Ship Type

Each ship existing in a game of Pirates! (any version), be it the player's ship or otherwise, belongs to one specific "Type". The ship's Type defines many of its most basic parameters, from Cargo capacity to the number of Cannons or Crew it can carry, to sailing characteristics and hull strength, and even the price for which the ship can be sold.

Each game has a finite array of "ship types". Some are fit for trading, others for combat. Some are rarer than others, while some are ubiquitous around the Caribbean. In a long-running campaign, it's likely to meet at least one of every ship type.

General Information
In any game of Pirates!, there are a plethora of ships moving around the Caribbean, performing various actions such as trading, attacking one another, attacking the player, and so forth. Each of these individual ships is created by the game out of a "template", a basic set of characteristics that define the ship in general. This template is called a "Ship Type", and it tells the game how the ship should behave in combat, what it might be carrying, and who it might belong to, amongst other things.

A Ship Type is not a final set of characteristics, rather more a set of guidelines. Each ship is an "individual", with most of its statistics randomly generated. However, the Ship Type a ship belongs to determines the range for its characteristics, and will also determine other properties that are not randomized at all.

By far one of the most common Ship Types in all versions of the game is known as the "Sloop". In other words, most of the ships you will encounter will belong to the "Sloop" Type. All ships that the game creates which belong to the Sloop class will share some basic statistics. For instance, they will all be small, fast ships with the same appearance and roughly the same sailing characteristics. They will all have low Durability, and can all carry up to the same number of Cannons, Cargo and Crew. However, the ship generator will randomize several attributes, such as the exact number of Cannons, Cargo and Crew on board, the nationality of the ship, as well as its intentions. Nonetheless, on the whole when a Sloop is encountered, a savvy captain can determine in general what sort of challenge this ship will present, what rewards can be acquired by capturing it, and how useful it would be if added to the Player's Fleet, just by knowing that it is in fact a Slo

All ships of the same Type have the same design, and thus will look almost exactly the same, with minor differences.

As soon as a ship is spotted, an experienced captain can always determine its Type.

In the 2004 game, this is somewhat more difficult thanks to several Ship Types sharing the same 3D model - however the difference will mainly be in size.

All ships of the same Type have the same sailing characteristics. This reum speed at various wind conditions, how quickly the ship turns and the direction, relative to the wind, the ship sails fastest (known as its "Best Sailing Point").

Assuming no damage to the sails of the specific ship you've encountered, or (in the 2004 game) upgrades installed on the ship, an experienced captain can predict the ship's sailing properties just by determining its type.

For example, all captains know that a Merchant Galleon is a slow, lumbering ship barely capable of turning about or sailing at any reasonable speed. They also know that a Pinnace is highly maneuverable and can escape combat easily if it wishes to do so by rapidly sailing Close-Hauled. No Galleon will ever display remarkable sailing properties, while an undamaged Pinnace will out-maneuver a larger vessel without trouble.

Maximum Capacity
The Ship Type also determines the maximum number of Crew and Cannons a ship can carry. With Cannons, this refers to the number they can use in battle, rather than how many they can keep in the cargo hold. In addition the size of the cargo hold itself determines how many tons of Cargo a ship can carry when full.

These characteristics are the same for each ship belonging to the same Type. However, these are only maximums: the actual number of Crew, Cannons and Cargo carried by a ship is randomly generated when that ship is created, but can never exceed these pre-defined maximums.

Nationality, Era and Role Restrictions
The game has many internal rules governing which nation can own which Types of ships. In some of the games, these rules are also affected by the current Era you're playing.

For example, in the original game, the French will never sail the ship type known as a War Galleon, while the Spanish will rarely (if ever) sail a Merchantman. Frigates do not appear in the 1660 Era, under any nation or even Pirate control.

In the later games, Era has no relevance, but certain Ship Types will only appear in specific Ship Roles. For example, you will never find a Sloop Of War serving as a Trader Ship or a Smuggler, just as you'd never see a Pirate Trade Galleon or a New Warship Barque.

Naturally, any captured ship may be added to the Player's Fleet, if one wishes (and manages) to do so.

Pirates! (1987) has exactly 9 different Ship Types available. Some of these ship types are extremely common, and most ships encountered will belong to them. Other ship types are very rare, and will possibly appear only in specific eras, sailed by specific nations, or simply have a low chance of spawning at all.

In Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004) there are 27 different Ship Types available. These are split into groups of 3, with each group constituting a single "Class" of ships.

Members of the same "Class" are quite similar to one another, both in appearance and characteristics. The smallest member is always slightly lighter and faster than the others, the largest member is both heavier and slower, and the middle one is statistically in-between. Nonetheless, different Types belonging to the same Class are treated differently, as they may have surprising benefits that the others do not, and/or be exceptionally rarer than the others.

In the table below, variants of the same Class are ordered by size, from smallest to largest.