In article ,
L d'Bonnie wrote:

On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:50:43 -0600, Faan Hates Spam
wrote:

The TV Show Mythbusters did a show trying to replicate flying splinters from
shooting canonnballs into a mockup of a side of a ship, the end result was
inconclusive as they couldnt get the splinters to fly with enough force to
kill
someone, in their case "Buster" Although its well documented in Admiralty
records
that many died from splinter wounds, they could not make a case. Bit of
worthless
info added to this thread


Splinters -- often feet long -- were the biggest cause of casualties
among the crews of wooden warships. Cannonballs would smash the timber
sides and big splinters would fly around like shrapnel.

At least so I have read. I have no direct experience with battle in a
wooden sailing ship. ;-)

--
Bill Collins
For email, change "fake" to "earthlink"

It was probably infection that killed most. They survived the fight
only to fall days or weeks later to an enemy they couldn't even see.

Before antibiotics people regularly died from infections caused by
minor cuts and scrapes.


.

True. In wars until recently, disease killed many more soldiers than did
enemy action. Further, many died of wounds that would not have been
fatal had there been basic sanitation and antiseptic procedures. The
plight of sailors in wooden warships was probably about the same.

--
Bill Collins
For email, change "fake" to "earthlink"