page_title: Naval boarding
section_title: Modern era
hierarchical_section_title: Naval boarding / History / Modern era
caption_attribution_description: English: 090211-N-1082Z-209 GULF OF ADEN (Feb. 11, 2009) Visit, board, search and seizure team members (VBSS) in a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) from the guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf (CG-72) close in to apprehend suspected pirates. Vella Gulf is the flagship for Combined Task Force 151, a multi-national task force conducting counterpiracy operations to detect and deter piracy in and around the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Gulf, Indian Ocean and Red Sea. It was established to create a maritime lawful order and develop security in the maritime environment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class Jason R. Zalasky/Released)
context_page_description: Naval boarding is to come up against, or alongside, an enemy ship to attack by placing combatants aboard the enemy ship. The goal of boarding is to capture, or destroy, the enemy vessel. Larger ships carried specially trained and equipped sailors, or marines, as boarders. Boarding and hand-to-hand combat was the primary means by which to conclude a naval battle until heavy ordnance gained tactical primacy at sea.
  A cutting out boarding is an attack by small boats, preferably at night and against an unsuspecting, and anchored, target. It became popular in the later 18th century, and was extensively used during the Napoleonic Wars. This heralded the emphasis on stealth, and surprise, that would come to dominate future boarding tactics. An example is the successful cutting out of the Hermione which took place at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, on 25 October 1799.
  In modern warfare, boarding by military forces almost always involves stealth, and usually takes place at night. It may involve the use of small submarines or submersibles, or inflatable boats, or by frogmen. All involve scaling the sides of the ship.
context_section_description: The adoption of ironclads and increasingly powerful naval artillery vastly increased the risk to boarding parties. Meanwhile, the suppression of piracy and the abandonment of privateering and prize money made boarding actions even against merchant vessels less rewarding. The massacre of Paraguayan canoe-borne boarding parties by Brazilian ironclads during the Paraguayan War demonstrated the futility of direct assault by boarding in the face of 19th-century technology.
  During World War I the Royal Navy created their own type of warship specifically designed for boarding. Several armed boarding steamers were converted from merchant ships and fought in engagements such as the Action of 16 March 1917.
  For the most part, boarding became a police action in which the attackers came on board only when no resistance could be expected, in order to search vessels and remove contraband. The target would be a ship that had hove to or surrendered. During wartime, the surrendering or sinking ship would be searched for any valuable information such as plans and ciphers. One prominent example would be during World War II, when British vessels crippled the German submarine U-110 in 1941, and sent a crew aboard after the U-boat commander, Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp, gave the order to abandon ship. The British would be rewarded with a fully operational Enigma cipher machine, left behind by the German sailors. On June 4, 1944 a United States Navy task force led by Captain Daniel V. Gallery boarded and captured U-505.
  True boarding assaults in the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries became extremely rare, generally by small boats or by divers, who entered the target vessel surreptitiously and exploited total surprise to seize control before resistance could be effectively organized. Modern-day pirates in motorboats similarly depend on speed, stealth and surprise to take their targets, usually unarmed and poorly defended, without serious resistance.
  However, the use of boarding tactics has begun to revive in recent years, both as part of anti-piracy operations and in conflicts such as the ongoing aftermath of the Libyan Civil War, and the 2014 Crimean crisis.
caption: Anti-piracy boarding, February 2009
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