There’s nothing like a life on the ocean waves – where you have nothing but the sea and the wind to guide you, and the blue horizon as your destination.
Sadly, outside of your basic vanilla boats, there’s not a lot of choice in how you get onto those waves in Minecraft.
And there’s not a lot to see once you’re out there, either!
So it’s no wonder there’s so many great mods dedicated to making life more exciting for Minecraft mariners around the world.
If you’re looking to indulge in the romance of the seas, we’ve got a bunch of great mods worth checking out.
“Islands” is a simple mod that adds a new world generation type.
More specifically, it features oceans filled with islands of various sizes!
Although not directly boat-related, this mod is an ideal counterpart to any of the more standard boat mods on this list – since the last thing you want after investing in your new boat is to keep bumping into land!
The mod still preserves the variety of vanilla Minecraft’s biomes.
But with every island separated by boundless seas, you’ll need to sail more often to find more elusive resources.
But what if you’re looking to roleplay as a castaway on a distant island?
What if you prefer the sleek aesthetic that only a few bits of wood bound together into a floating object can provide?
What if you want… Just a Raft?
As the name suggests, this mod adds six basic rafts to Minecraft (one for each vanilla wood type).
All of these can be easily crafted by combining three logs with some string.
So whether you’re looking to follow in the footsteps of Tom Hanks in Cast Away, or if you just really hate having sides on your boat, Just A Raft has you covered.
Pirates – probably one of the most straightforward mod titles I’ve ever come across.
It’s a mod hat adds pirates and ghost pirates into the game, as well as a selection of pirate-themed items.
While regular pirates can be found at any time aboard their pirate vessels, ghost pirates exclusively come out at night aboard their semi-transparent ghost ships.
Both types are not to be crossed lightly, and you’ll have to fight fiercely if you want their treasure!
Items added to the block here include ship components such as wooden rails, climbable ratlines (rigging), useable cannons, ship bells and custom telescopes, along with barrels of rum and a boat sling – which can haul row boats out of the water for easy boarding.
And this mod is also compatible with Davinci’s Vessels, offering exciting new ways to kit out your own new vessel.
Despite the name, Small Ships is a mod with big ambitions.
This adds seven craftable, portable vessels from across the Age of Sail.
This ranges from a two-person rowboat, which offers a more elegant alternative to the standard Minecraft boat, all the way up to the 16-entity War Galley.
And you’ll also get ships like the Cog, regular Galley, Drakkar, Brig, and Dhow.
The addition of an enormous 22-entity, three-masted Barque is also planned for future editions of the mod (as of this writing).
Plus this allows players a degree of customization as well, with ships now able to fly custom banners as flags.
Ye didn’t think that going to sea in Minecraft was going to be all sunshine and sailing, did ye?
Sure you’ve got your fancy new ship lying around the shoreline. But with this mod installed, you’ll now have to battle against the worst the ocean has to offer!
Pirates & Looters adds new structures to Minecraft’s oceans, including pirate ships and desert islands, populated by new and aggressive kinds of villager and skeleton mobs.
Among these new additions are the Castaway, Pirate Gunner, and Skeleton Bomber types, as well as the dreaded Captain Agmair: a pirate lord with a whopping 250 health who deals 19 damage per hit.
Have you ever created a large static ship in Minecraft, and wished you could actually sail it around?
With Davinci’s Vessels, you can!
This mod lets you to turn static block structures into actual rideable entities.
It’s worth noting that this mod is actually the spiritual successor to the legendary Archimedes’ Ships mod.
But it adds a new Helm block which, by default, can turn any static block-based ship into a true controllable vessel.
You can easily steer it using the w-a-s-d keys.
And this mod also adds balloon blocks, which allow you to turn your regular ocean-going ship into a proper airship! Assuming you ever get tired of sailing the Minecraft seas, of course.
Oliver Cuenca is a freelance journalist who currently lives in sunny-ish southwest England. A lifelong PC gamer and a dedicated Minecrafter since the days when you couldn’t put stairs upside down, he’s had the same Minecraft world for eight years.
