History Main / WOODENSHIPSANDIRONMEN

%%* ''Series/TheOnedinLine''.ZERO CONTEXT

* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': A MiniSeries of eight MadeForTV movies from 1999 to 2003 by [=A&E=]. Starting with the award-winning ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129686/ Hornblower: The Even Chance.]]'' High production values and extraordinary quality. There were some notable changes from the original book. Hornblower's solitary hero and man alone got a pal Archie Kennedy and was close to a fatherly Captain Pellew, as introspection and inner dialogue are hard (and potentially uninteresting) to translate into visual media. It has all elements required, and you will think pirates are lame after watching the Navy guys in action in this series.

%%* ''Series/BlackSails'' ZERO CONTEXT

* Juha Vainio song "Laivat puuta, miehet rautaa" is the trope name in Finnish.
* Parodied mercilessly in Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's operetta ''Theatre/HMSPinafore''.

* The TropeNamer ''Wooden Ships and Iron Men''.

* ''TabletopGame/SeventhSea'' draws heavily upon this setting for any of its nautical adventures, especially anything involving the Pirate Nations.
* ''TabletopGame/FurryPirates'': A furry version of the Golden Age of Piracy. Furry versions of famous Pirates fill the game: "Calico" Jack Rakham is a cat with his partner Anne Bunny, while Blackbeard is a bear and Captain Kidd is a goat.
* When ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'' isn't being World War 1-inspired, a High Fantasy setting or Urban Steampunk-y, it is this. Most nations command a fleet, most notably the small kingdom of Ord who maintains such a huge, traditional fleet, and Cryx and the surrounding islands which are filled to the brim with pirates and privateers. Uniquely for these groups, they have several "Shipcasters", a variation of the powerful battlemage/military officer found in the Iron Kingdoms specialized in ship-to-ship combat and maybe even able to mentally control a ship.
* ''Privateers and Gentlemen'', a role playing/miniatures game set during the Napoleonic Wars.
* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' setting of ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' combines this trope with SpaceOpera via its very literal use of the trope SpaceIsAnOcean.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' setting, naval expertise is the [[PlanetOfHats hat]] of Kul Tiras, a human kingdom which is basically an island nation with a large merchant fleet that was repurposed for warfare following the invasion of the orcs. Its ruler, Daelin Proudmoore, is often portrayed with an admiral's hat. In ''Warcraft II: Tides of War'', five naval units were given to each side: Oil Tankers, which gathered oil, the resource used to build other naval units, Destroyers, elven or troll ships which could attack units on land or in the air as well as other naval units, Transports, which had little armour and no weapons but could bring troops across bodies of water, Bruisers (Human Battleships, Ogre Juggernauts) which couldn't attack air units and moved and attacked more slowly than Destroyers, but hit like a truck when they did, and Submersibles (Gnomish Submarines, Giant Turtles with Goblin technology) which moved fairly slowly and could only attack sea units and buildings, but could only be seen by watch towers and flying units and attacked in rapid fire.

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'' revolves entirely around this period in the Caribbean. The player character is a Privateer (not quite a pirate as it says on the tin) and will fight many (one-on-one) naval battles during the course of his/her career.
* The naval aspects of the ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'' series live and breathe this trope, since the game spans virtually the entire Golden Age of Sail.
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'', set in the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, introduces naval combat to the series and manages to capture the experience quite well, despite some [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality liberties taken]], namely allowing you to participate in the awesomeness of the ''Battle of Chesapeake Bay''.
** The sequel, ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'', is set several decades before ''III'' and has you pilot a pirate ship during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy and features open world naval combat, building on the Naval gameplay. Justified, as the non-modern main character is Connor's grandfather Edward Kenway, a pirate/assassin who is the colleague and equal of the likes of Benjamin Hornigold, UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}, Charles Vane and Bartholomew Roberts.
** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'' is a slightly different take, set in the mid-18th century. [[PlayerCharacter Shay Cormac]]'s ship ''Morrigan'' has a shallower draft than Edward Kenway's ''Jackdaw'', which allows Shay to engage in river travel.

