Naval Cannons

[Rifleman1776]

Upon reading the above information, it is daunting the carnage the sailing crew had to endure, in a toe to toe battle, with little chance to escape harm.
Fred

Yes. In my readings it is evident that being on a ship during battle was horrific. Before the battle started the decks were covered with sand to give a grip for the barefoot sailor when the decks became coated with blood. The 'slivers' were often fairly large pieces of sharp edged wood. The ships physician was kept busy doing amputations and trying to stop bleeding. After a battle one chore was to toss the pile of arms and legs overboard. Personally, I simply cannot imagine the actual horror of being in one of those battles.

 

[tenngun]

Victory went to the side that kept the most iron in the air. So your best chance of survival was service to the gun. A ship of the line would have 6-900 men aboard the Brits had about 20000 men at Trafalgar and took about 1500 causulties about 7%, better odds then a battle line.
Some ships could be hit pretty hard like redoubtable that the Victory raked from the stern. But broadside to broadside the ships were a pretty good shield.

 

[F.G. Ford]

How did they ever get a sailor to sign up for a second tour of duty? :v
Especially if your new name was Stumpy.
Fred

 

[Bon Sauvage]

81% casualties on Redoutable. 81%! Yes. I'd say they were hit pretty hard.

 

[tenngun]

That was unusual. Victory was double shorted with grape and had not yet fired the guns. The aft of ships was mostly glass and thin panels that did noting to absorb the fire. Then the crew packed in like bowling pins. Redoubtable was almost still in its attitude to the wind and battlesail. While Victory was also moving slow and the fire was methodical.it was a perfect killing field.
As Victory tacked aroundit came under fire from Buccanator and the two ships fell broadside to broadside and causulties were no where near as devastating. Even though they hammered away at each other for near a half hour till a second three decker came to Victory’s aid.
In spite of the stories of the press rounding up men and near slave conditions on British ships, hat tip to Nordoff and Hall, the fact was most of the men abound British ships were volunteers. There was little chance of leaving the navy once in till the war was done. Still compared to being a plow man a seaman went to bed with a full belly and beer and rum to warm it. After a bit of time on the run many deserters signed on to other ships.

 

[Artificer]

Don't forget the prize money that crews earned in both war and peace time, though it was harder to earn prize money in peace time outside capturing pirate ships or slave ships - after slavery was outlawed.

There were many British Frigate Captains who refused promotion because they made fortunes capturing prize ships.

Gus

 

[tenngun]

And crews too. The great mutiny of 1797 wasn’t about food or flogging, it was about pay.
Oversimplification for sure but that’s pretty much the universal beef.

 

[crockett]

I got interested in this by reading Ships and Seamen of the American Revolution by Jack Coggins. There is a lot on the weapons and tactics. From the book, it seems a lit match was kept near the cannon. I could not quite understand the priming unless the gunner had a small powder horn used to fill a priming area on the cannon.

 

[tenngun]

The guncaptian kept a horn at his side for priming. The loading exercises called for priming after the gun was run out.

 

[crockett]

So some guns being fired, others being reloaded, lighted matches, powder horns, some gun crews injured from enemy fire, black powder smoke all over the place, the waves knocking around, and somebody trying to sail the boat!
And that lower deck- only about 5' of headroom.
Good golly Miss Molly.

 

[Artificer]

The Gun Captains' Powder Horns were about the size or a little larger than FIW period horns. They often to usually had threaded butt cap plugs to refill the horns and very commonly had some kind of metal snout with a spring loaded closure for safety. Finally they often had some kind of staple behind the snout that along with the threaded plug, were used to suspend the horns in storage. I've seen some of these original horns erroneously described as "storage horns" in the past.

Gus

 

[crockett]

Just finished another book on Trafalgar. Boy I thought it was "The Navy gets the Gravy and the army gets the beans" but this book describes the battle in detail. A cannon ball would burst through the hull spending wood splinters everywhere, the splinters killing people.
Any reason the cannon balls were iron instead of lead?

 

[Artificer]

Any reason the cannon balls were iron instead of lead?

One reason was cost, Iron was a LOT less expensive than lead due to the weight.

Weights of Various Metals in Pounds Per *Cubic Foot
Iron, Cast Grey 442.00
Lead 707.96

However, the main reasons were Iron made the most accurate projectile with less powder to send it long distance, due to higher velocity from the lower weight of Iron. Iron Cannon Balls also were easily cast vs chipping out Stone Cannon Balls to size and so replaced stone balls for use against Stone Castles/Forts in the late 17th century. Iron worked as well to batter the wooden hulls of opposing ships, or fixed emplacements, and as a long-range anti-personnel weapon.

BTW, the Mexican Field Artillery in the Mexican War used Brass Cannon Balls, because it was cheaper for them than Iron. Though Brass was not quite as expensive, it still worked well enough for them - and this information came after modern trials with both Brass and Iron Cannon Balls in period Cannon.

Gee, haven't had to put on my Ordnance Officer Hat for Artillery, for the past 25 years.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

Oops, forgot one. Iron Cannon Balls could be reused if fired as an anti-personnel round and if it did not hit something hard enough to deform it.

However, the soldiers had to be taught that even though they could see the cannon balls bounce along the ground, they had best not try to catch them or they lost a hand, arm, foot or leg.

Gus

 

[tenngun]

There were times when crews were hit pretty hard. The Constitution and United States Victory over British Frigats did inflict near 50% causulties, and Victory crossing Redoubtable stern inflicted 2/3 causulties. However in general war ships didn’t get the causulties that infantry did. Cannon were knocked, out steering shot away, and dismasted, put ships in to positions they could no longer fight. This led to the ship striking more often then crew loss.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

I can't imagine what it must have felt like if an individual sailor got hit with one of those cannon balls... ouch!!

 

[Rifleman1776]

I can't imagine what it must have felt like if an individual sailor got hit with one of those cannon balls... ouch!!

I imagine one would never realize being hit with a cannon ball. Death would probably be instant. The horror on a ship came from flying chunks of wood. Some hideous injuries, lots of amputations, decks ran red with blood.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Iron balls lent themselves better to being cast as hollow balls for the purposes of fused shells as well. Iron will shatter in to shrapnel better than lead as well. It would be interesting to know the differences in ballistic coefficient of a 32 pound iron ball vs. a 32 pound lead one though. You have to also remember that the actual SIZE of the hole mattered too, particularly when it came to naval cannons--more splinters to cause casualties.