Kai,
This was part of what they call the "military revolution".
Can't remember if it was Drake's day or not, but the British navy used a system of ropes to act as a recoil buffer on shipboard cannon, meaning they didn't have to physically move them that far once they were reloaded.
Think the British were amongst the first to lose the idea of ships being floating fortresses, ie the cannon were only used to soften the ship up for the boarding party. The idea now was to destroy the rigging, or hole the enemy below the waterline.
In Drake's time, ships weren't purpose-built by the Crown unless strictly necessary due to the cost. This was where privateers came in. One of the reasons the Royal Navy overtook the Dutch after the war in the 1660s, was because the Royal Navy started to purpose build fighting ships to help defend the East India Company, whereas the Dutch couldn't afford to do the same.
Regards,
Gordon
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