Ships in D&D

[Question]

Does anyone know how high the crows nest for a ship would be? Also would being in the crows nest give you any sort of cover or concealment against attacks(since i think about half your body is covered by the crows nest)

 

[Ilium]

Corsair gives a typical height of 48 feet, which lets you sight out 8 miles. It also notes that on many ships the crow's nest is just an open platform, but the enclosed type is common on merchant (as opposed to fighting) vessels.

You need to buy Corsair from Adamant. It rocks.

 

[Question]

I have stormwrack, the funny thing is that none of the ships have any mention of a crows nest at all.

 

[Kwitchit]

Most old square-rigged ships had several "crows-nests" (if you are defining it as a railed-in platform on a mast. The highest was on the main royal mast (in other words, the highest of the 4 spars, joined end-to-end, that made up the main mast)- although these were only fitted to whalers. On HMS Rose, a replica of a Napoleonic frigate (which is 135 feet long on deck) the top of the main royal mast is 130 feet up.

As for crows nests:
On a sailing warship, there would be railed-in platforms at the maintop and maintopmast top (about 40 and 70 feet up). There are unrailed platforms higher up. Enclosed crow's-nests only appeared on Greenland whalers. These were about chest-high, with straw insulation, and had a rotating canvas shield to protect from the wind.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Why fake it? Here's a nautical tool for determining the distance to the horizon.

http://www.boatsafe.com/tools/horizon.htm

Info on tall ships (modern, historic, and recreations) with links to the ships' individual websites for more detailed info:
http://www.tallshipsla.com/ships.htm

And for general giggles here is a 15th century sailor's journal and notes distilled to the useful bits:
http://dibinst.mit.edu/DIBNER/Rhodes/ships_sailing.html

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Crow's Nest or Fighting Top?

Crow's Nest were found on "civilian" vessels. Though that doesn't mean unarmed obviously, it also didn't really include the Portuguese or Spanish treasure fleet ships or the East Indiamen of any of the major powers. They were basically warships that carried cargo. Now they varied in both size, number and shape, but most of the period illustrations and the view remaining examples I've seen show what is not so much a proper 'railing' as a short lip. They couldn't build them solid because it would affect handling so they railed but they were also shorter like half-way up the calf rather than say like a modern stair rail, and these were often cut away because they hindered movement aloft by the crew.

Fighting Tops were a different story. These you found on proper warships mostly and also the Treasure Fleet ships and Indiamen along with some of the larger privateers. They had no railing, lips, or obstruction and were generally of sturdier construction with some attempt to clean up the lines to improve lines of fire downward in the arc an enemy ship would occupy. Basically they were an elevated shooting platform for Marine marksmen in naval vessels and their other functions were secondary to that.