* ''[[VideoGame/ChoiceOfGames Choice of Broadsides]]'' is set here, with the option, at the beginning of the game, to be about Wooden Ships and Iron ''[[GenderFlip Women]]''.
* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'': It doesn't usually take long to sail from point to point, but taking into account the high random encounter rate, some voyages on the overworld map (particularly the South Ocean and Yafutoma) take a ''very'' long time. Vyse will remark on this while examining a ship's pantry; even in a fantasy world where [[TheSkyIsAnOcean ships sail through the open sky]], scurvy and poor nutrition remains a very real danger for crews.

* ''Webcomic/WhispersInTheWind'' is a webcomic that is heavily inspired by the Golden Age of piracy. Some pirates depicted in it only look for gold and plunder while others, like the main villains are part of the "Brethren of Ashborough" and obey to their own specific set of laws. There is also the Rán Guard, a maritime army that strive to get rid of piracy all together from their seas.

%%* ''Roleplay/OpenBlue''

* A ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker'' short jokes with this trope's title. At one point, the narrator says something along the line of "It was an age of wooden ships, and iron men!" and the action cuts to a brief shot of [[VisualPun a boxy robot manning the wheel of a sailing vessel]].
* Many early ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' shorts venture into this territory.

** Dewey Lambdin's ''Literature/AlanLewrie'' series, which even features a LawyerFriendlyCameo from Hornblower.

* The ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' series by Bernard Cornwell (originally conceived as "like Hornblower, but on land!") features this whenever Sharpe has to get somewhere by sea, as in ''Sharpe's Trafalgar'' and ''Sharpe's Devil''.

* ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' in most of its incarnations.

* Not a fighting ship, but still pretty much the same presentation of the sailors: Rudyard Kipling's ''Literature/CaptainsCourageous''.
* Used in ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' book ''Red Seas under Red Skies''.
* ''Literature/BillyBudd''

