Ahoy Landlubbers! Let’s Sail The Seas And Build A Pirate Ship!

Materials Used

We used several products and supplies in the making of this fun pirate ship decoration. Below is a list of what we used.

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Don’t be fooled, this pirate ship is pretty easy to do! You can start with the ship itself or with the bottom part that makes the box, either is fine. If you don’t need it as a box though, you can skip this first step and just have the ship itself.

High Seas Assembly

First, line up the different pieces. The two longer rectangles make the sides of the box, the short is the back, and the one with all the little tabs will fold in the middle to make the front. Once you have these lined up right you can start gluing the tabs together as shown below.

When you have them all glued to make the shape of the box, you can fold in the bottom tabs and apply glue to the box bottom liner (there are two, they are identical so either is fine). With the glue on these tabs you can put the liner down into the box. Use a pencil or your finger to apply pressure to the bottom where it lines up with the tabs.

Once the first liner is in position and the glue set, you can turn over the box and apply glue so you can attach the other liner. This will give a little more strength to the bottom of the box and cover up the exposed tabs for a cleaner and more finished look. Once done you can set this aside until the pirate ship is complete.

Building The Pirate Ship Hull

The next step is to make the pirate ship’s hull. The hull is made of the same shaped pieces as the base and go together the same way:

You’ll notice that there are three liners for the top. Two have holes and one does not. Use of them with holes to make the hull. The second one with holes goes on the other side to cover the tabs. If you want to distress one or anything this second one with holes is the one to do it to. Once all the masts are in you’ll put the liner without holes in on the inside to cover everything up. That step is toward the end though since you need your masts in place first. You can set the solid hull panel aside for now.

Deck Assembly

Once this liner is in place, you can assemble the stern and bow boxes. The stern box is made of one piece. Fold on the score lines and glue the tabs in place as shown. When this box is done you can glue it to the back of the pirate ship, making sure to line it up so that it’s flush with the edges and back.

The stern box is made of a couple pieces. I forgot to take photos but there are two pieces that make up the sides. If you line them up and glue the tabs in place, you can then fold in the tabs and place the liner panel inside. Similar to what you did with the box base and hull. There is another liner to cover up the tabs on the outside and a third one to close the open side of the box. You can do these two in any order you want. Once complete, pick the side you think looks best and make that the top. Apply glue to the bottom and place in the front of hull. We chose to distress the panel that faces up, as it is going to be the deck of the ship in the bow.

Hull Decorations

Next up are the decorative panels on the hull. We chose to wait and put the windows on the side later, but you could chose to do that now if it works better for you.

The side panels are shown below. The one for the back is short and squarish. The left (port) side of the ship is in the middle, and the bottom one is for the right (starboard) side. We chose to distress these before putting them onto the pirate ship. To distress the wood for this project we took some sand paper and rubbed it in the direction we wanted for the wood grain. Then we took some brown distressing ink and rubbed it on the paper.

Put glue on the decorative panel you are ready to put on, but put glue onto the rail. There’s nothing to glue the rail to. Place and hold the panel in position, rubbing the entire area to help with adhesion. You can lay the box on it’s side and apply pressure if that helps some. Try to line up the edge of the panel with the edge of the hull as flush as possible. It should match up smoothly end to end. If there’s a small gap though, don’t worry. There are three vertical panels that you’ll add, one on each corner in the back and one on the bow. When you have all three side panels in position, glue these corner pieces in place,. Make sure to line the bottoms up with the bottom of the box.

Pirate Ships Need Water

Now we can add the water at the bottom of the hull. There are two long pieces, one for each side, and one short one that goes along the back. Glue them in place as shown. We used dark blue paper matching the bottom of the ship box we made earlier. We also chose to add a little white ink to the wave part to help set it off and give it a realistic look.

For our next step we put the railing in place. When putting the railing on, make sure to have it flush with the front of the pirate ship so the port and starboard sides come together in the front. With this done you can place the railing pieces on the back of the ship.

Windows!

Next we worked on the windows. We placed the round windows on either side of the ship, making them as evenly placed as possible. We chose to just place them on the side, but you could add more if you want one toward the front. These are constructed of two pieces, one solid and one that’s a wring. The solid we cut in vellum to give it a different look than regular cardstock. For the ring we chose to have it be silver, matching the raling decorative panel.

Anchors Away!

To make things easier, we found it best to do the anchor before putting any of the masts in place. To start with, we assembled anchor pieces then attached the back of one to the other. This gives the anchor some detail on both sides. We then chose to use some sewing thread as the anchor chain. To attach it to the deck we used a little spot of glue. We should have used hot glue instead of our regular craft glue. It would have set faster.

To cover the anchor’s string on the deck, we took some baker’s twine and made a small coil of ‘rope.’ This we glued on top of the anchor chain on the deck. Don’t mind that the pictures have the mast in place. We did this later in our assembly but should really have don it immediately after attaching the anchor.

Building A Ship’s Mast

Now it’s time to put together the masts. They both go together the same, the front one is just a little smaller than the rear mast. Crease all the fold lines, and glue the long tab in place. Once the glue is set, you can close off the top of the box. The top of the mast is the end with three tabs and a square panel to cover them. The bottom has three large tabs that will be used to attach the mast to the deck.

Next, you can pick which mast you want to start with, either is fine. Push it through its assigned hole in the deck. Then place glue on the tabs as shown, fold them out and press them on to the bottom of the deck. Once the glue is set you can do the next mast.

