Is damage a bit too swingy / slippery slope?

[fredmiracle]

You must both admit though that historically in many cases a 'raking broadside' from one ship was enough to finish off the recipient especially if double shotted.

Very true.

It's hard for me to go back and read about battles and even understand/quantify what it took for a commander to conclude that his ship could "fight no more." Usually a ship didn't come close to sinking, but sometimes it did catastrophically. Sometimes the casualty rates were 10% and sometimes 50%. Sometimes the ship was "unmaneuverable," but other times the captain would somehow jury-rig a mast and keep up the battle.

So really these chits are meant to capture a set of very malleable, largely-psychological conditions, arising when particular personalities encountered the "shock and awe" of extreme levels of mayhem, gore, noise and flying projectiles. Hard to say what is realistic.

But in gaming terms, the OP makes a valid point

And if your game ends quickly it's a good excuse to immediately start another one.

That's what we do!