Banner Ships
by DeXir
Banner Ships replaces the vanilla boat with a ship that carries its own chest, cannon, health and repair system, and it is published for Forge on 1.21.1.
What it does
A Banner Ship is a boat replacement with a single chest that has special slots and a background of its own. The ship's health is shown in that chest, and the features are reached through the special slots. Built-in features cover a cannon named Culverin, which is installed on the ship, and a way to restore health with frame boards. A separate handheld firearm, the Hand Culverin, is crafted from the ship cannon and fired with gunpowder from the inventory.
The cannon has four states. The default state is one that stays idle until a player interacts with it, and firing leads through the other states. After a shot the cannon needs 10 seconds to reload before it can fire again. Frame boards repair the ship at a rate of one board for one health point, and only the ship that receives them is restored. Ships come in three variants, Crimson Vessel, Classic Vessel and Savanna Vessel, and the plank type used to craft each one sets its look.
Banner Ships requires GeckoLib 4.7 or higher, which has to be installed alongside it. The mod is licensed as All rights reserved and is not open source. Installation covers the server and each player's game. Files cover 1.21.1 only, with 1.2 as the latest Forge file.
Key features
Built-in chest
Every ship carries a chest with its own background, and the chest's special slots give access to its features while its health bar is shown there.
Ship cannon Culverin
A firearm is installed on the ship and fired from the chest's special slots.
Health restoration
Frame boards placed in the HP+ slot restore the ship's health at one point per board.
Hand Culverin
A handheld firearm crafted from the ship cannon, fired using one gunpowder per shot.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
How it compares
Whaleborne is open source under the MIT License and supports Forge and NeoForge for 1.20.1 – 1.21.1, while Banner Ships is Forge only and not open source. Valkerien Item Transfer is open source under the Apache License 2.0 and has Forge files for 1.20.1 only. Both sides of the comparison are client and server mods.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banner Ships | Forge | 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-04-21 |
| Whaleborne | Forge and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-09-18 |
| Valkerien Item Transfer | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2025-11-21 |
Questions
Does Banner Ships need GeckoLib?
Does the server need Banner Ships?
Which Minecraft versions does Banner Ships support?
In the catalog
Banner Ships is one of 3,932 Transportation mods on ModsFinder, and one of 1,908 Transportation mods for Forge. 32,366 mods support Minecraft 1.21.1.
Similar mods
What the author says
For the mod to work, you also need to download GeckoLib 4.7 or higher. BannerShips is a mod that replaces the vanilla boat with a fully-featured ship that offers several different features.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/bannerships
- Owner
- DeXir
- Published
- 2026-04-07
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-04-21
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15