If a ship was described as say "88 gun" did that mean 88 guns per side or 44
guns per side? And would a ship have enough crew to operate both broadsides
at once or was there only enough gunners for one side to fire at a time?

A related question, did any ships ever have only enough guns for one side of
the ship at a time and roll them to whatever side they were needed for?

"zxcv" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
If a ship was described as say "88 gun" did that mean 88 guns per side or
44
guns per side?

With 88 guns,
44 at port, 44 at starboard side. 88 guns is quite a lot for one ship.

And would a ship have enough crew to operate both broadsides
at once or was there only enough gunners for one side to fire at a time?

A related question, did any ships ever have only enough guns for one side
of
the ship at a time and roll them to whatever side they were needed for?


LOL - a gun rollover, never heard of such an idea , but OK, how should one
know ...

No, port and starboard were equipped equally, so one full brideside was 44
guns firing, while
the other side was reloading, depending on the winds for sail manoevres at
battle time.
You know, balance is *very* essential for keeping a ship afloat ...

And BTW even without "rolling the guns over", it was very hard work to fire
and reload one side ...
they had to do it as fast as they could, e.g. "USS Constitution" could
reload its guns faster than
the British ships that were defeated by her; this was one reason for her
victories.
The other reason were her thick "Iron Sides" to keep herself unhurt.

I still imagine a rollover on a one-side equipped ship, concerning to weight
of the guns !
That would have been an incredible list (inclination) to the firing side ...
and alternating that condition when going from port to starboard ... ROTFL !
You made my day.

hth, Jan

"Jan Gelbrich" wrote in message
...
"zxcv" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
If a ship was described as say "88 gun" did that mean 88 guns per side
or
44
guns per side?

With 88 guns,
44 at port, 44 at starboard side. 88 guns is quite a lot for one ship.

And would a ship have enough crew to operate both broadsides
at once or was there only enough gunners for one side to fire at a time?

A related question, did any ships ever have only enough guns for one
side
of
the ship at a time and roll them to whatever side they were needed for?


LOL - a gun rollover, never heard of such an idea , but OK, how should
one
know ...

No, port and starboard were equipped equally, so one full brideside was 44
guns firing, while
the other side was reloading, depending on the winds for sail manoevres at
battle time.
You know, balance is *very* essential for keeping a ship afloat ...

And BTW even without "rolling the guns over", it was very hard work to
fire
and reload one side ...
they had to do it as fast as they could, e.g. "USS Constitution" could
reload its guns faster than
the British ships that were defeated by her; this was one reason for her
victories.
The other reason were her thick "Iron Sides" to keep herself unhurt.

I still imagine a rollover on a one-side equipped ship, concerning to
weight
of the guns !
That would have been an incredible list (inclination) to the firing side
....
and alternating that condition when going from port to starboard ... ROTFL
!
You made my day.

hth, Jan



Glad I could entertain you!

Interesting that a ship could be turned about 180 degrees faster than a
cannon could be reloaded.

"zxcv" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
"Jan Gelbrich" wrote in message
...
"zxcv" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
If a ship was described as say "88 gun" did that mean 88 guns per side
or
44
guns per side?

With 88 guns,
44 at port, 44 at starboard side. 88 guns is quite a lot for one ship.

And would a ship have enough crew to operate both broadsides
at once or was there only enough gunners for one side to fire at a
time?

A related question, did any ships ever have only enough guns for one
side
of
the ship at a time and roll them to whatever side they were needed
for?


LOL - a gun rollover, never heard of such an idea , but OK, how should
one
know ...

No, port and starboard were equipped equally, so one full brideside was
44
guns firing, while
the other side was reloading, depending on the winds for sail manoevres
at
battle time.
You know, balance is *very* essential for keeping a ship afloat ...

And BTW even without "rolling the guns over", it was very hard work to
fire
and reload one side ...
they had to do it as fast as they could, e.g. "USS Constitution" could
reload its guns faster than
the British ships that were defeated by her; this was one reason for her
victories.
The other reason were her thick "Iron Sides" to keep herself unhurt.

I still imagine a rollover on a one-side equipped ship, concerning to
weight
of the guns !
That would have been an incredible list (inclination) to the firing side
...
and alternating that condition when going from port to starboard ...
ROTFL
!
You made my day.

hth, Jan



Glad I could entertain you!

Interesting that a ship could be turned about 180 degrees faster than a
cannon could be reloaded.



For what I have understood until now, manoeverability was and is
a key to the strength of a battle ship,
like it is today for fighter planes.

For instance, in a battle the Old Ironsides once even
sailed *backwards* in a manoevre to fight against two British ships -
successfully.
And so I think that sail manoevres could be done rather quickly, depending
on the
winds of course ... and the "ship density" on the battle field.

Any other opinions ?

The old cannons took much work to reload them from the front hole,
no comparison to todays´ machine guns. The time between to shots
could take some minutes: Roll the gun back inside, clean it, insert the
charge, the
cannon ball, then stuff it, roll it out, point at target (very difficult
those times),
set the lighter and fire at the right moment, when the target floats in the
line of fire ...

The "rolling space" for the guns was quite limited on gun decks, just to
take the guns´ recoil
and a little to left or right for targeting, then came the next gun.
You can see that when You make ships models
The rest of the gun deck was crowded with hundreds of gunners,
who found it hard to see anything - especially the target ship - because of
all the smokes (caugh caugh) ...

Greetings,
Jan

"william ewald" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
On Wed, 2 Jun 2004 08:55:49 +0200, "Jan Gelbrich"
wrote:


Here is an excellent link for the entire drill from the manual:

http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1800gundrill.htm



Very good !

888888-)