So how do you use the gunpowder barrels?

@KTCHP-PLS
We stuffed them into our sloop as we were about to call it a day anyway and blew our ship and another sloop up.
Also i stuffed 6 barrels into the George and Kraken and shot them because the barmaid did spit on tankards AGAIN.

As a risky defence you can store them on the lower steps on the sloop.
When someone really hunts you down there, he's gone with one shot, but you will be quite busy to rescue your ship.
Of course there is a chance that the barrel gets hit in a battle.

As a defence you can also store them behind the taverns door if you don't like to be attacked while drinking. ;-)

The simple use of dropping them off the back of your ship doesn't work that well at the moment as you have to get real close to the edge and of course a following ship can b******u up with a well aimed shot from the eye or reach.

So you see there are many uses for these barrels, it's up to you which genius or crazy ideas you come up with.

Two points for how we've successfully used them:

1: If you store them in your crow's nest, you don't have to worry about an accidental explosion damaging your own ship.

2: We've had success when either very close, or being tailed, by an enemy ship, by jumping overboard with the barrel and boarding the enemy ship. Even if they spot you, you should have enough time to at least get down into their mid-deck. If they're hot on your tail, just drop it and slash it with your sword. If you have time, drop it, run to the other end of the deck, and shoot it.

@ktchp-pls said in So how do you use the gunpowder barrels?:

Ahoy!

So... me and this person decided to duo.. racked up about 20 chests. Towards the end of our session we ended up getting chased. I thought it was a good idea to have a few barrels of gunpowder on board so we could drop them in the water... I thought I could just drop them on the side. I ended up blowing up the ship and my mate. Luckily we were able to use our enemies ship to ferry about half of the remaining chests that we could get.

I obviously messed up big time here.

My question is: Have you ever used the gunpowder barrels and if so how did you?

That is one hilarious story my friend. How exactly did it blow? Because if you were being chased and all you did was throwing it in the water, my best bet is that someone from the enemy boat sniped your barrel. It doesn't blow if dropped. You were just unfortunate. :D Although by the end of your story, your enemy were. Nevertheless, this are my two cents on what happened. Cheers.

I believe it is a bug, I also stood on the plank and dropped the gunpowder keg expecting it to fall into the ocean, however it exploded like yours did,

I'd bet it being a bug is the most likely answer.