1st Rate Ship of the Line Maps & Assets
The Ship of the Line: A Floating Fortress
British Royal Navy and the French and Spanish. During this era, warships were ranked based on how many guns they carried and their size: 1st rate through 4th rates were consider Ships of the Line, and 5th and 6th rate were reserved for smaller frigates.
The 1st Rates were the Flagships of the fleet, often carrying the Admiral on board. This particular ship is modeled after the Spanish San Felipe and the British HMS Victory, which if you can actually visit if you are ever in Portsmouth, UK!
During my research for this project, I couldn't ever find evidence of these massive ships in the Caribbean waters during the Golden Age of Piracy - they were simply too expensive and indispensable and could not be spared across the ocean just to deal with thieves. They carried over 100 cannons and crews were often as large as 800 men. Certainly no pirate force was ever large or powerful enough to capture one of these vessels... but we're here to play fantasy roleplaying games, right?! And in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies the HMS Dauntless is a 1st Rate ship of the line... so knock yourself out!
While you could certain have a Royal pirate hunter case your players down with one of these warships, they will most certainly be outmatched without other powerful allies, magic, or perhaps the help of a friendly local Kraken or Dragon Turtle. Or maybe they join the massive crew of a Pirate Lord? Sneaking on board, escaping from the brig, or exploring a derelict wreck are all great adventure hooks.
Perceptive players might notice that in the Pirate Lord's war room they are studying a treasure map. I've included a larger version of the map as well as a Naval combat scale region map.
Maps [56x46]
- Original (guns and no guns)
- Royal Navy - Similar to the HMS Victory (guns and no guns)
- Pirate Lord with treasure in the hold (guns and no guns)
- Original at Night (guns and no guns)
- Empty - add your own props
Assets
- Version of the ships, the hulls, and the sails as transparent assets
- 1x3 sized tokens of each variation for Naval Combat
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