Leddy wrote:
That would also help explain how accurate they were with whatever fire ballistics they were using. Which brings up another point. Eurons ships seemed to be pretty well lit also. Or at least had to have some kind of fires burning so how did Yaras ships not see them. Add to Yara being the commander and having special guests on her ship should've been in the middle of her armada for protection. So Eurons ship made it's way through all the others before the battle started ? Or the attack started and none of the other ships made a warning noise? Were all the sailors asleep? The entire thing was disjointed.
The writers did some studying of classic sailing ship naval battles in history. Salamis and Trafalgar (especially Trafalgar, it looks like), to name just two. Euron Greyjoy could have done what Lord Nelson did at Trafalgar: divide his fleet into two columns and direct them perpendicularly against Yara Greyjoy's own fleet.
By doing so, Euron's force was able to break Yara's force into two or three segments, surrounding Yara and Theon's flagship and their escorting ships and then force them to fight until the end. The second column of Euron Greyjoy's fleet dealt with Yara's remaining ships, who would be screened off and unable to receive signals from the flagship. Confusion and disarray would result. It was risky, and Euron could easily have died leading the boarding party, but no balls no blue chips, right? ;-)
Because Euron's force closed quickly with Yara's it prevented her ships from breaking off or escaping once they saw that the cause was lost. And because it was close-in fighting, her ships would have been unable to disengage, regain sail power and then reengage, reentering the fray. Euron's ultimate design was to bring on what was called, back in the days of sailing ship naval battles, a melee. Yara's ships would be also be forced into a frantic battle and their lines would have quickly been broken.
Euron was already acclaimed as the superior seaman when compared to Yara, and his fleet captains would have trained incessantly for the two-column direct attack and ensuing melee. He and his captains were also prepared for a fight; Yara Greyjoy's weren't, at least not at that time. She made a fatal tactical decision in not accounting for Euron's superior seamanship. His ships looked like they carried more sail, meaning they could beat to the wind more efficiently and travel more quickly, giving them greater maneuverability and ramming power, if needed.
If Yara's ships weren't rigged for a fight at that moment (and it looks like they weren't), Euron's ships -- which were rigged for one -- could have gotten in among her force fairly rapidly, before an alarm could have been sounded and general quarters stations -- prepared to repel boarders -- taken by her sailors. This is especially so if Euron's smaller, faster and well-armed ships could pick off Yara's screening ships, dispatching them before they could get word out to the flagship and its own screeners.
Likely, none of what I just wrote actually applied to this naval battle, though. Because it was made up for TV. ;-) Sails -- especially from a tall mainmast -- tend to be visible for miles off, even at night. Any halfway competent at-sea watchstanders would have seen him coming from nautical miles away.
So maybe Euron and his ships hid in a cove to await the passage of Yara's ships, unfurled all sail and came in from behind her, taking her fleet in the rear and setting off that melee? Who knows? I sure don't. LOL!
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."