Not for show, for bump. Size matters in this game.
actually, size works AGAINST ramming ship.......
You are talking about bulkhead structuring, momentum and structural integrity, A large ship with many compartment (since it is bigger) would be harder to compress against a smaller target. in case of ramming, a smaller ship with sharper bow would be works a lot better than a big ship with large turning circle .
Try to think of it like this, you are on a bus and I am on a taxi, would you think you would be able to ram me if we are in open road? You don't mauver as quicker as I could, I can get away a lot quicker than you can turn into me and ram me. You seems to forget, you have to be able to catch me before you can ram me. And if you are on a bigger ship with less room for you to maneuverer, how are you going to catch up with me??
Also, a careful hit of a smaller ship can punch a hole into a larger ship and if you really do know your naval engineering, a calculated hit can disable or even sink a ship, CG ship lack protection power, so if a smaller ship can maneuverer to that point so that they can make a critical impact, this would not be a nice scenario in a big ship.
My cousin is a serving senior chief of the USCG. We talked about this months ago.
Artic cutter was the first thing came to my mind however as you pointed out they dont have any region. I was just thinking doesnt size compromise speed? I mean they can do the same with couple of thousand less tonnage.
yes, size does not work on ramming, unless you have 2 or 3 small ship to slow down or box up your target, how are you going to chase and caught up to a small ship if you are in a big ship? US Coast Guard Ram other people with smaller cutter, larger cutter also used to ram, but only to iceberg in artic ocean (Hence they need to be big) also they need to be staying in the icy water for longer, so big ship come naturally.
Of course, if you are in a big ship, it will only take you 1 ram to disable a smaller ship, but how did you get to that Ram is another problem. It's like for a 18 wheeler to disable a SUV, you only have to crash into it once, but chances are, that big rig won't be able to get close to that SUV in the first place to ram it.