"Bronze" is not really bronze as real world bronze is copper and tin. It is mined from the bones of dead gods, and its properties as far as strength, flexibility and weight are in someways comparable to terristrial bronze, and in other ways totally different. The cultural developments, the physics, everything is different.
And so too I imagine with ships. Further, with magic and the gods, etc. mucking about, the world will be full of things seemingly anachronistic, but are just the way they are in Glorantha (such as flintlocks and bronze age cuirasses). It all works, as long as you play with the spirit of fun and "realism" that makes the world work for you.
No one should have galleons shoved down their throa, but, on the other hand, no one should feel shamed out of them if they work in their Glorantha. Frankly, like everythinging in this detailed and elaborate world, it sometimes feels more like a PhD project in a combined major of history/anthropology/political science and comparative religion than a game, and it sometimes is hard to know enough about the difference between a trireme, a dhow, a junk and a galleon to do anything much convincing or reality based in ocean going campaigns. Speaking for myself, I am pretty much stuck with what I know from having seen several Sinbad movies, a slew of pirate movies with Errol Flynn et al, and the ocean battle in Ben Hur. Not exactly graduate seminar background. And then the world oceans in Glorantha just are not like the oceans that faced our best know bronze and early iron age analogs (Greeks, Egyptians, Phoneacians, Romas, Cathagenians etc.) No protected Middle Sea for Glorantha, but the coasts and then the vast expanse between continents or among the islands.
So, hopefully with help, and not too mch reproof we can muddle along an create some mutually acceptable visions of the ocean going material cultures of Glorantha.
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