Naval Boarding Actions & Close Combat, with DRACHINIFEL
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- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2024
- When close combat during naval boarding actions carried the day! With Drachinifel / drachinifel
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This was great fun! :)
Haven’t watched any of it but I’ve still all ready liked it.
What’s with all the cameos? It it ratings week or something? ( TV ratings , not naval ratings )
How do you find the time? Are you full time now?
In person, even better!
More fun than the actual boarding actions to be sure.
Would have been nice to get into exactly HOW you board a sailing ship. The platonic ideal, according to Boudriot, was to place yourself in the other ships path at a shallow angle. Then their bowsprit would push into your foremast shrouds (rigging/ladder) and hopefully get stuck there. At that point you could suppress the enemy's resistance on their forecastle by using the superior armament on your own quarterdeck. Then board over their bowsprit. In a pinch you could likewise just t-bone the enemy and climb out over your own bowsprit. If needed, the topmen could run out on the yards and lash the yardarms together. In the event the enemy tried to tack, you could also heave to right under their stern while they were motionless in the water, and let them drift down into you, being raked all the time. Then swarm in through the captain's quarters.
"This isn't a friendly ship, it's full of Englishmen!" is one of the most hilariously true things I have heard said.
Yup, had that with Grand Canaria once..
Cool. Matt and Drach both look like high level henchmen of some evil noble. I'm imagining them having a conversation outside the keep, while the protagonists quietly scale the gate behind them. I like how Matt keeps on excitedly interjecting, while Drach manages to keep his thread.
To me they look dresses for some ridiculously cold winter. Whereas I am wearing shorts and short sleeves in Arizona with the A/C still on.
You are a worthy adversary, Mr. Smith, so before I dispense with you, let me share with you the innermost workings of my plan for world domination.
@@dougearnest7590 😂😂😂
@@FeedMeMister 😆😂🤣
"You never want to be stuck between the French and the Americans" Matt can make the most banal thing seem dirty, it's his gift
American here, I lost it lol
"Naval Boarding Actions & Close Combat, with DRACHINIFEL"
YES!!!
Funny actually, As a modern merchant sailor. the first thing we give up when pirates attack is the deck. we'll go down the engineroom locking up every deck and door behind us and controll the ship from below. (and wait for the navy to show up)
Makes sense, as now the means of propulsion are below deck. And with the ability to lock doors and seal bulkhead they can't just lob grenades down on you.
Yeah, the big difference today is that you *can* actually control the ship or at least deprive control and wait for help from below decks. In the age of sail, not so much. They didn't have radios so help wasn't really too likely to show up and all the important workings of the ship are up top. Not to mention that an old school frigate can usually just tow a captured ship wherever it wanted. Some guys on a speed boat aren't going to be towing a modern container ship anywhere anytime soon.
I do wonder if it was a different story where oar driven galleys where the big thing though.
Do you have nasty surprises for them like crowfeet, slippery slime, electro doorhandle... you know that serious home-alone stuff or is it just close the door and drink tea?
This brings back memories. In the 70's I was in the US Navy, and my ship (which shall remain nameless) was "taken over" by some special operations types during war games by landing on the helo deck and rushing up to the bridge. We simply dogged down the hatches and doors and secured them in some way (simply tying down the handles so they couldn't be opened from the outside). The Operations Officer (the senior officer not captured in the assault) took command from below decks because there's the emergency steering function, plus that's where the engines are, and breakers to shut off power to the superstructure. Of course the ship was not effective in a combat role until the varmints were removed, but neither had she been "captured". Of course it might have turned out differently if the bad guys could blast or cut their way in, but that might have been a bit much since it was just a game. So yeah, thanks for the memories!
@@dougearnest7590 Thats interesting. Never thought about it but it would make sense that boarding actions will still be carried out in modern naval warfare. My question is how they would do it? Wouldn’t they only attempt to board and take a ship after it has been pummeled by missiles first? Is their aim to take the senior officers as hostage but modern warfare wouldn't see enlisted men surrendering in that scenario. Would the boarders (would they be SEALs or Marines?) Be able to commandeer a ship even after it has been crtically damaged or at all?
"Involved pistols, and musketoons, and muskets... Musketoon is a short musket, btw"
*Me, closing a tab about to google "musketoon"*
Allrighty, then
When you think about it, it makes more sense than the word "carbine," which definitely is not a short car. 😀
Just like pantaloons, which are short pants.
