Pillager Pirates

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

All but the supply chests can turn up a sentry armor trim.

Setting foot on a ship earns Shiver Me Timbers.