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Post by starcruiser on Oct 21, 2019 8:42:26 GMT -7
21st of October, 1805 - off the coast of Spain at the cape of Trafalgar - a British fleet of 27 ships engages a combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 33 ships. The battle of Trafalgar is on! In the end, the Franco-Spanish fleet is mostly wrecked or captured (some lost in a storm after the battle) and the British fleet has lost not a single ship however, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson is dead... Wikipedia article on Trafalgar |
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Post by bazbaziah on Oct 21, 2019 11:41:16 GMT -7
Sorry to be political but it's a shame our Government hasn't got the balls to stand up to Europe now.
Jim
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Post by bazbaziah on Oct 21, 2019 11:51:01 GMT -7
As an idea to the firepower that all the ships at the battle had you have to consider that the total firepower of both armies at Waterloo amounted to only about 7% of the firepower at Trafalgar!!
Jim
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Post by starcruiser on Oct 21, 2019 12:35:49 GMT -7
Well - on the political side (I'm actually a Yank - just don't call me a "Yankee" - I'm from Texas!) Britain doesn't have the economic strength that it did back 200 years ago (proportionally) as the empire is effectively gone (two expensive world wars will do that).
As to the firepower at Waterloo - nope - not even close. A typical Man 'o War could carry far larger guns than were practical in the field. The only land based artillery that compared would be fortress guns and siege pieces. What's somewhat odd, at first glance, is that the Royal Navy actually reduced the size of the heavy battery on it's biggest ships from 42 or 36 pounders to 32 pounder guns. Feeling that those were strong enough to punch through the hulls of most ships at a good range and could be fired far more rapidly... They were right...
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Post by krebizfan on Oct 21, 2019 17:55:18 GMT -7
The 36 pounder was often a captured French weapon. The Blomefield 32 pounder was the mainline British long heavy cannon. Much lighter than the 36 pounder and with better accuracy. Conversely, the British tried a line of bored up cannon firing a 32 pound shot from a cannon originally intended to fire 18 or 24 pound shot. The bored up cannon were not effective; with full powder, the cannon would often break its carriage or explode if two balls were inserted.
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Post by starcruiser on Oct 22, 2019 7:53:51 GMT -7
The British (or more specifically - the English) did use larger guns in earlier years. The 42 pounder was very common in 1st and 2nd rate ships until the mid-18th century. The 36 pounder was often used in 3rd rates during the earlier period as well.
The French pound (pund) was actually heavier than the English pound - and as such a French 36 was more like 39 pounds per shot...
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