Q&A ยท 2:33:09-2:36:56

Accounts of boarding actions without clothes

Unusual boarding stories prompt a distinction between a Canadian submarine capture and an earlier Scottish captain's experience.

Question

Which navies are said to have captured vessels by boarding them naked?

Short answer

The examples are a reported Canadian U-boat boarding and an earlier Scottish captain whose clothes were reportedly blown off during an attack. Neither vessel nor captain is identified.

Notes

One recollection describes three Canadian sailors jumping from a corvette onto a U-boat and boarding it without clothes. A suggested Russian Civil War parallel is disputed because the men in that account are said to have retained their underwear. An earlier story concerns a Scottish captain who later served under Admiral Duncan. In that story, a gun discharge blows off the captain's clothes while he leads a night boarding of a French ship, and he continues the attack. The ships and the Scottish officer are unnamed, so the anecdotes do not establish a precise identification or chronology.