17:40 Drach left out the wonderful contemporary term for this: "Nelson's patent bridge for boarding First Rates."
Drac and Matt together is such a good idea. They could speak for hours so I do not know how they manage to keep it short. But it's still very interesting. Thanks guys !
One of drac's formats are throw questions at him and he fills hours solo. Pretty sure he just cleared his throat here.
"...something we could look at in a future video." Yes please! Great collaboration, eager to see more. The discussions of limited deck spaces/deck obstacles dictating combat, the rapid pace of boarding melees, the context of crew lacking time to equip themselves, and the criticality of momentum, organization and morale are all excellent examples of how historical knowledge is complemented by practical HEMA experience. This combination of expertise could be enlightening for many more subjects!
One of the odd things that I find in the Ironclad buildup of the American Civil war was ideas of having pipes rung around the casemates of Confederate ironclads to direct scalding hot steam from the boilers down the sides of the casemates to deter boarders. Now I wouldn't want to be clambering on top of an ironclad when it starts spitting hot steam at me, but I probably wouldn't want to be in it either since it has pretty much turned itself into a bain-marie.
ROFL Now I have a picture in my head of a cartoon of an Ironclad bain-marie, like they would have had in their newspapers of the time!
Another aspect of boarding actions that seems quite important: You not only are capturing the ship, but any information about that combatant's naval strategy and communications that might be on board. Learning, for instance, your enemy's flag signals could give you a significant advantage in the next fight.
That...was quite rare to get info like that...9 times out of 10, the signal flags, letters, and other important would be placed in a bag, or box. Weighed down heavily by Lead Weights, ready to be thrown out the captians window into the sea.
@@silentdragon1555 Correct. The Captain's going to face a court martial for losing his ship as soon as he's paroled, but as long as he displayed the necessary gallantry, he's only going to get convicted and dismissed or imprisoned if he does something stupid like forget to throw his sealed orders and the signal book overboard before striking.
@@ericfleming5522 some what true...If the ship is lost in combat, an investigation would occur to its loss. And if all the regulations that need to be followed, the captain and crew would be left off the hook.
If foul play was found, or something didn't add up. Or a complete lack of captaincy, He would be court Martialled for said crimes.
Very often. The captain and officers where let off if it was in time of war...otherwise, round house kicks would be issued.
@@silentdragon1555 Pretty much like the modern navy. Some things never do change....
@@ericfleming5522 don't fix what ain't broken...
The US Coast Guard has a lot of what would be called boarding actions on a fairly regular basis. Its anti piracy and anti smuggling work though done in peacetime. Small arms include carbines, rifles shotguns pistols and grenades. Thea US doesn't use military swords anymore but IIRC there been more than the occasional use of what are basically boarding axes as well
The more things change , the more they stay the same.
I remember a picture from the 90's of a USCG crewman jumping on board a boat they'd just stopped with a fire ax in his hand. Though it was more likely to open a door the crew had locked than to do combat with the crew.
Loved the history lesson on naval boarding incidents.... I was playing out a movie in my mind as you described what took place. I suddenly want to re-watch Master and Commander!
When it doubt, always rewatch Master and Commander.
@@ostrowulf This is wisdom :)
Oh my word it finally happened. 2 of my favourite RUclipsrs made a collab. Yay!
If The Chieftan was on hand they could do a "my God, the ships on fire!"
I can't think of a better collab. It's beautiful. I'd love to hear more about the small arms, particularly pikes/half pikes, boarding axes, and dirks/daggers.
Ready To Learn.
Drach's in the house!
cool to see the two of you together
Two British madlads! Love both your channels.
The difference between British and American Marines in the early 1800s would be an interesting video
This idea is the video I did not know I wanted.
Well, if hollywood has taught me anything -
The British marines would politely line up to take on the single heroic American marine that boarded their ship first one at a time so he can incapacitate them with nothing more than the barest contact. Then, once this single heroic American marine has single-handedly killed and/or incapacitated half to three quarters or so of the British crew, a huge wave of Americans would swarm over the ship and the fight would be instantaneously over.
This is definitely historically correct. Mel Gibson says so.
@@ColonelSandersLite LOL, I have had a bunch of rum, and then read this when too close to my sleeping child's bedroom, I had to stifle a laugh so I did not wake him up.
