are clinker built out of light wood, and
waterproofed by moss drenched in wood tar.
Lugger, Oyster: A canot boat that mounts a square lugsail, typically used for
oyster tonging.
Mudboat: Any flat bottom boat with a small draft, designed for traveling
through the shallow waters of marshes and swamps.
Outrigger: An outrigger is a thin, long, solid, hull positioned parallel to the
main hull so that the boat is less likely to capsize. Typically these are built
on canoes for stability.
Pirogue: A pirogue is a small, cypress-hulled, canoelike boat used for short
distance swamp travel. This mudboat has a flat bottom that allows it to move,
even with a heavy load, in just a few inches of water (smaller draft than a
canoe).
Puddlejumper: A steam-powered swamp vehicle, consisting of two air-filled sacs
rotating to propel the rider over non-wooded wetlands, without sinking or
losing speed. This is a clockwork invention used exclusively by the gnomes.
Punt: A flat-bottomed boat typically used in a bayou, canal, marsh, small
river, or swamp. It is propelled by pushing the river bed with a 6 ft. long
quant pole.
Quant Pole: A wooden pole used to push a boat through water, often with a prong
at the bottom to stop it from sinking into the mud. The operator drives the
quant downward and slightly backward to push the craft forwards, and can lower
the quant behind the boat to act as a rudder.
Raft: A type of boat distinguished by the absence of a hull. A raft is kept
afloat by constructing it from a naturally buoyant material. Large cypress
rafts, using quant poles to push with, are utilized for hauling cargo or
livestock through bayous.
Reed Boat: This primitive rowed vessel consists of bundles of light reeds
banded together by ropes, used mostly for hunting by Lizardmen.
Rowboat: A small boat where propulsion is obtained by a person that pulls on
two oars mounted to an oarlock on the center of the boat.
Sailing Vessel: Every sailing ship has a hull, rigging, at least one mast to
hold up the sails, and uses wind to power the vessel. In sailing ships, ballast
weighs down the bottom, so the wind does not push the ship over.
Skipjack: A two-sailed bateau boat used as a fishing boat.
Trawling Skiff: A 20-ft. long boat with relatively flat bottom (15-inch draft)
and pointed bow, powered by oar and sail. These boats are designed to use on
large, choppy lakes.
Trenasse Digger: These flat-bottomed boats have hand cranked, opposingly
rotating metal blades at the front, used to dig artificial marsh trails by hand
dragging the boat through a marsh.
Yawl: A small, two-masted sailing craft similar to a cutter.
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