Don't Give Up the Ship! is a set of rules for conducting Napoleonic era naval wargames

Wargaming

A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...

. The game was published by Guidon Games

Guidon Games

Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for wargaming with miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules , the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. The Guidon Games publishing imprint was the property of Lowry's Hobbies , a mail-order business owned by Don and Julie Lowry...

 in 1972 and republished by TSR, Inc.

TSR, Inc.

Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....

 in 1975. It was the first collaboration between Dave Arneson

Dave Arneson

David Lance "Dave" Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game , Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s...

 and Gary Gygax

Gary Gygax

Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....

, the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

. D&D fans may also recognize the name of contributor Mike Carr

Mike Carr (board game designer)

Mike Carr is a writer and game designer known for writing Fight in the Skies . He also co-authored Don't Give Up The Ship! with Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. Carr began wargaming with the International Federation of Wargamers as a teenager. At the invitation of Gygax, he joined TSR, Inc...

, who edited the rules and researched the historical single ship actions that are included as game scenarios.

History

The name comes from the dying words of James Lawrence

James Lawrence

James Lawrence was an American naval officer. During the War of 1812, he commanded the USS Chesapeake in a single-ship action against HMS Shannon...

 to the crew of his USS Chesapeake

USS Chesapeake

Five ships of the United States Navy have been named Chesapeake after the Chesapeake Bay, the body of water along Maryland and Virginia., a 38-gun frigate in commission from 1800 to 1813...

, later stitched into an ensign raised by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry

Oliver Hazard Perry

United States Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island , the son of USN Captain Christopher Raymond Perry and Sarah Wallace Alexander, a direct descendant of William Wallace...

 in the Battle of Lake Erie

Battle of Lake Erie

The Battle of Lake Erie, sometimes called the Battle of Put-in-Bay, was fought on 10 September 1813, in Lake Erie off the coast of Ohio during the War of 1812. Nine vessels of the United States Navy defeated and captured six vessels of Great Britain's Royal Navy...

, during the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

.

In the foreword, Gygax writes about the genesis of the rules:
The rules Gygax and Arneson developed call for pencil and paper, six-sided dice, rulers and protractors, and model ships, ideally of 1:1200 scale. Single ship engagements can be played on a tabletop, but fleet battles require more space.

Wind speed and direction are determined by a roll of the dice; sail ships can only make slow progress against the wind by tacking

Tacking

Tacking may refer to:*Tacking or coming about, a sailing maneuver*Tacking , a technical legal concept relating to competing priorities between security interests arising over the same asset...

. A protractor

Protractor

In geometry, a protractor is a circular or semicircular tool for measuring an angle or a circle. The units of measurement utilized are usually degrees.Some protractors are simple half-discs; these have existed since ancient times...

 is used to measure the angle between the wind direction and the ship direction and hence determine ship speed.

The protractor is also called into use to determine which cannons can fire on an enemy ship. Cannons can aim at the masts or at the hull, and the chance of hitting is 5 in 6 at short range (4") and 1 in 6 at long range (16"). The amount of damage from a hit is determined by the weight of the cannonball.

The rules are elaborate and cover morale, sinking, fires, broken masts, and boarding. The conclusion of the book provides the statistics necessary to re-enact historical encounters such as took place between the USS Constitution

USS Constitution

USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel...

 and the HMS Guerriere

HMS Guerriere (1806)

HMS Guerriere was a 38-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, which had previously sailed with the French Navy as the Guerrière. She became famous for her fight against ....

 on August 19, 1812. The second edition adds 4 pages of simplified rules for battles between fleets, as well as a map for the Battle of Trafalgar

Battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....

. However detailed scenario information is not included to reproduce the battle.

Editions

• 1st edition, 1972, Guidon Games
  Guidon Games
  Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for wargaming with miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules , the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. The Guidon Games publishing imprint was the property of Lowry's Hobbies , a mail-order business owned by Don and Julie Lowry...
  
  , 50 pages, blue & black cover
• 2nd edition, 1975, TSR, Inc.
  TSR, Inc.
  Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
  
  , 58 pages, blue, white & black cover