The gunners of the Royal Navy were the finest of their day. A well trained gun crew could fire a shot every one and-a-half minutes.
Cannon
Cannons were named according to the weight of the shot they fired: thus a 32-pounder, the heaviest gun in use in the British fleet, fired a ball weighing 32 pounds. The three gun decks of a first rate line of battle ship in Nelsons navy were fitted, from highest to lowest, with 12-pdrs, 24-pdrs and 32-pdrs - the heaviest guns were carried on the lower decks as their immense weight could make a ship dangerously top-heavy. (A 32-pdr weighed several tons.)
The size of gun crews varied according to the size of the gun they served. In the Royal Navy, seven men would serve a 32-pdr. All gunners would be commanded by a gun-captain. They were trained to fire on the down or upward roll of the ship, depending on the results desired. Firing on the downward roll sent shot hammering into an enemy ships hull and slaughtering her crew: firing on the up-roll damaged an enemies masts, sails and rigging.
Naval Gunnery
Heavy guns possessed a maximum range of up to 2000 yards. They were, however, fired at much closer range - in fact, the closer the better. The term ‘point-blank range’ refers to the range at which a projectile flies in a straight line from barrel to target - in the case of a 32-pdr, about 600 yards. Most naval engagements took place at much, much closer ranges than this.
The aim of a ships captain was to attempt to cut across his opponents bows or stern, where he was most vulnerable, pour in a broadside and therafter 'fire as she bears' (each gun crew firing their weapon as the target came in sight). Sustained firing of broadside after broadside was not advisable as the tremors could actually weaken a ships hull and the sheer concussive violence of sound and recoiling cannon could throw a crew into shock.
Gunners frequently wrapped cloth around their ears in an attempt to save their hearing. Many veteran gunners and sailors gradually went deaf or suffered from ringing ears. To give you some idea of the sheer volume of cannon discharge, if a 32-pdr was fired inside the ship, without the muzzle being run outside the gun port, the reflected blast of sound from the inside of the ship could deafen men for life.
The strength of these big guns cannot be overstated. They were securely mounted on carriages of oak or elm and lashed by a network of ropes and pulleys to the ships side. A hit from a single heavy calibre cannonball could literally overturn a cannon or smash it from its moorings. If a cannon got free, it would roll the length and breadth of the gun deck, crushing and maiming men beneath its tons of dead weight. The term ‘loose cannon’ is still used nowadays to describe a reckless, dangerous and unpredictable person.
The recoil of big guns was alone sufficient to overturn them if they were not properly secured. They didn’t trundle sedately backwards: they launched inboard with terrific speed and force. In his book, Victory versus Redoutable, Gregory Fremont-Barnes states that an unsecured 32-pdr ‘could recoil 40-50 feet across the deck, crushing everything in its wake.’
When cannonballs penetrated a ship's side, they created a vicious storm of splinters, some as large and sharp as daggers, and these caused horrific injuries in the densely crowded gun decks. Cannonballs themselves could literally blow a man into fragments. Sand was sprinkled on the deck to help gunners and officers maintain their footing in the mess of blood, entrails and brains. Boys, known as 'powder monkeys' - some as young as 12 - ferried fresh gunpowder and shot from the magazine to their assigned guns.
The smoky, choking atmosphere, dimly illuminated by battle lanterns, the intense heat radiating from the guns, the screams of the dying and wounded , the ear-splitting thunder of broadsides - all this created a hellish scene that has been described by some authors as the worst battle experience in human history.
One of the best depictions of naval gunnery and its effects can be seen in the movie ‘Master and Commander’, starring Russell Crowe.
Victory vs Redoutable Ships of the line at Trafalgar 1805
Gregory Fremont-Barnes
Osprey, 2008
Trafalgar The Nelson Touch
David Howarth
Collins, 1969
