Dr. Dr. Smithers wrote:
Harry,
Are you sure their were many injuries and deaths on a war ship? Did the
infantry during that time have many injuries and deaths when they went into
battle?


Any modern army (post WWII) would run for home in an instant if it was
taking the percentage losses associated with naval warfare in the early
19th Century.

Infection and disease took a huge toll. The major hazards during an
engagement was flying splinters, schrapnel, and falling rigging- far
more likely to cause death than being stabbed with a cutlass or picked
off by a sharpshooter.

Losses were so astronomical and life aboard so generally crappy that
the British government had full time press gangs just rounding up
farmers, blacksmiths, shopkeepers, apprentices, and almost anybody
drunk enough to be easily subdued to fill the vacancies in the navy.
Merchant vessels could be hauled down (and stripped of all but a bare
bones crew) at the discretion of any naval captain who felt he needed
more men on the gundeck.

As you likely remember, one of the root causes of our War of 1812
(where the British burned Washington DC) was the continued pressing of
American seamen by the British navy.

Infantry losses were also very high, due primarily to the tactics
involved.
By the time of the American Civil War, weaponry had advanced
significantly but the tactics employed were still often 17-18th century
"skirmish line" and firing-from-formation techniques. Many historians
believe that the Civil War was the costliest war, in terms of a
percentage of combatants killed- but if the Napoleanic era was much
behind in this statistic it would have been primarliy due to the
shorter range and longer loading times of the weapons- the tactics were
very similar.

The naval tactics at the time, and the infantry tactics into the middle
of the 19th Century, reflected the feudal social values that prevailed
in Europe several hundred years ago.....(the serfs were expendable
property)....and served as the basis for western military tactics until
the latter part of the 19th Century.