En flûte

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Arming a ship en flûte means removing some or all of the artillery, the holes causing it to look like a flute. Since ships have a limited amount of cargo space, they may be armed en flûte to make room for other cargo, such as troops. The downside, of course, is a reduction in the ship's ability to defend itself if attacked.

For instance, leading up to the Seven Years' War, the French sent three thousand troops to reinforce French Canada aboard a large squadron of ships-of-war. To make room for these troops, most of the ships were armed en flûte.^[1]