Katzennahrung - I looked up the web version Mondfeld book (at www.all-model.com). The web version only seems to include the chapters of the book that relate to rigging - not the one on guns. So the following is not based on my having read what Mondfeld actually wrote.
I like and respect that book, but I do have some reservations about it. It tries to be broad and comprehensive in its coverage - broader and more comprehensive than any one volume can possibly be. The author generally seems to know what he’s talking about, but he does occasionally write some things that just don’t make much sense. (A few days ago we got into an interesting Forum discussion about the history and dimensions of belaying pins. Mondfeld’s generalizations about belaying pins are utter nonsense; I can’t imagine what sources he must have consulted.)
I’ve never heard of any distinctly “Continental” or “British” system for rigging gun tackles. The details certainly varied over time, and probably from country to country at any one time. But the basic system was simple. The rigging of a gun falls into three categories. One - the heavy breeching line, which keeps the gun from recoiling too far across the deck when fired. Two - the train tackles, which are used to run the gun in and out, and to train it back and forth. Three - some additional lines that lash the gun against the bulwark during heavy weather.
The breeching is a very heavy rope running between two eyebolts or ring bolts, one on either side of the gunport, and around the breech of the gun. Just how it’s secured to the breech varies according to the design of the gun. Some guns (especially older ones) had rings cast in their breeches for the breeching to run through. If there wasn’t any ring, the breeching would be looped around the cascabel (the “button” on the breech); it might or might not have an eye seized in it for that purpose.
There generally were three train tackles. Each consisted of a pair of blocks and a rope running between them. (The blocks might have one or two sheaves, depending on the size of the gun.) Two train tackles were rigged on the sides of the gun, with one block hooked to an eye in the after end of the carriage cheek and the other to an eye in the bulwark beside the gunport. The third train tackle ran between an eye in the middle of the rear of the rear axle of the carriage and an eye in the deck, inboard of the gun. (That tackle generally was set up only when the gun was being fired. The others generally stayed in place all the time.)
There certainly were variations on this system. Sometimes the eyebolts in the bulwark were halfway up the height of the gunport; sometimes they were a few inches above the deck. Jean Boudriot’s Le Vaisseau d 74 Canons, which deals with a typical French ship of the line from the late eighteenth century, shows a variation on the theme of the breeching. (Instead of the line running around the breech of the gun, Boudriot shows it passing through a large hole in one carriage cheek, below the gun barrel, and out the other side. He also, at least on the enormous, 36-pounder lower deck guns, shows two after train tackles rather than one.) But the basic system seems to have been pretty universal. I have a copy of the relevant Conway’s History of the Ship volume in front of me; it contains several contemporary eighteenth-century drawings of Danish guns. They’re rigged in just the manner I described above.
Gun rigging does present a problem for the ship modeler - especially when the scale is small. There are several perfectly legitimate approaches. Many contemporary models - including the wonderful British “Board Room” models - omit the guns entirely. When the guns are present on those old models they frequently don’t have rigging. Setting up all the gear on every gun in a small-scale model of a ship-of-the-line would be quite an exercise - and a rather foolish one, since most of the guns wouldn’t be visible on the finished model.
To me personally, a gun sitting on a deck with no restraining ropework whatever looks odd - especially if the model’s rigging is reasonably complete in other respects. One possible compromise is to rig the breeching and forget the rest. (It isn’t really difficult, though it takes a little time. Drill holes for the eyebolts in the bulwarks. Rig the lines off the model. Set up some simple jig to space the eyebolts correctly, rig the line between them, and superglue the eyebolts into the holes.) If that doesn’t wear you out completely, think about adding the side train tackles. (Again, rig them off the model. You can set up a small production line, and finish the job in a few evenings.) I haven’t seen many models with the after train tackles rigged. And for heaven’s sake don’t bother with any rigging on the guns that aren’t clearly visible on the finished model.
On really small scales, a possible solution (which I haven’t tried personally, but it seems like it might be satisfactory) would be to omit the eyebolts and seizings for the breeching lines. Drill holes for them all the way through the bulwarks, superglue the ends of the breechings in the holes, and cut off the excess line on the outside of the hull. Careful trimming and a careful paint job should conceal the evidence.
Hope that helps a little. Good luck.