Because ships were built primarily of combustible materials (wood, cloth, hemp, and pitch), fire was a devastating weapon against them. The simplest way to set ships on fire was to fire flaming arrows or ballista bolts on an enemy ship, but choppy seas sometimes meant that aiming was difficult.

A more radical solution thus lay in the use of old watercraft, decked out with combustible materials, and sent to drift into the enemy fleet, with the hope of hitting at least one or two and setting them ablaze. Vessels of this sort would normally be fairly large ships capable of carrying sufficient combustible materials, such as wood and old rags as well as chemicals such as oil, bitumen and sulphur to help maintain the combustive process during the course of the vessel's final voyage.

The most famous and resounding use of fire vessels was probably the battle of Chibi (possibly near present-day Wuhan, China) in 208 CE. In that year, the smaller kingdoms of Wu and Shu Han managed to fend off an expeditionary force led by Cao Cao to seize control of southern China. One of the Wu commanders, Huang Gai, unleashed a fleet of fire ships on Cao's unsuspecting fleet, destroying a vast part of Cao's forces. The expeditionary force was decimated, ending Cao Cao's hopes of reuniting China. This method of attack was also used almost half a century before by the Greek citizens of  Syracuse against the Athenian Expedition of 415-13BCE in an attempt to defend themselves, but the Athenian sailors were able to spot the fire ships used, and put out the conflagration in time. In contrast, however, the Phoenicians of Tyre were able to use fire ships to destroy the siegeworks being built by Alexander the Great during his investment of their island-city in 332BCE, but this only resulted in retaliatory measures — Alexander then sent the Greek fleet to blockade the isle, preventing any more fire ships from being built, and subsequently exacted harsh reprisals on the inhabitants once the city fell.