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Age of Sail cannon

Discussion in 'Military History' started by bronk7, Jan 25, 2015.

  1. bronk7

    bronk7 Well-Known Member

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    you can thank Carronade for this thread, since his name made me think of it..<>how accurate were the Age of Sail cannons? [ HMS Victory era, main armament, at medium range ] ..did they actually aim left and right or just for elevation? how would they aim the chain shot?..yes, I know, cannon, not canon..choose one! [ha ha funny funny]
     
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  2. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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  3. gtblackwell

    gtblackwell Member Emeritus

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    As one might imagine naval warfare using "Ships of the line" was brutal and set piece but in practice varied a good bit. HMS Victory , a 100 gun vessel was designed to sit side by side and fire till one could no longer fight.....Not unlike armies armed with smoothbore muskets of the time.. Crews were trained to fire and reload as rapidly as possible. Individual aiming was possible , mainly in elevation but in combat little time was allocated. Firing to the roll of the ship was critical. Traverse was marginally possible by varying the pull on the run-out ropes but not practical . Occasionally an order would be given to one or several guns to try and demast an opponent but that was not the norm. Makes good movies ! Some ship guns recoiled up a ramp to abate recoil, some were in channels to keep them stable but most were not.. Shore cannons, in fortification definitely had traverse. You can often see the iron rings inlet-ed into stone where a 5th wheel allowed the gun to move horizontally.. Simply answer, mainly you aimed the ship.

    Tactics were used, , ships sailed in line so as not to spoil each others wind and crossings the opponents line at it's head or crossing the "T" was was a goal. The ships in the long arm of the T could only fire perpendicular ( With some small exceptions) but one not have a target. Those crossing the head of the line could fire as their guns came to bare. If I remember correctly , Nelson did a bold thing, he pierced the French line near the middle and brought both ends of the French line to bare and used both sides of his ship, a rare feat. That greatly reduced the French fleet . After such moves ship to ship action would ensue. Imagine two such ships a hundred meters apart firing 32 pound shot at each other until one could not return fire. In truly close combat, grappling hooks would be used to tie them together, the big below deck guns still firing, upper deck guns firing chain and bar shot was well as grape and canister plus hand to hand combate including sharp shooters in the rigging. the origins of the Marines.....Complete chaos.

    As a boy I did not give thoughts to red painted decks nor buckets of sand in those ships.. Later I understood that many bodies were blown apart , the blood not as vivid against red, the sand to prevent slippage.. Not a great deal of fine aiming.

    Translated to WW2, I understand Bismark and Hood were just trying to score a hit anywhere at such long range but to you navy experts after Bismark's main batteries were out and most or all of the secondaries did King George V and Rodney try to hit specific places on Bismark when they closed in to almost point blank range or were they just shooting into the hull and superstructure in general ?

    As for gun action in sailing ships I thought the photography was good in "Master & Commander" to catch the chaotic firing sequences.

    Gaines


    OH!, found this https://ageofsail.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/introducing-the-carronade-the-range-myth/
     
  4. bronk7

    bronk7 Well-Known Member

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  5. bronk7

    bronk7 Well-Known Member

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    brutal, good point ..I've read some on the sea battles...yes, let's try to imagine the point blank range!! dozens of cannons!! I'll have to watch 'Master ' again
     
  6. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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  7. bronk7

    bronk7 Well-Known Member

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  8. KodiakBeer

    KodiakBeer Member

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    International law codified the 3 mile limit for waters offshore simply because that was the effective range of guns of the day. In effect, if you were within gun range they could shoot, and that became the legal standard when maritime treaties were put into effect. Of course, those were big shore based guns so smaller and less stable ship based guns would have considerably less effective range even if the balls could carry considerably further.

    As a kid I loved the Hornblower series of novels. Of course, Hornblower was a fictional character, but C. S. Forester put a lot of research into those books. In a number of stories Hornblower made use of the long nine pound British naval gun for sharpshooting work at long ranges. The particular gun was a light/medium cannon with a long barrel and the reputation of having a particularly true bore.
     
  9. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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  10. bronk7

    bronk7 Well-Known Member

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  11. bronk7

    bronk7 Well-Known Member

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    yes, I still love to read those....wow, nice bit of trivia there on the gun range/territorial waters!!
     

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