In article , says...

WARNING: There might be a very small SPOILER in this post.
If you have not seen the movie and can't stand knowing anything
about it until you see it, please stop reading this post.

I watched Master & Commander last night. It's about a British
sailing war-ship fighting it out with a French one. At one point
the French ship is chasing behind the English one. Out heros in
the movie (the English) use some interesting methods to get
around so that they are the ones behind the French.

I understnad that on these ships the stern is their week point
both in construction and because if you can shoot out the
other's rudder they are in a very bad poistion. But I thought
that these ships could only fire to their sides. If that's the case
I don't see how being either the lead ship or the following
one is much of any advantage.

Anyone understand this?




In the series by Patrick O'Brian, I recall that reading that some ships
had 1 or maybe 2 forward facing guns, and a portable gun or two. These
(especially the portable ones) were smaller and MUCH less powerfull than
the port and starboard weapons, but they could harrass the ship being
followed quite effectively. I have actually seen a could of the
portable guns, the ones I was were 3-5 feet long, had a 1-2 inch muzzle
diameter and had pegs on the bottom so that the stands could be dropped
into a 2-3 inch hole and fired just about anywhere


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