How sailing warships handled livestock before action

What happened to livestock carried aboard when a sailing warship prepared for battle?

Crews could move animals below with rigged lifting gear, and the long approach to an age-of-sail battle usually gave time to prepare.

Livestock could be moved below deck using lashings and an improvised derrick rigged from a mast. In the age of sail, fleets normally saw each other and had hours to prepare before fighting, unlike the compressed timelines of modern combat. Animals were rarely expected to survive the sinking of a ship, but they were also less likely to remain exposed during the action itself. Cattle, chickens, and ducks therefore appear in accounts among the property captured with surrendered vessels.