There is an old saying, I believe, something along the lines of this:
"Give a man a fish and he is fed for a day. Teach a man to fish and he is fed for life."
In this case, the giving of information to a painfully easy question to answer in the manual is the case of giving a man a fish. Telling him to look in the manual is giving him a fishing rod. I will now teach him to fish.
Look on the left side of the manual. There are a bunch of topics. In this case, click "ships". You`ll find everything you need to know about ships. Notice those damage modifiers on the side? Those equal to the damage types available. Spend a while in the manual looking at ships. You`ll figure it out eventually.
If you actually have a question that requires more than the manual, please ask again. :)