In 18th century naval warfare, the idea was either to disable your enemies rigging (ie sails, lasts, spars etc) so they could no longer maneuver, or sweep the enemy’s deck clean of men in order to board.

In most cases, ships would continue to fire at each other at near point blank range, however as soon as both ships were close enough to be “locked” together, boarders could be dispatched from the attacking ship and control of the enemy ship could be taken. The boarding of an enemy ship would cause enough chaos on its deck that their firing would inevitably become sporadic if they weren’t able to successfully repel the boarding, as men would have to stop firing their guns to defend themselves against the enemy boarders. Also there might simply not be enough men still alive to properly load and fire the guns. This would end inevitably in the enemy ship surrendering, thereby ending any further firing between both ships.

The same tactics would apply to pirates, especially during the Golden Age of Piracy.