What kind of ships is it plausible for wako/woku pirates to use?

[carlos13th]

What kind of ships would Wako pirates use? Were their particular ships they favored or would it be plausable for them to use whatever was available to steal at the time? Would them being in a Junk, an Atakaebune or a P’anokson all be appropriate? Or did they tend to favour certain ships?

Thanks for any help those of you more knowledgeable about the subject than myself.

[OSHIROmodels]

Depends what sort of wako they were. Several clans were no more than pirates but had the money and resources to have quite substantial fleets. The typical clan ships would be similar to those below.



If the wako were more of a bunch of ragamuffins then any ship they could get hold of would suit but they would still be mainly Japanese in design as they would be able to sail around the coast of Japan without getting set upon or having too many questions asked.

The low, open sided one pictured below would be fairly common and varying designs (usually size) would have been seen.


Picture taken from the internet

Don't forget that a lot of the none-clan wako bands would've been formed of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Malay etc and occasionally Western pirates and the vast majority would have island bases from which to raid from.

If you've got any more specific questions then ask away 

cheers

James

[carlos13th]

Thanks for the information so far James.

Probably going to go for general ragamuffinary than clan orientated Wako. That way they will do double duty as general bandits.

What were the reasons for the low open sided ship? Ease of disembarking in order to raid coastal villages?

I plan to pick or attempt building at least one of the type of ship you have in the first photographs. But I will probably use that as a general Samurai ship but can double as a wako ship too for raiding parties and the like. I also want to look to build or buy a ship to oppose them. Was considering either a different kind of japanese ship or a Korean ship (because that gives me an excuse to by Koreans in the future too, as if we ever need excuses to buy more)

I never realized Wako crews could be quite so diverse. I knew they were commonly Japanese or Chinese are their any specific tales of western pirates in wako crews?

[OSHIROmodels]

The ships were primarily designed as for loading cargo easily, hence the low sides. It just happened that it makes them easy to charge off into n unassuming coastal village 

The large one is in the catalogue and the small one will be soon enough and I'd recommend the small one to go with. A Korean turtle ship would be out for pirates but there's no reason you couldn't use a panokseon or the Chinese equivalent.

I can't remember where I read it but there were some Portuguese pirates that mucked in with some Japanese ones for a time so there is a precedent for it.

cheers

James

[carlos13th]

I didn't even consider the cargo they were actually stealing once the stabbing was done , that's thinking like a wargamer not a pirate.

Can I ask what the difference between the basic and full kits in the catalog are?

A Panokseon would be pretty cool to have. What was the Chinese equivalent of that called?


I shall have to see if I can find more out of these Portuguese wako. Sounds interesting.

Nice one


 

[FunkyBrush]

Check out this ship project:

http://roninskirmishrules.freeforums.org/another-kind-of-scenery-for-ronin-t57.html

[carlos13th]

Thank you. Thats really cool.

[OSHIROmodels]

Those are great builds FunkyBrush, are they yours?

Can I ask what the difference between the basic and full kits in the catalog are?

The basic kit is just the hull and mast, the full kit has a sail, mast, rigging etc.

cheers

James

[sukhe_bator]

The Millennium Falcon - that's a heap of junk!

[Hupp n at em]

Followed your link FunkyBrush, and not only has this guy constructed two awesome ships, also an entire fishing village: http://eltallerdeemilque.blogspot.com.es/.  Really, really great stuff.