6.3 Glossary & Acronyms

First-pass draft — not yet reviewed. The content below is written but still awaiting review, and Letters of Marque is an actively changing playtest. Check anything important against your own game.

Terms you will meet in the game’s interface and in this guide. Where a word has an everyday meaning and a specific meaning in Letters of Marque, the game’s meaning is the one given.

6.3.1 Ships and fitting

Ship and fitting terms
Term	Meaning
Rate	A ship’s broad class, 1st through 7th. Lower numbers are larger, more powerful warships.
BR	Battle Rating — the value used to express combat strength for fleet comparison and encounter limits.
Thickness	A ship’s protection, expressed as a limiting penetration angle in degrees. Lower is better.
Equipment Class	The grade of equipment a hull will accept — a separate limit from how many slots it has.
Ghost	An item added as a preview only. Shows what the stats would become without installing anything.
Refit	Installed equipment that modifies the ship’s statistics.
Component	One of the six parts a ship is built from: frame, planking, deck, keel, masts, crew.
Draft	How deep the hull sits. Reducing it is a fitting option, and it governs where a ship can safely go.
Heel	How far the ship leans. Affects gun elevation and which part of the hull is exposed.

6.3.2 Rig and sailing

Rig and sailing terms
Term	Meaning
Square sail	The main driving canvas, set across the ship. Tracked as its own durability pool.
Staysail	Fore-and-aft canvas, most useful working closer to the wind. Tracked separately from square sails.
Yard	The spar a square sail hangs from. Rotating it is how you angle the sail to the wind.
Brace	To rotate the yards. The game splits this between the forward and after masts.
Automatic yards	The assist that braces the yards for you as your heading changes.
Tack	To turn through the wind, bringing the bow across it.
Wear	To turn away through the stern instead — slower, but it does not risk stalling in the wind.
Rudder traverse time	How long the rudder takes to cross its range. A delay, so lower is better.
Apparent wind	The wind as felt aboard a moving ship, combining the true wind with your own motion.

6.3.3 Combat

Combat terms
Term	Meaning
Ball	Round shot — the general-purpose projectile, used against hulls.
Chain	Chain shot — used against sails and rigging.
Bounce	A hit that failed to penetrate because it arrived too obliquely.
Leak	A hole taking water. Reported as a proportion, and worsened by heel exposing the lower hull.
Broadside	The guns along one side, and the hit location for a shot striking there.
Rake	To fire along a ship’s length through bow or stern — the angle that penetrates most reliably.
Poundage	The weight of shot a gun throws, e.g. a 32-pounder. The measure of a deck’s hitting power.
Convergence	The distance at which guns spread along the hull are directed toward the same region.
Dispersion	How loosely a battery’s shot groups.
Slew angle	How far a gun can be traversed from its rest position.
Tag	To mark a target in the open world, the action that can bring on an engagement.

6.3.4 Port and trade

Port and trade terms
Term	Meaning
Dock	The port view where ships are selected, inspected, and fitted. Also the action of entering port.
Undock	To leave port for the open world.
Warehouse	Port storage for goods not currently aboard a ship.
Pounds	The game’s currency.
Broker fees	A charge on a market transaction, separate from sales tax. Both come off your total.
Duration	How long a market order stands, from Immediate up to one week.
Convoy	A group of trade ships with escorts moving goods between ports, open to other players’ cargo.
Military / economic slots	The two separate kinds of cargo capacity a ship carries.
Sub-nation	A cosmetic identity within a faction, adding flags and nothing else.

Sources & Credits

This page draws on facts from, and gratefully credits: Letters of Marque — the Steam playtest client. Prose is original; see how this guide is made.

Last verified 2026-07-28 by AI.