Sinking

A ship is considered in danger of sinking once all of its hull points have been destroyed (see damage to hull and rigging). At that point, the ship can no longer be sailed or its weapons fired. All crew and persons aboard are considered to be acting to keep the ship afloat. The minimum number of persons necessary to keep the ship afloat under these circumstances is equal to the number of unprotected hull points.

Further ship’s weapons hits on the ship at this time will not increase the chance of the ship sinking. If the ship is rammed, that would be sufficient to scuttle it.

If the ship is scuttled, or the persons keeping the ship afloat are removed, or physically kept from preserving the ship, the ship will sink. To determine how long this takes, roll a d20 to determine a total of 5 to 100 rounds; this number is then divided by the wind speed, so that it be calculated in seconds.

Saving the Ship

With sufficient time and depending on the quality of the crew, the materials aboard ship can be repurposed to provide a sinking ship with effectively 1 hull point. When calculating the chance of success, rules for wind change are suspended, based on the presumption that while the wind may change critically over the course of a battle, the pre-existing wind is presumed to remain consistent over a long period.

After each hour of steady work, the crew is entitled to a roll to save the ship from drowning. A d20 is rolled. The base chance for success is 12 or better. The wind speed is then added to this number, from 0 to 12. The crew quality then provides a modifier: poor (-2), green (0), average (+1), crack (+3) and elite (+4).

Success indicates that a turning point has been reached and that the ship will be kept entirely from sinking once three more hours of labour are invested. Even if the crew are very tired at this point, they will be able to sleep in shifts and yet save the ship.

Failure, however, will mean that another hour must be spent before there is again a chance of success. Each hour is counted towards the crew’s hours total activity for that day, including the number of hours before the naval battle occurred. If, by the 10th hour, the ship hasn’t been saved, each hour afterwards imposes a cumulative -1 penalty against success. When success ceases to be possible, the crew collapses and the ship will sink in 5 to 100 rounds.

If the full effort to save the ship was employed, so that the crew forced their labour past 10 hours, then no one will be able to swim; they must find a means of staying afloat that does not require physical exertion, or they will drown.

If the ship is saved, it is considered to have 1 hull point. If it retains at least one mast, it can be sailed with a yare of E. If the masts are destroyed, and there is no stored rigging aboard the ship, it can only drift. This permits at least a chance that those aboard will be rescued.

See Naval Combat