* While David Eddings' ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'' depicts life at sea rather romantically, it still makes note of the lash, and suggests that it's mostly romantic for those captains and passengers who truly enjoy it/get to avoid some of the really nasty bits. Its sequel, ''The Malloreon'', paints a considerably more grim picture of the conditions driving a sailor to desert his captain. It still involves a lot of "[[TalkLikeAPirate mateys]]", though - and an InUniverse lampshading by said sailor who inwardly observes that the owner of a sea-themed bar is overdoing it a bit.
* Much of Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/TheBaroqueCycle'' takes place on ships in, well, the Baroque, both European and Middle Eastern. He doesn't gloss over the conditions.
* James Clavell's ''Literature/{{Shogun}}'' opens up in this setting. By the timeframe of ''Literature/TaiPan'' and ''Literature/GaiJin'' (early Steam Age) things had improved only a little.
* Creator/RafaelSabatini's swashbuckling {{pirate}} books, ''Literature/CaptainBloodHisOdyssey'' and ''Literature/TheSeaHawk''.
* Quite a lot of Creator/JohnRingo's ''Emerald Sea'' and ''Against the Tide'', in the ''Literature/CouncilWars'' series, are 41st century recreations of this era, due to the Fall and restrictions imposed by the world-controling AI "Mother" that make combustion-based engines beyond a certain low power output steam engines unavailable.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Midshipman_Easy Mr. Midshipman Easy]]'' by Frederick Marryat is a near-contemporary example, and probably set the tone for most of the later works in this vein.
* The sections concerning the people of the Iron Islands in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', especially those that take place on boats, come across like this. Bonus points for them being called the Iron Born.
* Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet's poem [[http://www.constitutional.net/099.html "Clipper Ships and Captains"]] is an ode to this period, even going so far as to include the lines:
-->When the best ships still were wooden ships\\
But the men were iron men.
* The Empire of New Britain and the Holy Dominion in the ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' series arrived on the [[AlternateHistory alternate Earth]] in this genre. Currently they're on their way out of it technologically: their ships are powered by a combination of sail and coal-fired paddlewheels, although the Dominion still uses massive "liners" (short for "ship-of-the-line") as their slow heavy-hitters, which are exclusively sail-powered. While most Alliance sailing frigates ships have since been converted to steam/sail hybrids, at least one fully sailing frigate still exists - the USS ''Donaghey''. In later novels, it accomplished an impressive feat of [[spoiler:sinking a modern (by World War II standards) Spanish destroyer, although it did involve ambushing the enemy to get close enough for a broadside]]. Averted by [[spoiler:the New United States, as they arrived to this world during the Mexican-American War, when steamers were already common, although the one ship shown is likewise a steam/sail hybrid]].
* ''Mutiny On The Elsinore'' by Creator/JackLondon is set in TheEdwardianEra and still features the miserable conditions of the long-range clipper ships, slightly improved by reduced crews and better supplies. Subversion in the fact Captain West and his two officers [[SelfDemonstratingArticle fit the heroic image of the Age of Sail mariners]], while the mutinous crew is scrounged from the worst of the worst, thieves, bandits and criminals, barely healthy enough to stand. The trope is [[InvokedTrope invoked]] in-universe by one of the officers, who decried the loss of healthy, trained enlisted sailors of the decades past, who knew "how to drive a ship".
** This is TruthInTelevision for the time: The good sailors could get the comparatively cushy jobs on steamships, whereas the clippers were left with the dregs. Conversely, the officers were often young and ambitious, since you had to have sailing-ship experience to get a captain's license and possibly a ship to command.
* Another Creator/JackLondon novel, ''Literature/TheSeaWolf'' definitely invokes the harsh conditions of sailing vessels, as told through the point of view of a gentleman, rescued from sea and force to work upon the ship.
** Creator/RichardBrautigan's "Contemporary Life in California" has a great summary of ''The Sea Wolf''.
* Two Creator/JaneAusten's brothers were naval officers and she was thus well acquainted with the knowledge of life in the Navy. Two of her books contain elements of Wooden Ships and Iron Men.
** ''Literature/MansfieldPark'': Fanny Price's father is an off-duty [[TheDrunkenSailor drunken sailor]] of a Lieutenant. His family is rather poor and lives in Portsmouth. Fanny's eldest beloved brother William starts his career as a midshipman at the beginning of the novel and his career is mentioned throughout, and later his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant is an important plot point. Mary Crawford, an admiral's niece, at one point says she doesn't want to talk about the Navy because "[[{{Double Entendre}} of rears and vices I saw enough]]." Austen also gives a cameo to the ''Canopus'', her brother Francis' ship.
** In ''Literature/{{Persuasion}}'', there are lots of naval officers who return to the country from Napoleonic Wars, and their life at sea is discussed at large. Admiral and Mrs Croft rent Kellynch Hall, which is a family mansion of Anne Elliot's (the novel's protagonist), and there are three other [[TheCaptain captains]]: Captain Wentworth, Captain Harville, and Captain Benwick. Sophia Croft, Captain Wentworth's sister and Admiral Croft's wife, is a badass of a lady as she spent most of her married life sailing with her husband and slaps down her brother when he starts saying that women are too delicate for seagoing life. The social changes associated with the Navy are also much discussed. Most officers were second sons of respectable families, but it was also possible for middle-class boys to be sponsored as midshipmen, and while nepotism was well in force (as noted in ''Mansfield Park'') men could also rise through merit, become wealthy, and join the upper classes--something which the old titled families did not always like.