@@ColonelSandersLite The only case of a movie i can think of with British marines from that era is Master and Commander and in the movie a marine accidentally shoots one of the main characters, trying to shoot an albatross (which is a big no no for any sensible sailor) and the Americans are replaced with the French from the book the movie is based on because Hollywood says you can't have Americans as bad guys
You know what, how US Marines and Royal Marines compare in various time periods would be a really interesting video.
wooo what a top team!
Could we see some examples of naval pikes, boarding pistols, cutlass designs, and the like? Really enjoyed this collaboration, please do more together!
Yes, yes, yes.
This Co-op, as well as the corresponding Viking video on Drachinifel's channel is a match made in heaven!
Ooh I was curious about this
waaaah... how cool is this!! you and Drach - suuper !!!
Hi Matt and Drachinifel, I am super pleased that you guys have done a collaboration. I have discovered Drachinifel in the last month or so and wondered if there ever would be a cross over. My birthday on the 5th so this is close enough for a birthday 🎁. I asked mum to get me a book on Navy history for bday / Xmas which surprised her as that came out of the blue.
Happy Birthday
Happy, just about, birthday.
This was great! More of you two, please.
OMG... Lindy, Drac and Matt all on the same interface. My favourite Utube content producers not only like each other's content, they work together... Now just Metatron and Drac, both Navy guys. Well Done all.
The navel battles of Salamis, Lepanto and Sluys? They all changed the world to some degree. I do not know how much boarding action influenced the first two; and I believe Sluys was the first victory an English navy won agin the French? All three are worthy of new insight. With you two, a collab on any one would add more sharpness and sail to the world's understanding.
Thank you both.
Brilliant video. One of my relatives John Taylor Wood while serving onboard the CSS Virgina propsed a plan to board the USS Monitor which involved jamming the turret with wooden wedges, oakum grenades to drop inside of the ironclad and canvas to cover the vision orts and ventillators.
Monitor wasn't the first Union ironclad, they deployed City-class ironclads in the Mississippi river before, against river fortresses. Monitor and Virginia were the first ironclads to fight other ironclads in battle. They were both hastily constructed so that they could be the first to reach the battlefield and designed specifically for brownwater naval engagements, so it's not exactly fair to compare them to HMS Warrior which was a bluewater ship designed calmly in peacetime. The USS Galena and USS New Ironsides, which were under construction at the same time as USS Monitor might be a fairer comparison, as Monitor was designed to be as small and quick to produce as possible.
True, but the monitors were the most numerous and most obvious thing for the RN to consider at the time. Warrior vs New Ironsides is a genuinely interesting match-up, Warrior vs Galena... let's just say I'd have to ask what Galena ever did to you to force it into that engagement? :)
@@Drachinifel oops, you're right. I guess I had learned that Galena had some sort of oversized gun for that kind of engagement, but now that I look at it, Warrior has 5x as many of an even bigger caliber. Galena still wouldn't have the problem of getting its only turret stopped up with wood.
Monitor introduced the revolutionary new screw propellor.
I would have never thought a Monitor vs Warrior engagement was a serious theroycrafting item just due to the fire power discrepancy. Some interesting info on Monitor however.
There is a reason I watch Master and Commander every 6 months. Thanks!
Yes great fun to listen and learn.
I love your collabs! The interaction between two people with overlapping knowledge bases is always more interesting than just one person presenting their arguments.
Scholagladiatoria and Drachinifel! What a fortuitous convergence! The Venn diagram makes the topic obvious. I follow both channels and this was fun to watch.
I imagine that the landing party howitzer was on board because at some point, a landing party found their target to be hidden behind a building or a hill of some sort from the ship's guns. Granted, a naval gun can shoot straight through a building, but you may not want to demolish the local orphanage to take out a single machinegun nest.
Wonderful! Thanks.
Such a good subject. It's always something I like to think about when reading Patrick O'Brian.
Tremendous content! Thank you for the collaboration and new channel to follow. - USN (Retired)
7:50 bording action, take the deck, oficers surnder dont have to fight the lower levels
And other points, marines aren't enough so its often normal crew doing most of it so its just grab whatever, no reloading guns, they can miss or guns fail, theres no room everythings tight so hard to move and fight with normal muskets or normal hema techniques
16:25 mussles and cannons causing fires
17:44 enemy not ready busy with stuff then borded so not ready to fight (get gun/sword or formation)
21:03 why bored (enemy loses mast so cant escape and if you haven't destroyed it then bored to deal final blow to a. Kill crew b. End there moral
29:44 how to bord the monitors (small steel boats with turret from American Civil war)
It's Drach!
