Which sounds amazingly like the comments on boarding parties in the RCN V1 boatswain TG docs.
I've also done lots of boardings myself. Participated in 25 actual boardings, in all facets of the operations, 16 of which resulted in successful seizures.
Go on a Dhow, the drug addled Arabs, Somalis and Persians in the Middle East are all about 5'0, 100lbs soaking wet and are all cracked out on heroin, kat, etc. If I punched one, they are so sickly, it would likely result in a fatality.
They are scared shitless of us, the most dangerous part of a boarding is getting there and then dealing with the real bad conditions on board their vessels.
Dealing with the crew is like taking candy from a baby. What are they going to do? Shoot at us? Ok, I'll just drive away and the warship 500x off their quarter will turn their vessel in to swiss cheese in about 5 seconds.