* In David Weber's ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' series, the Kingdom, later Empire, of Charis has to rely on its navy to fight off the mainland powers. Thanks to the TechnologyUplift provided by Merlin Athrawes' knowledge and [[OneManIndustrialRevolution Baron Seamount's inventiveness]], they go from Lepanto style galleys to ships with designs straight from the Age of Sail. As of the sixth book, ''Midst Toil and Tribulation,'' it drops off a bit. Much of the action switches to land based combat in the Republic of Siddamark and the climax of that book features the introduction of the Safehold's first steam-powered, ironclad riverboats. By the ninth book, they've launched the first King Haarahld VII-class battleship, which would have been state of the art in the 1890s and characters discuss how sailing ships will soon be a thing of the past.
* The ''George Abercrombie Fox'' series of novels by Adam Hardy.
* David Drake's ''Literature/{{RCN}}'' series is this trope RecycledInSpace -- ships in FTL are driven by sails that, because of the inability to use electrically-powered motors, are set and reefed by sailors in the rigging.
* The Bronte siblings devoted some of their childhood writings and plays to this genre, as their wooden soldiers became fearless explorers on a journey to Africa.
* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomRynosseros'' although the ships in question are wind-powered ''sand'' ships.
* ''Literature/ThePyrates'' parodies the glorification of the era by exaggerating all its components.
* ''Literature/AlexisCarew'': Well, Thermoplastic and {{Unobtainium}} Ships, but the rest checks out: everything about the workings of space travel is based heavily on the Age of Sail, from the brutal discipline and sexism and classism down to the tiniest terminology of mast and sail sections. The terminology part gets a lampshade when Alexis wonders aloud if "tradition" is some synonym for insanity.
* Literature/TheBountyTrilogy, a series of three novels about TheMutiny aboard HMS ''Bounty''. The first one, ''Mutiny on the Bounty'', was adapted into an Oscar-winning 1935 film.
* The navy and the sailors of ''Literature/TheWitchlands'' are very evocative of this era, with the added bonus of magic powers.

* The ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series is essentially Horatio Hornblower RecycledInSpace. Not only are the politics directly analogous to the Revolutionary/Napoleonic wars and the physics carefully designed to have spaceship battles play out in the same way as in the Age of Sail, but some of the books follow almost identical plots to those of Hornblower. This becomes less pronounced as the series progresses, with political shifts and advances in technology causing the setting to diverge more and more from the historical analogues.
* ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series owes much more to its author's own memories of serving in the US Navy in the second half of the 20th century but has a few elements of this trope, mostly in the form of traditions that have carried over: The InitiationCeremony for sailors whose ship is about to enter the gravitational influence of Sol is quite clearly derived from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony the one traditionally performed when a sailor first crosses the Equator]], and decorative knotwork as a common skill and pastime among sailors could stretch back as far as there have been navies as we understand the term today.
* ''Literature/TalesFromNetheredge'' takes place in a fantasy setting roughly corresponding to the Age of Exploration on Earth (most pronounced in the first entry, ''Bright Flame'').

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* The opening to Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' features a wooden sailing ship weathering a bad storm at sea.
* Prince Eric in ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' is also a sailor, and his response to [[BigBad Ursula]] growing to gigantic size is to [[spoiler: take the helm of a raised shipwreck and [[RammingAlwaysWorks ram the bowsprit into her belly]].]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' (at least as far as visual aesthetics)

* TheMutiny on HMS ''Bounty'' has inspired at least four film versions:
** The best known are probably both ''Film/MutinyOnTheBounty'' from 1935 and 1962, the first one with Creator/CharlesLaughton as Bligh and Creator/ClarkGable as Fletcher Christian, and the second with Trevor Howard as Bligh and Creator/MarlonBrando as Christian.
** See also the more historically accurate 1984 version, ''Film/TheBounty'', with Creator/AnthonyHopkins as Bligh and Creator/MelGibson as Christian.
* [[OutOfGenreExperience Briefly used]], {{Discussed}}, and ultimately verbally {{deconstructed}} in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'', when the crew are on the wooden ship version of ''Enterprise'', on the holodeck. (The scene, of course, is a tribute to how [[SpaceIsAnOcean the franchise owes this genre big-time]].)
-->'''Picard''': Just imagine what it was like. No engines, no computers. Just the wind and the sea and the stars to guide you.
-->'''Riker''': [[DeconstructedTrope Bad food, brutal discipline...]] ''[[TheCasanova no women.]]''
* The classic 1956 version of ''Film/MobyDick'' with Gregory Peck as Ahab.
* ''Film/CarryOnJack'' was a parody of the genre.

