flag ships sinking.
 

Has anyone else had a problem with enabling a flag ship and it sinking without you boarding and getting no plunder? It has happened to me twice today!

It happened to me once today. I just hit it twice and it sunk, I was really surprised lol.

it happened to me too right now i was firing at a corvette (im by myself so no fire cannons) i get the messgae to shot grappling hooks next thing i know the ship is under water O_o

When I first got my firebrand I was sinking flag ships left and right til I realized that my massive firepower was sinking them and not giving me any rep or gold! Now I take it easy on the flagships in order to board them. Yours might be a bug, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in.

it happens regularly cant say why though

i dont know if its the fire power i used with boradsides maybe i put too many into the ship there for sinking it bc i was sailing a galleon and i was attacking a EITC light frigate and the final broadside took out its last 10% (maybe) of life

Are you using Firebrand?
You don't want to use Firebrand on flagships, it makes them sink. This is probably because fire causes crippled flagships to sink, since fire comes out of the ship when you kill everyone on board. Firebrand might cause some sort of imitation of this effect, causing them to sink.

i never use firebrand and it still happens

It happened to me when I was just using broadsides. Today we were able to board ships no problem :)

Don't use firebrand or the passive skill that makes the stuff exlode. Those will sink the ship before you board.

i think it also has to do with hitting a low level ship with way too many broadsides

Every flag ship I've taken down solo with broadsides only has sunk. On ships with crews using cannon if the last shot to disable it has come from a broadsides it has sunk. So if you're going after flags just make sure the shot that disables it comes from a deck cannon and you'll be fine.

I often sail solo, and have taken down numerous flag ships using my broadsides without sinking them. I've done it with every type of ship except a war galleon, and have never had a problem. I accidentally sunk a couple using firebrand from the crew cannons before I figured out what was going on, but never with the broadsides.

If it's happening to you every time, you may have something else going on. I would grab a few screenshots with the coordinates, and submit a bug report.

I don't use fire. But I did notice if I sink small ships with strong broadsides, they sink more often than not. Small meaning lvl 15 or less ships. The larger ships aren't a problem. Also I was sailing with a friend yesterday who has a fairly low level broadside, and none of the flag ships sank using broadsides.

hmm interesting very interesting