Privateers and Spanish Galleons Week 1: Ships

In the next few weeks we will be simulating moving across the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the ships will be Spanish galleons bound for the New World to pick up treasure. However, there will also be English privateers on orders from their sovereign king to intercept the flow of gold from the New World. Ships will follow a prescribed route and gain their movement (ships are represented by colored push pins and the move dots on a map) from the activities, projects and assignments that are completed. The first goal is to get ships to the New World as quickly as possible. As ships move across the ocean, a series of events will take place en route as fate dictates. Some of the events will represent good things that will speed ships along, but others will represent hard luck which may slow a ship. Once all ships reach the New World and treasure is loaded onto the galleons, the galleons strive to reach a Spanish port safely while the privateers seek to obtain the treasure and sink the galleons. During the trip homeward ships are free to move over the ocean in any way they wish, along longitudinal/latitudinal lines. Ships may make contact with each other, engaging each other in battle.


For this map, you can sketch or make a copy of a map of the area and sketch in routes.
The routes each have between 90 and 100 dots.
The first assignments are to decide whether to be privateers or the captains of Spanish galleons. If you are doing this with a group, you should have a ratio of about 3 Spanish Galleons to every privateer, although in our family, the ratio of privateers was a little higher than I wished with Quentin and Sam being privateers and Alex, Katie and James as Spanish galleon captains. Once ships were decided, they drew lots to determine which route was assigned to them. Privateers are headed to the pirate flag. The Spanish galleons are using routes 1, 2 and 3, but they can choose their final destinations of Cartagena, Porbelo or Veracruz and their routes to get there once they reach the Hispaniola area.

Student's crew

The Crew
Some of the jobs of a ship's crew are pretty self-explanatory such as the cook, the doctor (sometimes called surgeon)  and the musician. Other crew members are:
-the carpenter: fixes the ship when it needs repaired.
-the cabin boy: the lowest and youngest of the crew members. Does any small chores and is learning.
-the seaman: (sometimes called able seaman), completes any task needed for the sailing of the ship.
-the boatswain: is in charge of enacting the captain's orders with regards to navigation. Is in charge of the crew.
-the quartermaster: in charge of the rations and treasure. Is the person who is allowed to punish the crew if needed.
-master gunner: In charge of the cannons and the men using them.
-first mate: second in command below the captain
-captain: person ultimately in charge of all aspects of the ship.


Now for the movement tasks for this week:
Assignment 1: CREWS Each student is the captain of a ship and is in charge of forming a crew of 10 men for their ship. The type of men (jobs) that are chosen could affect play, so you must choose wisely. Younger students can draw pictures of their crew. Older students can just write down their crews, but also need present research about  four explorers of the time period to the group  Assignment 2: SHIPS Sketch a picture of their ship with appropriate rigging.
Assignment 3: PROJECTS: Older students can complete Ocean Currents science lesson and write a narration about it. Younger students complete a project related to any of the lessons we have done so far such as make a model of a Galleon. These were their assignments for the week. Each of the assignments is worth 4 dots worth of movement. No fates for this week. If you would like to advance your young sailor up in ranks this week instead of moving dots, you can advance them for their work to Cabin Boy and let them cut out their award and glue to their folders.
Student's crew

Click here when you are ready for Privateers and Spanish Galleons, Week 2: Life On Board

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