| Size | Rig | Aboard | Crew | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sloop | 14 × 7 | One mast, a gaff mainsail and a jib | A stern cabin with the plunder in it, stores in the hold | 3 pillagers, sometimes a captain |
| Longship | 19 × 7 | One striped square sail | An open deck, a curled prow, banners hung along the sides for shields, oars run out into the water, an armory chest | 3 vindicators and 2 pillagers, half the time a captain |
| Brigantine | 24 × 9 | Two square-rigged masts, a crow's nest, a jib | A captain's cabin with the map chest, a cartography table and a bunk; supplies and the treasure chest below decks | 4 pillagers, a vindicator, a captain on the quarterdeck, a lookout in the nest |
| Galleon | 32 × 11 | Three masts: two square-rigged, a gaff sail on the mizzen, a crow's nest | A forecastle and a two-storey stern castle; amidships a gun deck with shuttered ports, a brig holding two allays and an armory; a hold under it that rises to the main deck fore and aft | 7 pillagers, 2 vindicators, a captain, and sometimes an evoker in the cabin |
Every ship is drawn from its own seed, so no two are quite alike: the hull and deck woods are paired from a set that leans on dark oak, the wood pillagers build their outposts from; the sails are white or light gray with a dark band; about one in three has sails torn to rags. Each flies the ominous banner at its stern and from every masthead.
Where to find them
Out at sea. A ship only goes where it would actually float: the water has to be deep enough under the whole hull to clear the keel, and open for a dozen blocks around it, so you will not find one wedged against a beach or moored in a pond. A spot too tight for a galleon gets something smaller instead. Frozen oceans are left alone; any other ocean will do, and a river if it is ever wide enough.
They are rarer than shipwrecks, roughly one to every 450 blocks of open ocean, and never right beside an ocean monument.
They show up on the horizon: sails, masts and flags stand well clear of the water, and the lanterns on their rails light them after dark. To go straight to one:
/locate structure #pillager-pirates-justfatlard:pirate_ship
or name a particular kind, e.g. pillager-pirates-justfatlard:galleon.
Going aboard
Every ship has a boarding ladder up each side amidships, with a gate in the rail at the top. Swim or row up to it. The crew cannot open gates, and the rails are too high for them to jump, so they are there when you arrive and they stay aboard afterwards.
Inside:
- A hatch beside the mainmast opens onto a ladder down into the hold. The longship has no hold: it sits too low in the water, and everything it carries is on deck.
- The raised decks at either end are reached by a ladder on the wall facing midships, next to the cabin door.
- The brigantine and galleon have a crow's nest, with a ladder up the back of the mast and a pillager with a crossbow already in it.
The hull is watertight until you make it otherwise. Break a plank below the waterline and the sea comes in.
Sailing one home
With big-boats installed, every ship has a helm at its wheel, rated for exactly that ship: Tonnage I on a sloop or a longship, Tonnage II on a brigantine, Tonnage III on a galleon. Clear the crew, throw a christening bottle at her, and she is yours to sail.
Every ship is built to be taken that way. Each fits the helm it carries with a twentieth of the helm's capacity to spare, so there is room to add something of your own before you set off, and every block of it is joined to the rest, so nothing is left hanging in the air where she used to be. Break the helm and it keeps its rating, like any enchanted helm.
Without big-boats the wheel is simply empty.
The crew
Everyone aboard was there when the ship was built, and nobody despawns.
A captain wears the ominous banner and counts as a raid captain in every way the game cares about: killing one drops an ominous bottle, same as a patrol captain on land. Galleons sometimes carry an evoker, with everything that comes with one, a totem of undying included.
No more come aboard afterwards. A cleared ship stays cleared, and nothing else spawns in its hold either, so a ship you have taken is yours to keep.
What they are carrying
| Chest | Found | Holds |
|---|---|---|
| Captain's | The captain's cabin | A buried treasure map, always; charts, compass, clock, spyglass, sometimes a goat horn or an ominous bottle |
| Treasure | Stowed aft | Emeralds, iron, gold, the odd diamond; now and then an enchanted book, nautilus armor or a heart of the sea |
| Armory | The longship's deck, the galleon's gun deck | A crossbow, maybe enchanted, or an iron axe; arrows, tipped arrows, fireworks, iron armor; sometimes a Piercing, Quick Charge or Multishot book |
| Supply | Barrels and chests in the hold | Food, gunpowder, arrows, paper, string, the odd emerald or block of TNT |
All but the supply chests can turn up a sentry armor trim.
Setting foot on a ship earns Shiver Me Timbers.
Pillager Pirates Team
