Corsair Great Ship

Three masts with sails plus tiers of oars powered by slaves. Also of importance is the fact they were biremes – which means two rows of oars on each side to provide locomotion.

They did have a 50 foot iron ram at the front, which means ramming tactics are technically possible but not common given the limited naval forces against them and the desire for looting enemy ships. A pair of crossbows to fire harpoons to allows for the boarding party were located at each end.   In 1545, the British had a fleet of 58 ships outfitted with 4,835 bows and 176,040 arrows. This means an average of 83 bows and 3035 arrows per ship. Given the flammable nature of wood ships and the Corsair's love of raiding, I would imagine that the corsairs would have similar contingents of archers. The main difference between these naval oriented Corsair archers and Gondor's would be a primacy of fire arrows. They would also be more skilled at shooting at close ranges - probably maxing out at 40-50 yards instead of the 220 practical maximum for Gondor's.   The main difference would be in their use. Corsairs would focus on setting fire to enemy ships and buildings on land. They would also be more concerned with individual accuracy more than Gondor would be. Gondor would be more involved with pitched battles with the resulting massed ranks. Individual fire would become more important for the Corsairs who could not rely on volley fire to compensate for poor accuracy.   Generally, ships would move in close in the medieval period in an attempt to board. The result would be archers used in anti-infantry capacity. Sharp shooting would be valued in this case too. Both ships will be moving in unpredictable ways due to the waves. Plus, ship crews are much less likely to be stationary and in massed ranks in battle. Thus single, moving targets would be the norm.   Also due to the boarding actions, three dimensional space becomes important. Enemies could climb onto a ship via the masts and rigging. Attackers on the decks could also be exposed to fire from defenders in the crow's nest too, or on the fore and aft castles.Thus being able to hit targets high in the air would be valued as well.   For comparison, a Gondorian archer is most likely to be aiming at massed enemy formations level to themselves, some distance away.

The sides of the ships had wooden shields and iron spikes designed to make it harder for enemies to storm the decks.