Dice Combat for Sea Warfare - Help!

First off, I know this subject has been rehashed a million times over, so forgive me if this is old hat to y'all. But I'd like to ask for some wisdom on this point anyway, because I can't yet find specific answers to my question in the multitudes of posts ;)

So my game is about privateering ships attacking and plundering each other, bribing the roving corsair, and raiding unexplored islands that hold rare jewels. Great stuff, definitely been done before, but what the heck … I like it! :D

The combat mechanic I devised has worked great so far, and the "HOW" isn't really important to the game—it works no matter what combat mechanic I use. But the "HOW" does decide how fun the game is, because fighting sea battles is a big part of it.

So each player has ships on the board, and cards representing his ships that list how many hit points and dice each ship has. Each player has seven dice matching his ship color, which is how you keep track of whose dice are whose.

One player moves his ship or ships onto the same space as an opponent's ships and the battle starts.

Here's how the combat itself works, straight from my rule book:

1. Collect dice

Each ship card has a certain amount of battle dice listed. This is how many dice you can use to attack with. If you are attacking with multiple ships, add the dice totals together, but with a maximum of seven dice.

2. Roll dice

When you have collected your dice, you are ready to battle. Roll all your dice at the same time as your oppponent. Do not roll the dice again until steps 3-5 have been completed.

3. Take damage

Every die that is a 3 or less represents one hit point. Your ship card has a certain amount of hit points listed on it. Once your ship has taken its maximum number of hit points, it is destroyed. To keep track of hit points, take any “hit” dice that your opponent rolls against you and set them on your ship card(s). When hit, you decide which hit points are applied to which of your ships.

If you and your opponent haven’t lost any ships after this step, repeat steps 2 and 3.

4. Remove destroyed ships

Once one of your ships has received enough hit points to destroy it, remove that ship token from the game. After removing your destroyed ship token from the board, return the matching ship card to the bottom of your battle deck and return the dice to your opponent.

If you destroy an opponent’s ship that had jewels on board, immediately put these jewels on any of your attacking ships, up to your cargo limits. Any jewels that exceed your cargo limits must be returned to the nearest empty island. The plundering of jewels is only done in this step, not step 6. It is possible to lose jewels to your opponent’s ship, then destroy that ship and steal back the jewels, all in the same battle.

If you and your opponent still have surviving ships after this step, repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 until one of you has lost all his or her ships in that battle.

So there it is. The ONLY problem I have with this system is the fact that you are putting your hit dice on your opponent's ship cards. That means you have to grab more dice from your stash to keep going in the battle. But what if you are attacking with all seven dice, and roll one hit, and have to keep going? Now you only have six dice left to roll, even though you're entitle to seven! That's the basic problem I have with this mechanic. Otherwise it's pretty good.

I have one solution in mind, but it is a little clumsy and adds yet more pieces to the game. That is to have a pile of chits that say DAMAGE on them, and use the chits to mark damage instead of your dice. But seriously, I don't want this game to have so many pieces. Not when most of the light war games out there don't need such a complicated system of damage chits and millions of dice besides …

So please …

Help!