How Swiss pike warfare informed naval boarding

The naval connection begins with Royal Navy and Dutch Navy captains reading accounts of Swiss and Landsknecht combat for guidance on fighting with pikes aboard ship. A boarding pike had to be shorter than its land equivalent because deck space was tight. Officers also had to decide how many pikemen could control an area without pulling too many sailors away from cannon, firearms, rigging, and sail handling. A few captains worked through this manpower problem, sent reports upward, and helped establish standards later captured in naval manuals. Those manuals did not always name their sources, so tracing their authors and surviving archives can recover the earlier continental influences.