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Originally Posted by JCB
I will not pretend I know anything about this game or merchant construction, but from building sailboats I know this: Smaller is stronger! One example is the mast. The stresses of the mast increase by a factor of four with increase in length, making shorter masts less reliant on strong supports. A big merchant and a small merchant both have the same parts, like keels, ribs, skin and so on, but I donīt think the dimensions of the bigger merchant follow the rule of strenght - for example making the ship skin much thicker to have the same relative strenght of the smaller merchant. I know through experience that the short, simple gaff-rigged mast more often than not will outlast modern hightech carbon masts if subjected to stresses they are not designed for. Smaller is in many regards more robust. I suppose a torp under the keel is not in the design description for the merchants either  |
This does make some sense. I wondered about that - if it was intentional. But in terms of compartments, you'd think that a torp hit would have a higher chance of compromising more than one compartment in a smaller ship, and hence cause terminal damage. It seems that with small tankers, there's no one compartment that when destroyed, will cause sinking. With larger ships, destruction of the bow or stern compartment usually brings her down.