We know that the Royal Navy was the main enemy of pirates. Lewt’s take a look at the crew who make up the fighting ship. Navy officers, no t surprisingly, are often the thin and fragile sons of the rich, who would probably prefer to have stayed at home with mum, whereas petty officers are the much tougher sons of village squires, and as such, usually prefer to be running the ship themselves and be its captain.
Further down the chain are the unfortunate who were gathered together when they were drunk or just grabbed physically by employed gangs of forceful recruiters, and later wake up to find themslloves already at sea.

These gangs would typically roam around drinking places looking for physically able bodied men who they assessed would be strong enough.If you took money from them then you were guilty of taking the Kings shilling. Now you were liable to be marched off to a ship and kept shackled until the ship had left the port with you on board.

The ship itself was on 5 levels. The second lowest level were provisions, the midd level were the sleeping quarters. The 4th level was where the canon were placed and the top level was where the captain and his officers lived.