Fair winds and following seas—but maybe take the stairs.
Why? Because boarding was chaos. Pirates didn’t politely toss a ladder and wait their turn. They used grappling hooks to pull ships together hull-to-hull, then swarmed across using , cutlasses, and sheer momentum. A rope ladder dangling between two heaving wooden warships in rough seas is a recipe for crushed fingers, broken ribs, and dunkings. pirate rope ladder
So the next time you see Captain Jack Sparrow shimmy up a Jacob’s ladder with a sword in his teeth, smile. You’re watching a lie. But it’s a beautiful lie, woven from rope, seawater, and three centuries of happy mythmaking. Fair winds and following seas—but maybe take the stairs