Cutting out

Definition

The capture of a vessel at anchor by boarding from small boats, typically at night, rather than by ship-to-ship engagement on open water. Cutting-out operations allowed a pirate captain to take a larger or better-armed vessel without committing to a fleet action; they required local knowledge of the harbour, the tides, and the watch routines of the target. Bartholomew Roberts’s 1719 capture of the Portuguese treasure ship Sagrada Família at Bahia — cut out from a forty-two-vessel fleet at anchor — is the era’s most celebrated example.