I’m sure the answer will be obvious, but would have guessed sinking would have been beneficial over just destroying a ships sailing ability. At least from what I’ve been able to find.
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The angles most battles happened at would mean the shot would have to go through water to hit the keel, and water is VERY good at stopping high velocity impacts. Also in the age of sail, you usualy wanted to capture the ship and take it home, either as your own ship or for a “salvage” prize from the government. Basically the government would buy the spoils of war.
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The goal wasn’t to sink the ship, but rather to incapacitate it and demoralize the crew so that they would give up, allowing you to capture the ship and any cargo. Also, it was much more common for the crew to simply give up and change sides if they weren’t officers, so if you could get them feeling hopeless and beaten, they might just join you and voila, new, experienced sailors!
Ships were not easy to sink with the most common solid shot available then. The key was to cripple the ship’s ability fight. The wooden splinters caused by the shattering of wood were more lethal than the cannon itself. The main tactic was to disable the ship, then take it with a boarding action.
Very few ships were sunk in battle in the age of wooden warships (a few – as at the Battle of the Nile – blew up when a shot triggered a chain of explosions that led to a magazine). Water stopped balls aimed below the waterline, and hitting ‘between wind and water’ was hard. Also, ships of the line had galleries at the waterline patrolled by carpenters with plugs and shores, to control this kind of damage. The best way to disable a ship was to kill the gun-crews, either by superior weight or speed of fire or by firing along the decks, through the less protected stern or bow (a raking fire). The Shannon, a crack gunnery frigate, walked a cone of concentrated fire along the gun-deck of the Chesapeake, killing crews and dismounting guns, then boarded and captured the demoralised remnants. Capture was so common that one historian remarked that the British regarded the French navy as a sort of floating reserve (eg Trafalgar – 21 ships taken)
Adding to what most have already said:
__Ships do roll!__
Most aiming was done by waiting until the enemy ship was in perfect position left to right in front of your gun and then waiting until your own ship rolled into the perfect tilt so your gun was actually aiming at your intended target.
Smooth-bore cannons, accuracy was crap. Aim at the centre of the target and some of your broadside will inflict damage. Aim at the waterline and most will be stopped by the water.
In the US Civil War, Fort Pulaski was bombarded by them-thar new-fangled rifled cannons. They could reliably hit the same point every time. The walls were breached in 30 hours and the fort surrendered. Fortified strong-points became redundant overnight.
What I never saw explained is how the hell they managed to aim those very inflexible guns at a moving target when your own ship is rolling. And the fuses were not instantaneous.
Did they time firing the fuse with the roll? I’d expect it.
Cannonballs actually have shitty (relatively) penetrating power due to their shape (a ball instead of a conical bullet) so just a bit of water would make it much less effective at damaging the ship.
Plus as other said – you would want to capture the ship if possible, even if just to plunder it for goods instead of sinking it.
Ships are valuable items that were expensive and time-consuming to build, but relatively easy to repair.
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