Great video and funny conicidence. I recently became intersted in the development of the warships in the 19th and 20th century and was reading quite a lot of the stuff already online. And now Matt has guest that has channel dedicated to that topic. Have already left a sub on the Drachinifel channel. That is really conviniant. :)
I’d love to hear about bombardment of shore targets by war ships, particularly any engagements with infantry.
Yes, like the Dutch naval landing by Michiel de Rayter at the Battle of Nyborg 1659. I know almost nothing about it, but it sounds interesting.
Drachinifel has a nice video on shore bombardment in WWII, though I guess you wanted older examples.
@@seneca983 I do but I will check that out as well
I enjoyed this video. Boarding actions are an often overlooked part of naval history.
Great stuff!!! Two of my favorite channels doing a collab! Well done! Looking forward to future collab vides with you two!
There is an example from the Scanian War (1675 - 1679) were naval personnel fought in a land battle.
It was during the battle of Lund, on 4 December 1676, 345 years ago today by the way. Lund was the largest and bloodiest battle of the war between the Swedish army under the command of king Charles XI and the Danish army under the command king Christian V. Denmark was allied with the Neatherlands amongst others and recieved naval support in the shape of a Dutch fleet under the command of famous admiral Cornelis Tromp. And to support the Danish land army in Scania Tromp had sent a batallion made up of Dutch sailors, numbering about 1300, to fight as infantry and were part of the second Danish ine during the batte. The Swedish army was outnumbered, about 8000 of which 2000 were infantry, 6000 cavalry supported by 12 artillery pieces. The Danish army numbered 13 000 of which 5000 were Danish infantry, the 1300 Dutch sailors deployed as infantry, 6000 cavalry and 56 artillery pieces. The battle lasted for the entire day and resulted in an complete Swedish victory and brutal losses on both sides.
The Dutch sailors were massacred as the Swedish soldiers thought it a breach of the rules of war to have naval personnel fighting on land. Hence they refused to accept the surrender of any Dutch sailor. The massacre only stopped when Swedish general Simon Grundel-Helmfelt saw what was happening and rode up and ordered the Swedish soldiers to stop.
In the end the Swedish had lost about 5000 of which around 2000 were wounded and 70 had been captured by the enemy. Danish losses were about 9000 of which 1000 were wounded and 2000 taken prisoner. The majority of the wounded on both sides either froze to death were they had fallen during the night or succumbed to their wounds later on.
The battle of Lund is interesting on it's own right as it lasted for so long, was fought in the way it was and because the losses were so enormous: 12 000 dead and wounded out of a total number of 18 000 that participated on both sides in the battle. Percentage wise it makes the battle of Lund one of the bloodiest battles in recorded history.
But the fact that the massacre of the 1300 dutch sailors also occured and the reason why it happend is just as interesting as it is horrible.
Now this is the sort of stuff I love! I wasn't aware of DRACHINIFEL before, but now I am and I'm subbed!
Holy damn, finally, this happened!
Just finished re-watching 'Black Sails' for the third time. This awesome video is arriving right on time. Hurrah!
Brilliant video! Very enlightening and fun too. Thanks to Drachnifel for sharing his knowledge.
Thanks, Matt! definitely subbed to Drachinifel's channel
That was a very interesting and entertaining video! I'm sorry I put off watching this for so long, I'd saved it for later when I could pay it more attention and promptly forgotten about it. After watching your vids with Dr. Capwell and Zac Evans, this was recommended. I hope you make more collaborations with Drachinifel (and the others, too, of course) in the future, I thought you two worked really well together! I'm off to find the rest of your collabs with him on both channels (and subscribe to him), so thanks for making these.
Extra points awarded for the Rugby reference.
Thank you for introducing me to Drach!
Holy cow, I had never expected the two of you to team up ... the topics covered had always felt like different domains to me ... until now!
Matt and Drach? Outstanding!
Drach´s story about Nelson capturing the second spanish ship at around 18:00 reminds me about a quote by Captain Aubrey to the good doctor from one of the "Master and Commander" series. It goes something like this: "The joy in fighting the spanish is not that they are shy, for they are not. But that they are never, ever ready."
