Boarding and Close-Combat Gear

Timeline

1. -300–-100Waters of the Roman Republic and Carthage · SicilyIn the First Punic War the Roman navy used the corvus boarding bridge and grappling hooks to fix enemy ships, converting naval advantage into infantry combat and establishing the Western tradition of boarding gear.
2. c. 800–1200Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean · AegeanByzantine dromons and Arab galleys were equipped with iron-clawed grappling hooks, boarding ladders, and Greek fire projectors; burning weapons were used to disrupt enemy formations before boarding.
3. 1481–1490Aegean sea lanes contested between Venice and the Ottomans · AegeanVenetian, Genoese, and Ottoman galley fleets all carried multi-hook grappling lines, light gangplanks, and shield walls as standard equipment; in conflicts such as those in the Strait of Otranto, boarding combat remained the decisive element.
4. c. 1500–1800Major global sea lanes · Indian OceanDuring the Age of Discovery, privateering and colonial wars still used grappling hooks and boarding to capture merchant ships; only when naval gun range and firepower density made close-range boarding too costly did such gear gradually fade from mainstream naval warfare.