After a cannon ball punches a hole through your hull, where does it go?
It is a solid ball of steel so it doesn't explode or disintegrate.
And why aren't loose cannon balls found on beaches like bananas or planks?
They may not be washed to shore but they could land there from a missed shot.
In a perfect world having cannon balls rolling around the lower decks after penetrating your hull would be kind of cool but I know that this would add to the graphics load and the required coding time could be better spent elsewhere.
So in lieu of that, they could be placed directly in your supply barrels for you to reuse and fire back at the vessel, or land mounted cannon, of which it came from.
This has happened through history where armies have used the opposition's own cannon balls against them, so it's feasible for pirates to have done the same.
An entire battle between two ships could consist of one cannon ball being recycled back and forth between them. lol
