Something that drives me crazy about the books I'm reading is when they tell me what kind of ship someone's sailing and expect me, a 21st-century landlubber, to already know what it means. And what kind of boat someone used was important, as it signified not only where they were from (a Chinese junk was recognizable and was distinct from, for instance, a Dutch caravel) but how they could move in the water or make use of the wind...and therefore what purpose a ship served. A Spanish galleon was a massive floating fortress built for hauling goods--specifically, treasure--and therefore was a slow-moving, easy target and needed to be defended by other ships by moving with it in a fleet. Seeing a galleon on the horizon meant a pirate was about to make bank, as long as they could beat the defending ships surrounding it. On the other hand, a small sloop, a quicker vessel meant more for movement than hauling cargo, could just belong to a poor crew of fishermen, or it could have rich passengers aboard with pockets full of gold and trinkets, and maybe some interesting news to beat or threaten out of them, making moving in on a sloop less of a sure bet.
This section is a gallery of galleys, if you will (har har). Click a title or picture to find out what kind of boat might be sailed in different circumstances...so we can both can make sense of all the nautical gobbledegook!