"Tim" wrote in message
...
On Apr 15, 9:19 pm, "Calif Bill" wrote:
"Tim" wrote in message

...
On Apr 15, 4:19 pm, "Eisboch" wrote:



"Richard Casady" wrote in message

.. .

On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:35:03 -0400, "Eisboch"
wrote:

Wooden warships had to be careful also. It was interesting taking the
tour
of the USS Constitution in Boston. When they went to battle stations,
one
of the crew's jobs was to man the manually operated bilge pumps and
pump
water up to cover the two gun decks to prevent them from catching fire
due
to spilled pow

Constitution has one gun deck, like all frigates.

Casady

Picky, picky.

Yes, there was one *gun* deck, that had 30 cannons (15 per side). But
the
main deck (or "spar deck") also had 22 larger cannons.

Both decks were flooded during battle by pumping the bilge water onto
them
to prevent fires.

Eisboch

Wow. i didn't know that, but did they actually "flood" the decks to
wet down the floor[s] for fire control?

Either way the extra water/weight would hinder the ships
maneuverability and speed.

Or at least that's how I see it.

BTW, can you imagine the racket the gunners mates put up with down
below while firing those things off? so much for loss of hearing
compensation....

The gun fire was what caused the impressment of sailors in to duty on
military man of wars. After a battle so many were deaf that they had to
get
a new gunnery crew. They could not hear orders being issued.

I can believe that. i wonder how many toes got squished by getting run
over by those steel wheels during recoil?

Probably not many. That was most likely part of the 30 minutes training
class.