In the 16th century the "Great Guns" were classified according to size with such names as "cannon royal," "`demi-cannon`," "culverin," "`demi-culverin`," "falcon," "falconer," "minion," &c., but by the 18th century they were classified by the weight of the round shot that they fired. Thus the `demi-cannon` was described as a `32-pounder`. Smaller guns were `18-pounders` (culverin), `12-pounders`, 9 pounders and `6-pounders`. The gun barrel is mounted on a wheeled carriage balanced on two "trunions", the short metal projections on either side of the barrel, the invention of some unknown Dutchman. The angle of elevation could be altered by moving a wooden wedge (called a quoin)under the rear end of the gun.
From Wikipedia ^^^
The RN stopped using 42 pounders because they weighed substantially more and were more difficult to operate for no significant gain in penetration or range.
If you like the 'big guns', a 32 pounder should please you, because it's huge. Think of the size of something that can hurl a chunk of iron weighing 32 pounds.
In any case, if you look at the actual size of the guns on the Brig as opposed to the MOW in POTC, you'll see that the guns are scaled differently. Besides, Victory, for example, had 12 pounders on her weather deck (the only ones you can see on the MOW) and her 32 Pounders on the lower gundeck.
The Brig would have 4 pounders, but in POTC, the smallest you can carry are twelve pounders, which would tear that ship to pieces if it tried to fire them at the same time.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->and anyway the big ships werent sent to the caribbean. thats why the Fearless was a huge ship in the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually, all the navies of the time kept battle fleets in the Caribbean. Some of the most famous fleet actions took place there.
Also, the 'Fearless' is a fictional class (like almost all the ships in POTC) . It's a 44 gun ship which is the size of a 74 gun ship in terms of height, but it's half the length it should be, and has a strangely shallow draught. . . This ship would be slow as hell in reality, and would drift terribly to leeward, if it didn't tip over first from `top-heaviness`. And besides, a ship of 44 guns was a *Frigate* in the era that design is from, and further, that design (aesthetically) wasn't in service in the 1600s.
Just to reiterate, don't be confusing history and POTC. There's little to no historical accuracy in this game, as fun as it is.
For example; "Man o' War" is a general term for any armed ship in the service of a nation's Navy, distinguished from Merchantmen and Privateers, etc, and note, not <b>'ships'</b> of war, because the only thing that was called a 'ship' was a `ship-rigged` vessel, that being a vessel with three square rigged masts with a spanker or driver on the mizzen (at first lateen rigged, and then gaff rigged).
Men of War were actually divided into 'Rates', which were first determined by the number of men they carried, and then the number of guns. The number of either that determined what rate a vessel was changed through time, but by the Napoleonic era it was as follows:
1st Rate: 100 guns or more (this is your POTC MOW, for all that it's about sixty feet too long) on three gundecks
2nd Rate: Over 80 guns, but under 100 guns, on three gundecks
3rd Rate: 64 to 80 guns on two gundecks
4th Rate: less than 64, but more than 40 (usually 44 or 50) guns, the 50 being a Ship of the Line (with two gundecks), and the 44 being a Large Frigate(with 1 gundeck)
5th Rate: 32 to 40 guns on one gundeck, these are Frigates
6th Rate: Small Frigates with more than 20 guns, but less than 32. Usually 24 or 28.
Anything with two or more gundecks, basically 50 guns and up, is called a Ship of the Line, and anything under that (44 guns to 24) is called a Frigate. A vessel with 20 guns or less is not rated, and if it is ship rigged, it is (confusingly) called a '`Sloop-of`-War', and if it has two masts, both square, with a spanker/driver on the Mainmast, it is called a '`Brig-of`-War'. Anything smaller than this is referred to by its Rig (IE, Schooner, Cutter, Ketch, Sloop). Schooners in those days had square topsails.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->SMALL GUN'S<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You don't have to make plurals posessive. The gun's what? what does the gun own? It's (it is) sufficient to say "SMALL GUNS". (Though, even if they're small, they're still called 'Great Guns'. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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