Historically - the 3 inch wouldnt do a whole lot against a freighter. Yes, it would put holes in it, but it would take a lot of holes to sink one. (How many rounds of 7.62 did that barrel need to "melt" it?) However, as the size of the shell got larger, so did the damage inflicted (obviously). There are many references historically where warships such as CL's and DD's were considered "eggshells" when it came to armor. A single 5" hit could ruin any small escort or warship's day. The reason that the deck gun wasn't often used by submarines was not that it wasn't an effective weapon. There were two main reasons it wasn't used often.
1. A submarine is not an effective gun platform in reality (SH4 fails to model the instability of a pitching sub deck).
2. Using a deck gun denied the submarine its most potent protection - stealth.
Speaking from a realism standpoint, the deck gun shells in SH4 are too weak. (Yes this has been argued back and forth, but I stand with the battle reports showing what damage a shell can do!) However, because there is no way to simulate the rolling and pitching of a deck gun, the shells are set weaker as a tradeoff. However, if you ever let your crew do the deck gun firing - they seem to simulate its inaccuracy rather well - only about 1 in 6 shells hit the target as desired. If you do the shooting - its stabilized and you can land every shot. So for balance sake I can understand the weak shells.
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Good Hunting!
Captain Haplo
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