* Creator/ErrolFlynn's swashbuckling {{pirate}} films, ''Film/CaptainBlood'' and ''Film/TheSeaHawk'' (which has [[AdaptationDisplacement absolutely nothing to do with]] [[Literature/TheSeaHawk the book]]).
* A movie adaptation ''Film/HoratioHornblower'' (1951). Starring Gregory Peck in his prime in role of Captain Hornblower. Virginia Mayo played Lady Barbara Wellesley.
* ''Film/KonTiki'' offers a rare 20th century example, as Thor Heyerdahl and his crew sail a goddamn raft 4000 miles across the open ocean from Peru to Polynesia.
* ''Film/CloudAtlas'': Autua happens to be one hell of a sailor, and apparently so are the rest of the crew of the ship.

* ''Literature/HoratioHornblower'' by C.S. Forester might be the TropeCodifier in literature, inspiring a whole raft of [[FountainOfExpies imitators]] and [[SpiritualSuccessor spiritual successors]], including:
** The ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' stories by Patrick O'Brien.
** The Alexander Kent ''Richard Bolitho'' series.
** The ''Nathaniel Drinkwater'' series by Richard Woodman.
** The ''Lord Ramage'' novels of Dudley Pope. Pope was a friend of Forester's, and Ramage is unique in this list as he is [[SharedUniverse explicitly described as a former shipmate of Hornblower]].
** Dewey Lambdin's ''Alan Lewrie'' series, which even features a LawyerFriendlyCameo from Hornblower.
** The Literature/{{Kydd}} series by [[http://julianstockwin.com Julian Stockwin.]]
** And of course its many parodies, including Harry Harrison's "Captain Honario Harpplayer, R.N." (first published in March 1963 in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'').

* Herman Melville's works, especially ''White-Jacket'' (based on his personal experiences on the ''U.S.S. United States'') and ''Literature/MobyDick''.
* ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' in most of its incarnations.
* The ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' series by Bernard Cornwell (originally conceived as "like Hornblower, but on land!") features this whenever Sharpe has to get somewhere by sea, as in ''Sharpe's Trafalgar'' and ''Sharpe's Devil''.

