Naval boarding action is an offensive tactic used in naval warfare to come up against an enemy watercraft and attack by inserting combatants aboard that vessel. The goal of boarding is to invade and overrun the enemy personnel on board in order to capture, sabotage, or destroy the enemy vessel. While boarding attacks were originally carried out by ordinary sailors who are proficient in hand-to-hand combat, larger warships often deploy specially trained and equipped regular troops such as marines and special forces as boarders. Boarding and close-quarters combat had been a primary means to conclude a naval battle since antiquity, until the early modern period when heavy naval artillery gained tactical primacy at sea.
Boarding and capture of the Spanish frigate Esmeralda by Chileans in Callao, 1820
A D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso near RFA Brambleleaf prior to performing a "visit, board, search and seizure" operation
A team of Fusiliers Marins launches on a rigid-hulled inflatable boat
British Royal Navy sailors guard the crew of an Iraqi oil tanker in 2002
Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river.
Scene from an Egyptian temple wall shows Ramesses' combined land and sea victory in the Battle of the Delta.
An ancient Greek trireme vessel
The naval battle of Sluys, 1340, from Jean Froissart's Chronicles
A Javanese junk and a Nanking junk.