With the masts in place you can put the solid liner over top. This will cover up the tabs holding the masts in place and give the attachment a little more strength. It’s easier to do this now than once you have the sails and other decorations on the pirate ship. Be sure to put a little extra glue on the tabs so that this liner adheres well.

Adding The Crow’s Nest

Now it’s time for the crow’s nest. This is made of three pieces, the outer part that loops to make a circle, and the two liner pieces for the bottom of the crow’s nest. First, make the circle as shown, then fold in the tabs and glue the liner with the tabs in the center in place. Later you’ll fold those tabs up and use them to attach the crow’s nest to the main mast. For now leave them flat. Once this liner is secure, turn over the shape and atach the other liner so that the tabs are covered.

When your glue is dry you can fold up the tabs in the center and slide the shape down over the main (rear) mast. We put it down low enough so the top of the mast stuck just up above the top of the crow’s nest. When you are happy with the position, place some glue on the tabs and press them against the mast.

Assembling The Ship’s Wheel

Next is the ship’s wheel. It’s best to do this now rather than when the sails are in place. We found it was easier to reach in without the sails getting in the way. The wheel base is made of two pieces that go together back to back. This allows for two tabs to be glued to the deck of the pirate ship. When gluing these together, make sure the tabs are folded away from each other so you don’t accidently glue them together as well. With these done, we attached the wheel to this base. We placed the wheel just behind the front mast but it can be positioned in another spot on the deck if desired.

The Pirate Ship’s Sails

Now it’s time for the sails! This file comes with two sails for each mast. One set has holes, the other doesn’t. You can pick if you want the clean, fresh version, or if you want the slightly messy disheveled version. For the pirate ship we chose the one with holes just because it seemed right for us. To decorate the sails we used some distressing ink to make them look a bit messy/dirty. Then we cut the pirate flag out quite large so we could use the skull and swords as a stencil. Using our stencil, we took some grey distressing ink and dabbed it on the sail. You don’t need to do this step but if you want to and are wondering how we did that, that’s how.

When you have your sails prepped you can grab the cross bars. Each sail has four, two for the top and two for the bottom. If you look closely two of the cross bars have a small vertical cut line. This is not a fold line, instead it’s marking the center of the cross bar so you can use that as a reference point when placing the sails on the mast. Be sure that you use the bar with this line on the back side of each sail.

Attach the crossbars to the sails, one on the front of the sail at top and bottom and one on the back of the sail at top and bottom, remembering to put the marked crossbar on the back.

Placing the Sails

To attach the sails, first hold them in place on the mast so you have an idea where you want to place them and how much of a bend you want in your sail. Make a mental note of where you want the bottom bar to land. We put ours about an inch or so above the deck. Now place some glue on the mark on the bottom crossbar and hold it in place on the mast until the glue is set. You could use hot glue here if you want it to set faster. Then you can add glue to the back of the top cross bar and hold that in place. Do this for both masts. We did the canons before the masts but it would have been better to wait on them, they kind of got in the way while attaching the masts.

Cannon Assembly

Next up are the cannons! They are made of the black canon piece, two wood sides, and the wheels. Glue the wheels into place on the sides making sure to place them on the rounded spot, leaving the tabs hanging below. The tabs will fold in and be glued to the deck of the pirate ship later.

Once you have the wheels in place it’s time to roll up the canon barrel. Take the black piece of paper and wrap it around a pencil to make the tube. We added glue to the tab. We used the pencil to help us keep the cannon barrel in position while the glue set.

When your canon piece is ready, place some glue on the inside as shown below. Place the canon on the glue. We made sure to have the canon angled a bit so the front (the wider end with the larger wheel) was higher than the back.

When the glue was dry, we added some more to the other side and held it in place. At this pint we folded the tabs in and stood the canon on the table to help make sure that the two sides were level and even. Then add glue to the tabs as shown and place on the deck where desired. We placed our canons, 2 on either side and between the masts. The photo shows us as we were adding the canons.

Pirate Ships Need Treasure!

There is a treasure box at the back of the ship. This comes in one solid piece for the box shape. Just fold and glue the tabs. The lid doesn’t have to be glued in place, you can just tuck the tiny tab in to keep it shut. Once this is assembled you can add the strips that make the metal straps holding it together. The long one goes on the lid and back, and the short goes on the front. There is no piece for the bottom of the box as that will be glued to the deck. There is also a little square for the lock. When assembled, the box is ready to be glued and added to the back of the pirate ship behind the main mast.

Raising The Jolly Roger

The flag is made of a couple pieces, the center (white) and two outer (black) pieces. Assemble this so that the three line up and you have the image of the skull/swords on either side. Using a little black ink along the edge of the flag, we covered the white edge created by the middle layer. We used toothpick for the flag pole and colored it using a silver sharpie. For added detail we then used the same distress stain as on the handrails and ran that over the toothpick as well.

Once the inks were dry we added a line of glue to the toothpick and pressed the edge of the flag into the glue. This took a while to dry but once the glue was dry we added some hot glue inside of the crows nest facing the back of the ship. Then we pushed the flag pole into the epoxy.

The Ship’s Figurehead

Last step, finally!! The figurehead. We assembled each side of the mermaid figure. Then we glued them back to back from about her waist up. There is a tab coming out of her back. Make sure not to glue these together. They are for attaching her to the front of the ship.

We did a dry run to test how to best position the figure head. Then we added glue to the tab on the back and to the inside of the fins. We placed the tab just under the railing on the bow and angled her so that her fin was just above the waterline on the sides.