Waaaaait a sec here. Isn’t wearing a steel cuirass in the middle ocean a really bad idea especially in the middle of combat? If you get knocked overboard you’re pretty much finished right?
Can someone confirm if this was an actual thing that was commonly done or was this just artistic license being used here? :o
If you fall into the drink in the middle of a large-scale naval battle, you’re probably in a pretty awful position even if you’re a good swimmer with no armor on. Contemporary depictions of naval battles show boarding troops in full armor, and armor was assigned to ship crews (and not just the troops they were transporting), so it’s pretty fair to say that armored boarding marines were a reality at least some of the time.
TIL the basics of 16th century naval boarding actions:
That’s why it’s so important that boarding troops be specialized marines - landlubbers ain’t got sea legs!
I wouldn’t want to be a marine period, but between the choices of higher risk of drowning vs higher risk of being stabbed in the lung, I’d take the armor if it was offered.
