wanttaja@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Ronald J Wanttaja) (12/11/89)
From: ssc-vax!wanttaja@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Ronald J Wanttaja) > >As to "picking officers off," I don't really believe this would be possible > >with a smoothbore. > > > >It is my understanding that at sea, a big warship would put some marines in the >rigging, and that they would fire down onto the bridge of nearby enemy ships in > the hopes of killing officers. Lord Nelson was killed in this way. I would > suspect that this was done at ranges in excess of 70 meters most of the time, > not to mention the difficulties of reloading while in the rigging, and having > both your platform and the target rocking in the waves. Nelson was mortally wounded by small-arms fire from Redoutable, a French 74. Victory was directly alongside; yet the 74 was so much lower that the mizzen top was only 50 feet above Victory's upper deck. The marines's job on both sides was the kill enemy officers; the French sharpshooters knew darn well who the short, bemedaled, one-armed officer was. A tempting single target for a dozen or so marksmen 50 feet away. Nelson's credo was point-blank combat. "No Captain can go far wrong who lays his ship alongside that of the enemy." Half-pistol shot (50 feet) might be a typical minimum range. As close range was one aspect; target grouping was another. The majority of the command officers were on the quarterdeck; the Admiral, the Captain, the Master, the First Lieutenant, not to mention the quartermasters at the wheel. What we'd today call a "target-rich environment." Extreme accuracy still wasn't possible, but get a couple dozen musketmen and a couple of swivel guns firing grapeshot at a cluster of targets on the quarterdeck. On Chesapeake, a single volley killed the first lieutenant, master, and wiped away the wheel. Ron Wanttaja (ssc-vax!wanttaja)