What is an armed boatman? A man, with a boat, and weapons? Did he row around the coast and then all of a sudden, stand up and shoot? Yes. He pretty much did. My 4th great-grandfather William Rowland was a private in the Loyalist Company of Armed Boatmen in the Revolutionary War. 1 Whaleboat War Back then, everybody knew what “armed boats” were, the official name for the whaleboats used by privateers, another official name meaning a legal pirate. A whaleboat was a narrow open rowboat, 30 to 36 feet long, with pointed bow and stern and 8 to 10 oars to be rowed by 8 to 10 men. A boat may have had a short removable mast; some had small cannons, but otherwise the armed part referred to the bayonets, swords, and muskets carried by the crew. 2 Whaleboats of privateers in the Revolution, https://www.monmouthhistory.org/250/the-bold-privateering-of-adam-hyler Rebel whaleboats had a Mate as the helmsman and eight privates as the crew, which rotated. If the Loyalist boats were similarly cre...
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