Improvements in naval architecture, cannon manufacture, and metallurgy allowed first rates to carry either more guns or heavier ones. Gun counts rose in some periods, while the weapons themselves became more powerful in others. Broadside weight provides the more consistent measure because it captures both kinds of change. The distinction prevents a nominal 100-gun ship from being treated as automatically equivalent to another ship from a different period.
Notable Point · 3:57-5:14
Broadside weight mattered more than gun count alone
Gun count alone hides how first-rate firepower could rise when heavier cannon increased broadside weight without adding more pieces.