Almalexia said:Most of these navies
Being the key word. The rest of these fleets can usually be discounted in battle, though you picked a list of battles with precious little documentation for me to verify, so thanks for that. The Battle of Cannanore lists that 180 of the 220 were paraus and zambuks: god knows what a zambuk is, but theoretically paraus refer to the outrigger Proas, which are quite dimunitive. Such profusions of ships in a fleet can even be more a handicap than a help as it restricts the maneuvering of the larger gun bearing vessels in combat. Deck heights and disparities in numbers or power of cannons seems the most likely reasons though, in addition to tactics.