Ship Terminology: What is the 4 man ship?

  • RustyPyrate
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    We all know it. The Galleon. The fast and hard hitting ship that should instil fear into everyone who sees it coming their way. But... is it really a galleon? Short answer... kinda. It bears a lot of similarities but it's not a true galleon.

    As someone who knows a lot about ships and ship types, let's take a look at the 4 man ship in the game.

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    It doesn't have a fore castle, a high aft castle, a balcony for the captain, 2 lower decks, and 1 gun deck (2 if they added fuctional gun ports). Now lets take a look at a irl galleon replica, the Andalucia, and probably inspiration for the galleon in the game.
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    You Deffinetly see the difference, but there's more to that. The fore castle is Tall and can go inside it. It has a beak head to hold the ships toilets and to protect the front of the ship. The aft castle gas two decks, quarter and p**p deck I believe. And now to look at it, both ships are very similar... yet different.

    Both have a high aft castle, but the galleon is taller. The fore castle on the galleon is also taller and can be entered and stand up on. The beak is on the real galleon, and the gun ports are much higher, thus functional, which the games galleon gun ports are for show and if they were operational it wouldn't work since they're places between the middle and lower deck.

    So that answers that, the ship is NOT a galleon for various reasons. But what of other ships of the time? Well let's take a look.

    Carrack: These have really tall fore and aft castles and only one gun deck. And some are very similar to the ship in game. How ever, the main deck is very low while the castles stand tall. So I don't believe these ships are similar

    Frigate: Fast and manerverable ships with usually a aft castle. Though similar kinda, the frigate is way too flat and all guns below the main deck. So it can't be a frigate.

    Dutch Flute: This is... very similar. It has only a aft castle, generally no beak but a very round front instead. Has one gun deck on the main deck, 2 decks, and a captain's cabin but without the balcony. And looking at the models they are VERY similar.

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    So without a doubt, i officially dub the 4 man ship within the game as a Dutch Flute.

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  • Luci6396
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    lol man you crazy

  • RustyPyrate
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    @revanjstone Its the good kind of crazy right? I also think it's similar to a Pinnace or a fluyt (similar to flute) but both have beak heads.

  • Luci6396
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    @cheatingpirate As someone else who has interests that no one else cares about, I feel for you cpirate haha. Your post seems well informed bravo!

  • RustyPyrate
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    @revanjstone Well this was more of a fun analogy. Just wait until I dive into the sloop and figure out what the heck that ship is supposed to be 0_0

  • Luci6396
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    @cheatingpirate haha and the brig. tell me about the brig thats coming with your expertise. what should the bottom deck be like? is it fast? bad at turning? seems long to me? why does the top deck look so flat? how does the helmsman see?

    these are the burning questions! lol not what ships have already been out for in some ways over a year haha

  • LongingFern4785

    @cheatingpirate said Ship Terminology: What is the 4 man ship?:

    But what of other ships of the time?

    What time?! Sea of Thieves is a fantasy game and not referring to an exact time.

    But speaking of "ships of the time"... There were times, when "galleon" was a term for Spanish treasure ships in general. The term "galleon" was used for ships from many different centuries and nations and the designs changed a lot. So comparing a fantasy ship to some specific replica is a bit pointless.

  • RustyPyrate
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    @longingfern4785 When I mean "of the time" I mean between 1500 and 1700. And galleon isn't just for treasure ships. The mayflower, Andalucia, San Salvador, Duyfken, golden hind, and Half moon are all galleons. All of them are very similar in design too. Tall fore and aft castles, a beak, 3 decks usually and not counting the quarter and p**p decks.

  • RustyPyrate
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    @revanjstone looking at how the new Brigantine is, it's generally a flat hull, 2 masts, and they WERE much faster than a galleon. Probably more maneuverable too, which those are why pirates loved them. I haven't seen the Brigantine just yet thigh I am looking forward to it

  • LongingFern4785

    @cheatingpirate

    An English galleon. Looking a lot like the in-game galleon. The model has four masts, but the amount of masts is variable on galleons (three and four).

