Mantaray, you mentioned lighter weapons, 'flintlock pistols', to pick off enemy crew members. Even though they were not counted in the 'gun count' (when you described a warship, you told the number of guns on carriages it had, hence the 74-gun or 22-gun or whatever rating. The more guns, obviously, the more powerful the vessel.), smaller-caliber weapons were incredibly popular. Shorter ranged, and slightly more accurate, they were used for close combat, usually to attack enemy gun crews and Marines before they were able to board your ship. Also, you're talking of just having little guns, medium guns, and big guns. Wrong, my friend. Dead wrong. There were all different calibers of guns, measured in the weight in pounds of the shot they fired. (FYI, a 'shot' is a solid iron ball. Designed to put a big hole in the side of a ship, thus letting water in. This is why the U.S.S. Constitution is called 'Old Ironsides'. It was said that in combat, the shots bounced off of her like her sides were made out of iron.) I'm reasonably sure that they started at 6-pounders and went up from there. I'll have to check, so I'll get back to you on that. The smaller the gun, the smaller the ship they were mounted on. But I think the most popular sizes were 6-pounder (for Pinnaces, Sloops, and Schooners), 9-pounders (for the medium-sized trading vessels and small warships (Sloops and Schooners with bigger guns and less cargo space)), 12-pounders (for bigger trading ships and medium-sized warships (Barques and lighter Brigantines)), 15-pounders (for Galleons and medium-big warships (Frigates and such)), and I want to say 18-, 24-, 32-, and 44-pounders for Line-of-Battle ships. (BTW, this is where we get the name 'Battleship'.) Of course, bigger guns will be made later on. These are the stats for the War of 1812. But a 6-pound shot is about as small as anybody would have wanted to go. Remember, each gunmaker had their own different design, and each gun type had a different range capability: the range depended on how much powder you put in. Of course, if you put in too much powder... You don't want to think about that. But that's not such a bad idea... A low, (maybe 1%) chance that your guns will misfire, causing damage to your ship... Hrm... But I'll leave that to you. In any case, I hope I've helped you instead of confusing things too much.
Have a good weekend (what's left of it).
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Youre only given a little spark of madness. You mustnt lose it.
-- Robin Williams