I want to preface this by noting this might be a bit too "historical" for your game if you are running generic stereotypical pirates. This is provided freely as a "use what you need" informational post in the spirit of promoting more accurate pirate games.
The first thing you need to know is that there really are 4 different eras containing pirates, all with completely different ship types.
The era of queen Elizabeth, drake and the armadas.
The era of Morgan and the Buccaneers
The Golden age of Piracy
The Barbary wars (this is a specialty and ship stats are readily available)
Most players run games that are based on the golden age of piracy, but run them with ships that would have been considered un-serviceable antiques in the actual golden age.
So if your action is to be in the era of Raleigh, Drake and Hawkins, You'll need galleons, caravels, carracks and pinnaces. This is the hardest era to get accurate gun information for, and the guns were very different then what evolved as naval gunnery later. The ships should also have high castles, and you should include rules for armor.
If your action is set in the age of Morgan the ships are predominately more advanced galleons with early versions of the frigate and other ship types appearing. This would also be the correct era for the dutch fluyte.
If your action is set in the golden age of piracy (Vane/blackbeard/calico jack) the ships would NOT include galleons as these were outdated by the end of the 1600's.
They should include sloops (Almost every pirate in the golden age used sloops at one point or another), Galley frigates, Snows (a small brig like rig with a unusual main mast configuration), Brigantines (these are NOT like Napoleonic brigantines)and wooden dugout canoes called piriagua (many prates stated with these).
In this era a 6 or 9 pounder was considered to be a big gun, and most ships carried 2 or 4 pounders and lots of 1/2 pound or smaller swivel type guns. Gun numbers and type are varied and often misreported. Ship stats are hard to come by other then approximations to which you have to figure other dimensions by understanding builder's practice of the period.
It should also be noted that most non scholarly websites and even books contain ship information that is most certainly false, impossible, and worse. Examples include the Queen Anne's Revenge being a Fluyte, and the concept that sloops were ship rigged (this naming convention did not apply till nearly 100 years later when frigates were much larger and smaller ships were referred to as sloops of war.)
Gamers are also generally way off base on this period as well . . . Pirate ships were not unusually small, and were generally armed to the teeth.
A typical pirate sloop carried as few as 6 guns and as much as 12 guns and would carry as many swivel cannons as possible. You will find that gun numbers for ships drastically vary because many governors would included the swivels in the gun numbers they reported, as it made the menace seem more formidable thus justifying any cowardice, or lack of fight from port defenders.
The Queen Anne's revenge was not the biggest pirate ship of the era or was it all that that uncommon for pirates to have larger ships. I present as evidence any of the 4 versions of the Black Bart's Royal Fortune, Sam Bellamy's Whydah Gally, Charles's Vane's brigantine Ranger, Henry Avery's Fancy etc
Pirates avoiding fights is pretty much a myth as well, There are several Golden age examples I can point to of a captain being voted out for avoiding combat, or not going after a big well defended prize
If you really want to learn what pirates are like keep at your digging and you will find the truth buried under reams of nonsense.
Good Luck, and happy digging!
Brian Carnes,
Designer, Sailpower
sailpowergame.com
facebook.com/sailpowergame
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