* The above-mentioned Cochrane - Lord Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald - bears particular mention. Dubbed [[RedBaron 'The Sea Wolf']] by ''Napoleon himself'', he was the RealLife inspiration for Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey, and twice as mad as both put together. After a dishonourable discharge from the Royal Navy after a somewhat dubious conviction for Stock Exchange fraud in 1814, one widely thought to be potentially politically motivated, stripping him of his knighthood, he was expelled from Parliament and then promptly re-elected[[note]]Yes, he sat in the House of Commons, for 2 reasons: (1) His father, the 9th Earl, was still alive then, meaning he was not even the slightest bit a Peer; and (2) the family earldom is in the Peerage of Scotland and never entitled the holder to a seat in the post-1707 House of Lords anyway. [[/note]] unopposed (his sentence of an honour's pillory - in the stocks - was commuted for fear it would start a riot), he was that popular. He then apparently got bored and spent most of the next decade or so as a mercenary Admiral. He started in the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence, becoming Vice-Admiral of the Chilean Navy under the vague command of UsefulNotes/JoseDeSanMartin and Bernardo O'Higgins. His wily tactics secured both Chilean and Peruvian independence, capturing the seven forts of Valdivia with just three hundred men, leading him to be dubbed 'El Metálico Lord', the Metallic Lord (while this sounds badass, it was meant more in the spirit of 'Count of Cash', an accusation that Cochrane was mostly motivated by money), and then left service after being caught up in rumours of a plot to liberate Napoleon and gift him a South American Empire (while ''Literature/SharpesDevil'' runs with this theory, the evidence suggests he probably wasn't involved. Probably). His paranoid personality didn't help. Several Chilean ships since have been named after him. He then went to Brazil in 1823, heavily contributed to its independence from Portugal within a year thanks to tactical skill and use of the BavarianFireDrill. After helping to crush a rebellion, cue more paranoia and squabbles over prize money, so he promptly ran off with a significant chunk of the provincial treasury, sacked several merchant ships, captured a Brazilian frigate and sailed back to Britain in 1825, presumably with both fingers raised firmly behind him. After being hired by the Greeks in their war of independence, which he was less successful in, he finally returned to Britain, campaigned to have his conviction overturned (which it was), inherited his Earldom in 1831, was reinstated to the Naval List... and promptly refused to take a command until his knighthood was restored (which it was, in 1847 by UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria), while steadily receiving a series of mildly farcical promotions. He didn't command any further, as it was thought that, despite being nearly ''80'' at the start of the Crimean War, if he was given a combat command he would do something characteristically insane with it. Given that he kept agitating for a command, was a prolific inventor and innovator who had been an enthusiastic proponent of saturation bombing since the Napoleonic Wars, had also decided that fire ships were insufficient so outfitted them with explosives instead, and spent forty-odd years proposing what would prefigure chemical warfare, this was not surprising.

* The above-mentioned Cochrane - Lord Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald - bears particular mention. Dubbed [[RedBaron 'The Sea Wolf']] by ''Napoleon himself'', he was the RealLife inspiration for Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey, and twice as mad as both put together. After a dishonourable discharge from the Royal Navy after a somewhat dubious conviction for Stock Exchange fraud in 1814, one widely thought to be potentially politically motivated, stripping him of his knighthood, he was expelled from Parliament and then promptly re-elected unopposed (his sentence of an honour's pillory - in the stocks - was commuted for fear it would start a riot), he was that popular. He then apparently got bored and spent most of the next decade or so as a mercenary Admiral. He started in the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence, becoming Vice-Admiral of the Chilean Navy under the vague command of UsefulNotes/JoseDeSanMartin and Bernardo O'Higgins. His wily tactics secured both Chilean and Peruvian independence, capturing the seven forts of Valdivia with just three hundred men, leading him to be dubbed 'El Metálico Lord', the Metallic Lord (while this sounds badass, it was meant more in the spirit of 'Count of Cash', an accusation that Cochrane was mostly motivated by money), and then left service after being caught up in rumours of a plot to liberate Napoleon and gift him a South American Empire (while ''Literature/SharpesDevil'' runs with this theory, the evidence suggests he probably wasn't involved. Probably). His paranoid personality didn't help. Several Chilean ships since have been named after him. He then went to Brazil in 1823, heavily contributed to its independence from Portugal within a year thanks to tactical skill and use of the BavarianFireDrill. After helping to crush a rebellion, cue more paranoia and squabbles over prize money, so he promptly ran off with a significant chunk of the provincial treasury, sacked several merchant ships, captured a Brazilian frigate and sailed back to Britain in 1825, presumably with both fingers raised firmly behind him. After being hired by the Greeks in their war of independence, which he was less successful in, he finally returned to Britain, campaigned to have his conviction overturned (which it was), inherited his Earldom in 1831, was reinstated to the Naval List... and promptly refused to take a command until his knighthood was restored (which it was, in 1847 by UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria), while steadily receiving a series of mildly farcical promotions. He didn't command any further, as it was thought that, despite being nearly ''80'' at the start of the Crimean War, if he was given a combat command he would do something characteristically insane with it. Given that he kept agitating for a command, was a prolific inventor and innovator who had been an enthusiastic proponent of saturation bombing since the Napoleonic Wars, had also decided that fire ships were insufficient so outfitted them with explosives instead, and spent forty-odd years proposing what would prefigure chemical warfare, this was not surprising.

