How many cannonballs did they actually take until they sank?

Wood can splinter, which isn't tremendously pleasant.

Generally you're supposed to go for the sails first and then unload into the hull.

Later on, you get cannonballs that are filled with black powder and fused.

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>>1432273
so because it splinters the cannonball didn't go through.??

>>1432302
It rarely went all the way through, because they made the things out of lots of Oak.

>>1432267
> The hulking Santissima Trinidad, on a run from Manila to Acapulco in 1762, was taken by Commodore George Anson’s squadron in a running fight after 1,080 cannon balls had struck it. The British prize crew, astonished to find the ship still seaworthy after such punishment, managed to sail it half way around the world to England — it arrived with several hundred cannon balls still embedded in its sides

> That first salvo had fallen short, but as the range decreased, the irregular pieces of iron shot began to sheer away rigging, gouge huge holds in the tails and ran down on the exposed deck. Collingwood, supremely at his ease, strolled the upper gun deck, munching apples, refusing to seek shelter or return fire. Each of his heavy 32 and 24-pounders were double-shotted, his carronades were filled with ball and sacks or baskets of nails and musket balls. His first broadsides would be devastating, but only at close range.

>The results were frightful, especially to Santa Ana. The balls from 50 British cannons and two carronades sheared through the Spaniard’s thin-skinned stern and wrought havoc on the gun deck and beyond. Splinters and glass, ball and shot, whined into the cannons and their crews, dismembering, maiming and killing more than 100 men and knocking 14 guns out of action. After the one broadside, Santa Ana‘s decks ran red with blood.

>>1432267
All it takes is enough shots to go below the waterline to create a water intake greater than the speed that said water can be pumped out. And even then if it's not much greater they can carry on pumping 24/7 and slowly taking water until they fix it or reach land.

Powder did occasionally ignite and make a huge explosion. At some point powder rooms were lined with metal to prevent this.

Generally, however, the goal of the opposing ship wasn't to sink but to capture. You fire away until the ship is paralyzed, depopulated or demoralized enough to surrender on pain of being sunk, and then you lock the crew below, fix the thing up (offering more lenient treatment for enemy crew's help if necessary) and take it on home/the closest friendly port so they can sell off the cargo and repurpose the ship and win prize money for the triumphant crew. Much like looting a battlefield, this was the primary motivation for your average wartime sailor.

Most ships where not sunk.
They where taken by boarding after shot and grape had decimated the crew and the rigging shot away to prevent manoeuvring.
French tactics called for attacking the rigging. English tactics where to kill the crew.
Many of the French and Spanish ships taken at trafalga where manned by small prize crews only to be retaken by the crew during the storm and than sink because the damage to the rigging prevented the crew from handling the ship in bad weather.
Burnt to the waterline was another cause of lost ships in combat. A small fire would quickly become unmanageable in a wood ship.

Any hole punched below the waterline was a priority repair. Regullar holes could be plugged with a short section of old spar hammers home.
Larger holes where fothered or sheets of lead nailed over the hole on the inside.