A cannon chainshot

[Rick]

I have often heard that French warships fired high during an engagement so as to disable the rig and save the hull for prize whereas the Brits tended to fire at the vessel's hull; I'm sure this needs a grain or two of salt to digest.

Still, I think the majority of injuries and death (pre boarding) were from the resulting splinters caused by the impact of the projectiles. Hence the gun deck(s) were referred to as the slaughterhouse. Imagine a raking broadside to the stern of the foe; the rounds went the entire length of the enemy vessel turning it into essentially an abattoir bowling alley with human pins.

Here's a 18th century engraving of the encounter between HMS Pearl and the French frigate L'Esperance; you'll notice that her mizzen has been shot off, possibly as a result of bar or chain shot we have been discussing.
Found in the wilds of Maine and presented here just for grins, and possibly as an illustration of the effectiveness of projectiles used to disable the rigging.

A description of the action in 1780:
The action of 30 September 1780 was a minor naval engagement off the Bermudas, where HMS Pearl captured Espérance, a French frigate of 32 guns launched in 1779.[1]

HMS Pearl under the command of George Montagu was sent out to North America, and on 30 September 1780, soon encountered a frigate off the Bermudas. As Pearl closed Montagu cleared for action and engaged close for two hours, then maintained a running fight for a further two hours and more when the frigate struck.[2][3]

The prize turned out to be the French frigate Espérance of about 850 tons of thirty-two guns consisting of twelve- and six-pounders, nearly 200 men and with a valuable cargo heading from Cape Francois to Bordeaux. Espérance lost 20 killed and 24 wounded as well as the crew and marines captured, while Pearl's losses were six killed and ten wounded. The captured French frigate was put into Royal Naval service and renamed HMS Clinton.