* ''Theatre/HMSPinafore'' mocks the trope mercilessly. The parody begins already in the title, with a man-o'-war named after a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinafore garment for little girls]], and continues with a crew of completely sober sailors, a captain who doesn't swear and a First Sea Lord who insists on micromanaging everything in spite of never having been closer to the ocean than a [[IncrediblyLamePun partnership]] in a law firm. "A British Tar" presents the average sailor as being this trope, however.

** The ''Constitution'' earned her fame during the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812, when she went toe to toe with HMS ''Guerriere'', and won, and then against the ''Java'' with the same result. After the ''Java'' joined the ''Guerriere'' at the bottom of the ocean, the British Admiralty issued an order to "Not engage American Frigates in single combat" - in other words, don't engage American ships one on one while cruising (the main British ships of the line were more than a match in a major battle, but the lighter British frigates couldn't take on these heavier American ships). The ''Constitution''[='=]s success is mostly attributed to her construction (which made her both fast, and well protected), and her guns, which out-ranged those her closest competitors in the Royal Navy. Her construction mattered a great deal: her hull, made of Southern Live Oak, was so thick that when the ''Guerriere'' fired on her, some cannonballs just bounced off. One of ''Constitution''[='=]s gunners shouted, [[MadeOfIron "Huzzah! her sides are made of iron!"]], which gave her the nickname "Ol' Ironsides", which lasts to this day. It should be noted however that the Constitution purposefully sought out smaller/weaker British ships to engage, which contributed to her legend; people see that both ships were frigates and assume an even match, which was never the case. The one battle that WAS equal, the HMS Shannon vs the USS Chesepeake, was ferociously and mutually bloody until the eventual victory of the British ship; the American captain was killed and the British one wounded to such a degree he couldn't command anymore, though both agree both ships and crews acted with superb gallantry. After this battle, the American government joined the British in banning single combat actions.

** The ''Constitution'' earned her fame during the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812, when she went toe to toe with HMS ''Guerriere'', and won, and then against the ''Java'' with the same result. After the ''Java'' joined the ''Guerriere'' at the bottom of the ocean, the British Admiralty issued an order to "Not engage American Frigates in single combat" - in other words, don't engage American ships one on one while cruising (the main British ships of the line were still a match in a major battle, but the lighter British frigates couldn't take on these heavier American ships). The ''Constitution''[='=]s success is mostly attributed to her construction (which made her both fast, and well protected), and her guns, which out-ranged those her closest competitors in the Royal Navy. Her construction mattered a great deal: her hull, made of Southern Live Oak, was so thick that when the ''Guerriere'' fired on her, some cannonballs just bounced off. One of ''Constitution''[='=]s gunners shouted, [[MadeOfIron "Huzzah! her sides are made of iron!"]], which gave her the nickname "Ol' Ironsides", which lasts to this day.

* ''VideoGame/TreasurePlanetBattleAtProcyon'', just like the film it is a sequel to, it is this [[{{Recycled in Space}} IN SPACE!]]
* ''VideoGame/UltimateAdmiralAgeOfSail'' Replicating this period is rather the point of the whole game.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

-->'''Grandfather''': You kids have it too easy these days.
-->'''Grandfather''': I remember a time when boats were made of wood and men were made of steel…
-->'''Grandfather''': ([[FaceFramedInShadow aghast]]) The cyborgs destroyed our navy in minutes…

* The Creator/ChoiceOfGames web game ''Choice of Broadsides'' is set here. With the option, at the beginning of the game, to be about Wooden Ships And Iron ''[[RuleSixtyThree Women]]''.