A boarding net is a type of rope net used by ships during the Age of Sail to prevent boarding by hostile forces. Designed to hang from a ship's masts and encircle its deck, the boarding net could be deployed during battle or at night when a ship was at anchor in unknown or hostile waters. In the Royal Navy, boarding nets first gained widespread use in the 1790s.
A British boarding axe held by the National Museum of American HistoryThe crew of the Mary Rose were trapped aboard the ship by her boarding net as the vessel was sinking.
