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Alternate Terminology – Naval Gazing Part 4: The Wooden World

A couple of interesting things to note

-The British versus French stance on firing wasn't dictated by what they were trying to hurt, but in when they shot. French gunnery was based around firing on the upswell, so they had one long period of time to get the guns off at the cost of all their shot going long. The British, with more uniform salvos, tried to fire on the crest of a roll and generally ended up a tad late, meaning they fired on the downswell, pulling their shot to fall slightly short.

-Frigates are actually older of a design than the ships of a first rate line of battle, first dating back to the end of the Spanish Main. They were prized for their fine lines and high speed, since they weren't burdened with fore and aftcastles like the traditional galleon. More than a few navies armed them more heavily than the British, using caronnades and other short guns to equal or better the longer firing pieces that (due to poor powder development) were becoming very obsolete.

-The carronade itself frequently used a heavier weight of powder and shot than a proper cannon, since their lightness per pound of thrown iron let ships be armed to carry more of them. They were also handy enough to go conviently on the spar deck, where the sails were controlled, instead of needing to be mounted on the weather deck. This in turn let American designers build heavy frigates with dedicated gun decks, which caused more than a few conniptions on the Continent since American ship-builders had no qualms save financing when it came to their sales policy.
 
A couple of interesting things to note

-The British versus French stance on firing wasn't dictated by what they were trying to hurt, but in when they shot. French gunnery was based around firing on the upswell, so they had one long period of time to get the guns off at the cost of all their shot going long. The British, with more uniform salvos, tried to fire on the crest of a roll and generally ended up a tad late, meaning they fired on the downswell, pulling their shot to fall slightly short.

-Frigates are actually older of a design than the ships of a first rate line of battle, first dating back to the end of the Spanish Main. They were prized for their fine lines and high speed, since they weren't burdened with fore and aftcastles like the traditional galleon. More than a few navies armed them more heavily than the British, using caronnades and other short guns to equal or better the longer firing pieces that (due to poor powder development) were becoming very obsolete.

-The carronade itself frequently used a heavier weight of powder and shot than a proper cannon, since their lightness per pound of thrown iron let ships be armed to carry more of them. They were also handy enough to go conviently on the spar deck, where the sails were controlled, instead of needing to be mounted on the weather deck. This in turn let American designers build heavy frigates with dedicated gun decks, which caused more than a few conniptions on the Continent since American ship-builders had no qualms save financing when it came to their sales policy.
Indeed, there are a couple of points here I wanted to cover but ran out of time and space - notably the American heavy frigates you mention and also Surcouf.
 
Indeed, there are a couple of points here I wanted to cover but ran out of time and space - notably the American heavy frigates you mention and also Surcouf.

1; I think you need an anatomy of a ship article first so people understand why so many design changes are revolutionary (such as the concept of lopping off the damn castles)

2; Which Surcouf?
800px-Surcouf_FRA.jpg

We're still a little early for my favorite one yet.
 
1; I think you need an anatomy of a ship article first so people understand why so many design changes are revolutionary (such as the concept of lopping off the damn castles)

2; Which Surcouf?
800px-Surcouf_FRA.jpg

We're still a little early for my favorite one yet.
The anatomy of a ship article had occurred to me, but I don't feel like I'm qualified enough to cover it in detail. And I meant the namesake of course, but that one's going to get a mention at some point too!
 
The anatomy of a ship article had occurred to me, but I don't feel like I'm qualified enough to cover it in detail. And I meant the namesake of course, but that one's going to get a mention at some point too!

If you want I can bang something out. It might be a bit more chipper than the usual articles, but I'm sure there's not going to be too many references to the Kraken and Van Demon's Land to take it seriously.
 
If you want I can bang something out. It might be a bit more chipper than the usual articles, but I'm sure there's not going to be too many references to the Kraken and Van Demon's Land to take it seriously.
Sure, that'd be cool if you want to agree it with @AndyC (as I assume you'd want it to come under your name not under my article slots).
 
The anatomy of a ship article had occurred to me, but I don't feel like I'm qualified enough to cover it in detail. And I meant the namesake of course, but that one's going to get a mention at some point too!

Saint-Malo in general came up with quite daring commanders. Jean Bart is another one.

You'll notice we have named quite a lot of ships after those two who never commanded much more than a few frigates, and precious little after admirals.
 
Saint-Malo in general came up with quite daring commanders. Jean Bart is another one.

You'll notice we have named quite a lot of ships after those two who never commanded much more than a few frigates, and precious little after admirals.
Typically one can win much more cinematic victories in frigate actions rather than the lines battering at each other, though. Trafalgar being the exception both because of Nelson's unusual tactics and him being obliging enough to die dramatically during it.
 
Typically one can win much more cinematic victories in frigate actions rather than the lines battering at each other, though. Trafalgar being the exception both because of Nelson's unusual tactics and him being obliging enough to die dramatically during it.

Although that didn't stop painters to lovingly depict line battles even though they usually got it wrong/mixed several moments sometimes distant from hours for dramatic purposes/still painted it in a way making it impossible to tell what's happening if you don't have a solid grounding in that particular battle.
 
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