  • xCALYPT0x
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    @cheatingpirate Fun read :) I really wish our ships had rat lines that we could climb. That would be so much fun!

    And I guess the sloop and brigantine aren't technically ships. Don't you need 3 masts to be considered a ship?

  • MintMage513321
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    @cheatingpirate well the main thing i have in mind when looking at SoT is that its a diferent world. A diferent universe. So similarities to the real world exist but from world to world, dimension to dimension, things are diferent.
    A 4 man galleon would be impossible in our world and pirates would almost never do irl what we do in game. If we are so into terminology we are not even close of being pirates.
    Lets accept this and play along.

  • RustyPyrate
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    @longingfern4785 There's multiple differences between the in game galleon and any irl galleon. The galleon we have has 2 decks under the main deck, so 3 decks total. Smaller galleons have 3 decks total, bigger galleons at 4. Also galleons have quarter decks and p**p decks, while the in game galleon only has a quarter deck. Galleons also have a fore castle one can go inside, while there isn't a fore castle on the in game galleon. And again, the in game galleon has no beak, while every other galleon irl had a beak.

    Again, the in game galleon is more similar to the Dutch Flute

  • RustyPyrate
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    @mintmage513321 I mean, that is a valid argument, but again this is all in good fun.

  • Luci6396
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    @cheatingpirate WHO IS REALLY HAVING FUN HERE!!!????????? LOL

  • fenderbendur

    I think some of you are missing the point. We all know it is a fantasy world. However, the beauty of a community of players is we all come from different backgrounds with different perspectives and viewpoints. I think this analysis is fun, and it will change the way I look at the ships from now on. Being from a physics and astronomy background, I find certain things in the game strange and interesting as well (for example ships leave no wake, and also the night sky is all wrong), and I hope that if I post about it one day I will get meaningful responses instead of "It's just a game."

    So @CheatingPirate , I say rock on. Great post.

  • LongingFern4785

    @CheatingPirate
    You are just refering to the most classic definition of a galleon, not considering there were built thousands of galleons and no two galleons looked the same.

    @cheatingpirate sagte in Ship Terminology: What is the 4 man ship?:

    And again, the in game galleon has no beak, while every other galleon irl had a beak.

    Last time, I was in-game, my galleon had a beakhead.

    @cheatingpirate sagte in Ship Terminology: What is the 4 man ship?:

    Galleons also have a fore castle one can go inside, while there isn't a fore castle on the in game galleon.

    Again, look at British galleons. This game was designed by a British game studio. In case they visited a local museum to research on galleons, they would have seen something like this:

    English ship Sovereign of the Seas - Wikipedia

    English ship Sovereign of the Seas - Wikipedia

    The HMS Sovergein of the Seas was a British galleon and had no fore castle.
    (Fore) castles on ships are relicts from pre-galleon era. The advantage of the galleon was not to have these bulky castles.

  • RustyPyrate
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    @longingfern4785 hahhh sovereign of the seas. If you didn't know that's my favorite ship of all time. And sadly there IS a fore castle on that ship. Dont beleive me? Here. https://www.arrowmodels.com/mantua-sovereign-of-the-seas-1-78-scale-kit-787
    If yoy dont believe me still, look at Van de Velde's painting of it and plenty of ships like it. Most galleons of the time had a small forecastle with one deck.

    But yeah I generally agree with you, not every galleon looks the same. How ever all of then share the same traits. Including fore castles, which were reduced in size but not completely removed. I think it wasn't until the mid 1700s that the forecastle was removed from most ships. Also there are plenty of other English galleons they could look at, like the replica of Golden Hind for example, the Mary Rose museum tho that's technically a carrack, and they could have seen other ships too like Andalucia (probably what inspired in game galleon), duyfken, Susan constant, hms revenge, Batavia, Lenox, San Salvador, you get the picture

    Also the galleon in game doesn't have a beak head. It has a prow. But again we could see one eventually bc there seems to be a proper galleon in the art book.

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