Ship warfare before cannons

[Kraydak]

Originally Posted by Victor Maxus

Yes, very true. I am not certain about the numbers, but I believe at least something like 90% of ships defeated during the age of sail and cannon were boarded, or had their sails damaged beyond being useful. Less than 1 in 10 ships were actually sunk. This includued ships having long time running gunner battles lasting hours.

Boarding is the top way of stopping the enemy, and disabling the sails number two, and would remain so until the mid to late 1800's.

This isn't entirely fair. Sinking a ship requires holing it below or at least near the waterline. Cannon firing solid shot can only do this by hitting the side near the water as a ship rolls, difficult to achieve even if the target doesn't have a crew for damage control; or by doing enough structural damage that the target more-or-less disintegrates, which is not really viable. In a situation where ships are almost impossible to sink, and very valuable to capture, it isn't surprising that ships tended to get captured.