Drach is probably the hardest working person on RUclips
11:07
Gotta respect a man with a sword in his hand still giggling at “poop deck” 🤣
Love seeing Drach and Matt together, and happy to hear that you'll be able to do more collabs in the future! It's really awesome how Scholagladiatoria channel is becoming a cool hangout lounge for military history youtubers.
The confined spaces being a thing I knew - *but for belowdecks* - that it's also an issue on the upper deck is new to me. Very interesting indeed.
An informative video and quite nice to see a collab of two of my fav channels.
Belowdecks, not only are you more confined all around, but the lower in the ship you go, the lower the overhead (ceiling).
Awesome. Love the collab
I'd love more of this
Well this is an unexpected crossover
No this is a duo i could enjoy!
Well, that started off on a pretty depressing note, but, as per usual, Nelson managed to save the day!
Well this is definitely getting a like!
John Paul Jones also played bass in the famous rock band Led Zeppelin after his navy years, very few people know that
Two of my fav channels collaborating? Amazing. Thanks so much you both!
Thank you for the great video, so happy to see two of my favourite creators collaborating!
Great video! I love this format.
Tight quarters sword&shield fighting, pistol as a mace up close, how would use a boarding pike in combat, how do you use a boarding ax *in defense* , what kind of protective equipment would people use during Napoleonic era, and whatever else you guys want to talk about.
Please, discuss the code of honorable conduct and the case of Chesapeake-Shannon "duel".
On the deck space I'm always shockec at the numbers of people on these ships. During regular operations it isn't so bad because the night shift is sleeping, etc so only a third of the people are milling around the ship, but in battle "all hands" to battle stations you'd basically have three times as many people in a space as you normally would. Like you don't normally have Marine sharpshooters up in the rigging.
I am sorry to correct you, my good Sir, but actually in the Royal Navy of the time the ships crew was usually divided in two watches, port and starboard watch. This way it would be rather half than a third. Non the less, even more people milling around!
Extremely good and important video.
Yes! I literally asked for this on the Fight Camp video. Great watch. I look forward to more.
two of my favorite RUclipsrs
This was awesome! I'm a big fan of both you & Drach.
"The Wind and the Lion" features a great set piece of US sailors and Marines forming a landing party and taking a palace.
Those were the good old days.
Two of my favorite RUclipsrs together again for the first time! What a lot of fun.
How to get the bf in front of the telly:
"Wanna watch Matt Easton and Drachinifel talk about naval boarding actions?"
Two of my favorite channels doing a collaboration? nice!
Quite enjoyable and informative!
Nice comment on the "Altmark" incident. Also when we get into Naval Landing Parties remember the Naval Brigades dueing the first world war!
Fantastic collaboration! Really love both channels. Great video.
Collab between two channels I watch, yeah totally watching this one.
You guys both rock
This was GREAT. Please more about naval combat!
Brilliant!
It wasn't so much "potential future enemy" as "could we fight them if we had to?" as a hypothetical question to keep the planning guys busy, and they drew up one for every possible opponent and combination of multiple opponents/combination of allies well into the 1930s. A few of them turned out to be mighty useful once everybody realized which side they were on around 1937 and refined them.
Oh! So that's what Drach looks like!
Wonderful stuff!
@17:22
Sooooo what I'm hearing is that Nelson jumps into the middle of a shit storm and just starts throwing punches at everyone. And when more people show up, he has something for their ass too. Mad dog! 😂
The USS Constitution foutght three battles and won all three. HMS Guerriere, (August 1812), HMS Java, (December 1812), and HMS Cyane and Levant, (1815). Two of the four ships, Guerriere and Java, were so badly damaged they had to be scuttled. Levant was recaptured by the British. There were other successful boarding actions. USS Chesapeake vs. the French frigate L'Insurgente, (1799 or 1801), and USS United States vs. HMS Macedonian, (1812). There was also the burning of the Philadelphia by Stephen Decatur, February 15, 1804). The last successful boarding action of World War II was when Vice Admiral Richard V. Gallery boarded, and captured, a German U-boat.
The U-boat's in Chicago at the Chicago Art Institute.
As an American I can say that your historical account of our obstinace is quite accurate and still in play to this day!!
This was a blast to watch. I hope there are more!
Amazing! Great to see two of my favorite content creators collaborating in person!
More please 👍
MIND BLOWN! 2 heroes meet at last!