Take the amount of knowledge most fantasy authors have about horses, as discussed in the last rant. Now take half that knowledge. Now halve the half. This seems to be about the amount the average fantasy author knows about ocean-going, pre-twentieth century ships without doing research.
I mean, at least most fantasists know the approximate size of a horse. They know that writing a horse as squeezing into a gopher hole is insane. Yet they write about roomy ships that apparently have dozens of cabins for rich passengers, and all the room for horses that those passengers’ hearts could desire, while the crew turns invisible when not needed and violates the law of conservation of mass when present.
