Quote:
Originally Posted by grantp
Attacking at right angles - assuming one can take advantage for wind direction and rely upon both direction and strength - would be quite a smart idea since it offers relatively little frontal area, would limit the number of guns that could be brought to bear unless the opposing ships could move out of line and would mean that the distance to target was always changing (which I assume would cause some problems if the gunners had not trained for that and the guns were in any case probably relatively short range?)
Presumably the majority of the sailors were the result of Press Gang activity although perhaps the results of the Gangs activities were more often suited to Army allocation, unless near the coast.
Only a couple of hundred years ago but life was so different to the experiences of today.
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Nelson was well aware of the enemies shortcomings in the gunnery department, very slow to reload, and not accurate at any range, although the Victory suffered a lot of damage as she closed with the opposing fleet, but the British Tar was a highly trained seaman, and 'our' gunnery was far superior, which lead to the total destruction of the French/Spanish fleet.
I will leave the eye witness account to Andy RM.
Note to Mods. Should this be transferred to the Sunny Uplands thread?
