Ship Class

In Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004), the 27 different Ship Types are equally divided into 9 "Classes". This serves to group together Ship Types that have similar design characteristics, even appearing similar to each other. They differ from each other slightly in physical size, cargo and crew capacity, Durability, and sailing properties. The term "Ship Class" is then used to refer to all three grouped Types.

"Ship Class" is a non-canon term, invented by the fandom due to the game itself not providing its own term.

General Information
Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004) expanded the number of available Ship Types from 9 (in previous games) to 27. However, other than the three Brigs, the game did not actually introduce 18 new ship designs. Instead, each ship type was split into three "sub-models", one being "average-sized", another being smaller but faster, and another being more powerful but slower - while having the same visual appearance and similar general properties.

Each group of 3 similar Ship Types is called a "Class" of ships - 27 Ship Types divided into 9 Classes.

Similarities
Within each Class, the three Ship Types can be considered "siblings" in a family. In other words, they are similar in many ways, despite the small differences between them.

The most striking similarity is their visual appearance: All three Types in a single Class appear exactly the same in terms of visual design, since they use the same exact 3D model. The only visual difference between them is their size, but they are otherwise exactly the same - sporting the same shape of the hull, the same number of masts and arrangement of sails.

In addition, all three Ship Types in the same class share the same Best Point Of Sailing. They are also sold for the same amount of Gold, and it costs the same amount of money to install Upgrades on each of them.

Differences
The three Ship Types in each Class differ from each other slightly in several ways. Again, using the family metaphore, we can say that there is a "little" sibling, a "middle" sibling and a "big" sibling in each class. This reflects a difference not only in physical size, but in many other properties as well.

The smallest variant in the Class is physically smaller than the others. As a result, it has a smaller capacity for Crew and Cargo, and can carry fewer Cannons into combat. On the other hand, it can develop a slightly better speed and turning rate thanks to its smaller size. Another side-effect is that the smaller variant also presents a smaller target for enemy cannons.

Coversely, the largest variant is physically larger than the others, and can carry more Cargo, Crew and Cannons. However, it is slightly slower than the others, with a slightly lower turning rate. It also presents a larger target for the enemy cannons.

The mid-sized variant lies comfortably between the other two, providing "average" physical size, cargo capacity, etcetera. This gives a trade-off between speed, maneuverability and power.

There are also other, less obvious differences between variants in the same class. For one, it is assumed that the larger the variant, the more Durability it has - allowing it to take more damage during combat. Unfortunately this is hard to confirm.

Additionally, different variants are used for different Ship Roles by different factions. For example, the Sloop is used as a Smuggler by all nations, while the Royal Sloop is used almost exclusively as a New Warship by the Spanish. This has an important effect on rarity, because a Ship Type that's only used for a single purpose may be rarer than one used for many purposes. A good example for this is the Ship Of The Line, exceedingly rarer than its sibling, the Frigate, since it is only ever used as a non-Spanish New Warship (whereas the Frigate is used for a myriad of Roles by all Non-Spanish ship-types, and so appears very often).

Player Preference
Despite being larger and more powerful, players do not always prefer to acquire/use the largest variant of each ship class. Again, since size is a trade-off for speed, there are occasions where players will want to get the smallest variant despite having to give up cannon/crew/cargo capacity as a result. This is especially true for the smaller classes.

For example, the favourite player ship in the Pinnace Class is, counter-intuitively, the smallest variant in that class - the War Canoe. It is considerably faster and more agile than any other ship in the game, including its larger siblings. Though some players prefer the extremely rare Mail Runner, most consider the War Canoe to be an exceptionally good ship, and much easier to use than the Mail Runner despite having virtually no room for crew or cannons on board. This is because the tactics often used for the Pinnace Class are more conducive for a smaller, faster ship, regardless of how many cannons it can carry (if any!).

Ship Classes and Types
The table below lists all the available Ship Types in the game, as split into their respective Classes. Note that, again, the same 3D model is used for each Ship Type in a single class, so only one image is needed.

Note: variants are listed from Smallest to Largest.