What kind of ships are Vivacia, Paragon etc?

[londonlassie]

interesting question...

Since they are pre-cannon era, they cannot be extremely large.

Now I am incredibly ignorant of nautical terminology and can barely tell a foredeck from an afterdeck, so this is a question as much as a suggestion.

"...it was actually well before dawn when Sorcor ordered the sweeps out." - page 284, "Of Derelicts And Slaveships", Ship Of Magic


Now in Pirates Of The Caribbean, Barbossa says "Run out the sweeps", and what the men run out are undoubtedly cannons of a sort. So are there two nautical meanings for "sweeps", or did all the ships actually have some form of firepower?

Or did the non-sentient pirate ships have them, but not the Liveships? This seems unlikely, since Traders would have more money to fit their ships with defense mechanisms than pirates.

Other than this instance or them being mentioned, I can't remember any other occasion in which any of the ships engaged in anything but hand-to-hand combat.

This post probably makes no sense, it's just a thought I had while I was re-reading Ship Of Magic.