How to capture ships

[Asiriya]

I've been trying to capture a pirate galleon for some time. I could just destroy it, but I figure I might as well try and get a free galleon. Trouble is, I have no idea how to actually capture the thing. I get I need to board it, but I don't know the best way to go about this.
Last try, I got both sides down into red health, assaulted with my own galleon who still had green health on the side it boarded with. At this point something weird happened, my two supporting brigs who I'd learnt to keep out of the fight suddenly sunk, and my galleon which had a numbers advantage of over 50 found itself surrending (might have even been sunk, at this point I was already exiting.) The galleon had a chevron of experience, but something weird happened here. Should have saved the battle in hindsight, but can anyone give me tips as to what happened?
EDIT: Does sitting still in a damaged ship make it sink eventually/ does a damaged ship eventually take on too much water? Seems to be what's happening.

[dulsin]

Boarding is very buggy so I rarely bother unless I know the battle is lost.

Use chain shot to blow the masts off then sit off the bow or stern using grape. Once the masts are gone two or three unanswered volleys of grape shot will make them surrender.

Chain shot is difficult to use. If they don't have the sails deployed they will take no real damage.

[Asiriya]

Once surrendered, the ship is mine then?
I've yet to see chain shot take out a mast, I suppose it's just a matter of persistance, getting up close?
Thanks for the reply.

[daniu]

Once surrendered, the ship is mine then?

Actually, no.
It should be, but currently surrendered ships are not always yours after exiting.
AFAIR, CA said it's a bug they're working on.

[caralampio]

You can board the ship. After pummeling it for a little while (not much because you don't want it to sink) use chainshot to destroys its sails, or grapeshot to thin out the crew a bit. I prefer the latter and destroying the sails might not be needed with a slow ship like a galleon. Select the melee button (a guy with a cutlass) and then right click on the target. It might take some maneuvering (sometimes your ship wants to board the enemy just that way even if it seems to be already in place) but eventually it will align and thrown grappling hooks.

Sometimes the enemy surrenders almost immediately, but others a melee ensues and you can see your men scurrying on the masts and then going down ropes or something onto the enemy ship. Why they go up and then down instead of just across, I wonder.

Be sure your ship is superior (more numerous crew, better morale, etc) or you might lose the battle (has never happened to me so I don't really know what happens).

Also, only one ship can board an enemy at a time (which is ridiculous since ships could be boarded from both sides and even from bow and stern), so select the one carefully and have the others help out with grapeshot.

At the end of battles, when the the game gives you a choice of ending or continuing it usually means that the enemy is not surrendered but only routing, and those ships will not be captured at the end of the battle. Continue the battle and actually try to board them or make then surrender in order to ensure capture. I have never seen surrendered ships not being captured at the end of the battle when I do this.

[jonny duck]

Im playing with darth mod so I'm not sure if the same applie for vanilla, but your best bet is to outmanouvre with smaller ships and blast away at its hull with roundshot. When you see large holes appearing, exposing the crew inside, have a few of your ships sail up close and manually broadside with grapeshot. Either down the length to try and clear out the top deck, or into the sides to kill the gunners. Then after sustaining enough casulties it will try to route. If you have it hemmed in then simply grapeshot some more and it will surrender. If asked to end the battle click continue and make sure you have the ship surrender.

[Major Inconvenience]

I've given up boarding, as caralampio says above you can only do one side at a time, so you can't make your supremacy count if as much as I'd like.

The best way to capture a ship in my experience is to use chain shot until the masts are gone, then grape shot until they surrender. I've found that I get much better results if I see battles right to the end though, if I "End Now" when given the choice ships which have surrendered, and aren't sinking, still don't show up as mine at the end. I've had some pretty tedious sessions chasing a routing ship to the edge of the map to do this though, and once the early part of the game has gone I don't bother.