Cannons Not Firing?

[mishagoe]

I've played the DEMO 1st tutorial, well tried to anyway, but was unable to get my gun crews to fire, eventhough I believe I was within range by simply maneuvering my ship close to the french ship. The other ship kept firing at me, but mine just sat there, happily taking it all, but did not appear to return fire. Beyond assigning enough crew to man the guns, is there any other command I need to issue to commence firing? Thanks for you help.

p.s. I pre-ordered the game the day it was announced for pre-order(or thereabouts), so am looking forward to the full game, any idea when the game will be available?