Swashbucklers
by halbear
Swashbucklers adds five sailing and steam ships plus a handheld cannon that fires explosive cannonballs, for players who want boats beyond the vanilla option.
What it does
Five ships sit in the mod, from a simple sailing boat to a large cutter with heavy storage. The first ship is a swashbuckler, a sailing boat a little faster than the vanilla boat. An upgraded swashbuckler adds better visibility and a mounted cannon. The raft is slow and cheap but carries a large amount of storage, while the cutter combines the swashbuckler's speed with much more health and storage. A military version of the cutter adds weapons and extra health. Each ship leaves a wreck when destroyed, and a few of them have a damaged model.
The handheld cannon is the mod's weapon. It fires cannonballs that deal explosive damage. A corvette steamship is still in development and is summoned with a command on versions 1.18 and later; it is not expected to reach older builds. Swashbucklers requires client and server installation, so the server and every player need it. Files are published for Forge and NeoForge across ten game versions, 1.16.5 – 1.21.4, and the code is under All rights reserved.
Key features
Five functional ships
Sailing boats, an upgraded swashbuckler, a raft, a cutter and a military cutter, each with its own speed, storage and health.
Explosive handheld cannon
A handheld weapon fires cannonballs that explode on impact.
Ship wrecks
Each ship leaves a wreck behind, and some ships show a damaged model.
Large cargo capacity
The raft and the cutter offer large inventories for carrying goods across water.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
1.21.x3 of 3 versions with builds
1.20.x3 of 3 versions with builds
1.19.x2 of 2 versions with builds
1.18.x1 of 1 version with builds
1.16.x1 of 1 version with builds
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Naval roleplay
Players on adventure maps and multiplayer servers can build small fleets and stage sea battles with the cannon-equipped ships.
Who it’s for: Players who want boats with storage and combat roles in survival and adventure worlds, and server owners who want a naval theme on a shared server.
How it compares
Fox's Handheld Cannon is a Forge mod for 1.16.5 – 1.21.5 with the same client and server environment, released under All rights reserved and not open source; it covers only the handheld cannon and not the ships. Boatload is a Forge and NeoForge mod for 1.16.5 – 1.21.1, also client and server, under a custom license and not open source. Small Ships is available for Fabric, Forge and NeoForge across 1.18.2 – 1.21.4, client and server, under All rights reserved and not open source.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swashbucklers | Forge and NeoForge | 1.16.5 – 1.21.4 | Client and server | 2025-05-24 |
| Fox's Handheld Cannon | Forge | 1.16.5 – 1.21.5 | Client and server | 2025-04-08 |
| Boatload | Forge and NeoForge | 1.16.5 – 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2025-10-17 |
| Small Ships | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.18.2 – 1.21.4 | Client and server | 2026-10-12 |
Questions
Does Swashbucklers need to be installed on the server?
Which loaders does Swashbucklers support?
Are the ships available in older builds?
In the catalog
Swashbucklers is one of 3,932 Transportation mods on ModsFinder, and one of 1,908 Transportation mods for Forge. 17,979 mods support Minecraft 1.21.4.
More from halbear
Similar mods
What the author says
Swashbucklers is a ship mod that contains 5 fully functional ships and a weapon *to note the corvette steamship is still a work in progress, summoned with the command "/summon hpm:corvette_steamship" on versions 1.18-current, and it likely wont be backported
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/swashbucklers
- Owner
- halbear
- Published
- 2023-06-27
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2025-05-24
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15