5.2 Reading a Ship's Stats

Every ship in your dock carries a stat sheet. Open it by docking in a port, selecting the ship, and choosing the Stats tab — the last of the four tabs alongside Inventory, Equipment, and Equipped. This page explains what each field means and, more usefully, which ones mislead you if you read them the obvious way.

5.2.1 What the panel shows

The Stats tab reports the ship as it currently exists: hull, installed equipment, and materials combined. It is not a description of the hull type in the abstract. Two ships of the same class with different fits produce different sheets, which is exactly why the panel is worth reading before every voyage rather than once per ship class.

5.2.2 Thickness is an angle, and lower is better

This is the single most counter-intuitive number on the sheet, and the game says so in its own tooltip:

“Lower is better, as this is the penetration angle. Shots must hit at an angle *less* than this to penetrate.”

Read it as a threshold on obliquity. A shot arriving close to square on the timber — a small angle — penetrates. A shot arriving at a glancing angle is turned away. The Thickness figure is the boundary between those outcomes, so a smaller number means a narrower window in which the enemy can hurt you, and therefore a better-protected ship.

Two practical consequences follow. Defensively, presenting your side obliquely to an enemy’s guns increases the angle at which their shot arrives and makes a bounce more likely; squaring up to them does the opposite. Offensively, the closer you can get your fire to perpendicular, the more of it will bite — which is why raking a bow or stern is so effective and why a shot across a heeling deck can skate off. See Ammo & Damage Model for what happens after penetration.

5.2.3 Why cannons are listed twice

The battery appears in two forms because they answer different questions.

The per-deck list gives a count and a poundage for each deck. Poundage is the weight of shot the gun throws, so it is a direct statement of how hard that deck hits. A ship whose decks differ substantially in poundage does not have one battery; it has a heavy one and a light one that happen to share a hull, and they will not do the same job at the same range.

The total line regroups the same guns by where they point: Centre, Side, and Stern. This is the number that matters tactically, because guns that cannot bear on the target contribute nothing. A large total is no comfort if most of it is on the wrong side, and the Stern figure is what you have available while running.

5.2.4 Sails are two separate pools

Square Sail HP and Stay Sail HP are tracked independently, and this matters more than a single canvas figure would. Square sails supply most of the drive when the wind is behind or on the quarter; staysails matter most when working closer to the wind. Losing one pool does not degrade your sailing evenly — it removes specific capabilities at specific wind angles.

So chain shot aimed at rigging is not a generic slow-down. Which pool it damages determines which points of sail you lose, and therefore whether you can still run, still close, or still work upwind. See Wind & Points of Sail.

5.2.5 Handling: three numbers, one behaviour

Max Heel, Rudder Traverse Time, and Turn Speed describe different parts of the same experience and should be read together.

• Rudder Traverse Time is the delay between your input and the rudder actually being where you asked. It sets how much you must anticipate.
• Turn Speed is how fast the heading changes once the rudder is over. It sets how tight the eventual turn is.
• Max Heel is how far the ship leans. Heel affects gun elevation and the angle at which enemy shot meets your side, so it is a gunnery statistic as much as a sailing one.

A ship can have a good Turn Speed and still feel unresponsive if its rudder is slow, and it can have modest figures on paper and still fight well if you have learned to lead its inputs.

5.2.6 Previewing changes before you commit

The fitting interface can show a proposed change without installing it. Adding an item as a Ghost puts the panel into a comparison view, presenting Current Stats alongside the ghosted result, so you can see which figures move and by how much before spending anything.

Ghosts are a preview only. The game is explicit that they do not change the ship:

“These only provide a preview, and don’t affect ship stats.”

The client will warn you when you try to undock with ghosts still in place. Clear them or install them for real; do not sail expecting a fit you only previewed.

5.2.7 A reading routine

1. Confirm you are looking at the ship you intend to sail — the panel follows your selection, not your last voyage.
2. Read Rate and Equipment Class for the ship’s broad scale and what it can accept.
3. Read the per-deck cannon lines for hitting power, then the Centre/Side/Stern split for what you can actually bring to bear.
4. Read Thickness remembering that lower protects better.
5. Read the two sail pools and ask which wind angles you would lose if each were shot away.
6. Read Rudder Traverse Time, Turn Speed, and Max Heel together, then go and confirm them on the water.

The sheet tells you what the ship is. Only sailing it tells you what you can do with it.