Gunnery, Guns & Ammo in the Age of Sail (1650 -1815) 

Since some people can't distinguish between "bronze, which was usually called brass" and "bronze is brass", here is what I said with emphasis added: "In terms of materials, the guns could be from iron or bronze, which WAS USUALLY CALLED brass."

“-Which ultimately led to the creation of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden in the 20th century.” As awesome as it is subtle. Just one of many reasons I’m a subscriber.....

It is always amazing to see how much logistics goes into everything.

Lots of interesting information. No annoying music. What a cool concept.

The original ordinance safety precaution for these guns read, “When ye gonnor shall apply ye match to ye cannon, he shall step smartly to one side lest it roll back and spoyle him.” This was in one of my Navy safety manuals.

*as valid as Gaijin BR You got my like again

I saw somewhere that toward the end of this period, and after the adoption of the flintlock firing mechanism on the cannon, at least a few ship were beginning to use a kind of concentrated aimed fire. It worked like this: a section of guns on the line, three or four, were chosen to be sighted together. Marks were made on the deck denoting angles to make all the shots in the section hit the same point at a given range. The officer would tell the crew which lines to use and once ready, the guns would fire at the same time (made more reliable because of the improved firing mechanism). Theoretically, the section's shots would hit close to each other and the damage would be concentrated and thus made worse, particularly as far as penetrating the hull went (note that I'm not saying the same exact spot or hole, just much closer than would be in a regular broadside). Supposedly this tactic was used a time or two, though I don't recall where though I do think it was in the American Revolution or the War of 1812, somewhere in that time period and area. According to reports, the tactic worked as intended and the targeted ship were more badly damaged and faster than ordinarily would be the case. I remember seeing this on a history program, back when these were still being made (well) in the US, so it has been a long time, and only saw it the one time. It might be something to look in to. I also think that this tactic was developed shortly before rifled cannon became the norm. The greater range and power of those guns against wooden hulls probably obviated the need for this tactic so it was forgotten. It may have been useful later against the armor plated ships that followed though.

Fun fact: Culevrin comes from the french ''Couleuvrine'' wich basically means grass-snake-like since they were long and thin. Their lighter weight, and especially the weight of their ammunition, made them very popular with the highly mobile ground forces.

The one with Maiden and Judas Priest got me lying on the floor. Good vid

Fun Fact the Term *Hot Shot* refers to the practice of heating a cannon ball in a furnace until it glows cherry red then firing it at the enemy thus setting their ship on fire

Actually iron and bronze are both 2000 pounds per ton.

Always a treat to watch your videos. Thank you for sharing them

Just a minor detail: at 3:09 the data for bronze and iron cannons switch sides. Not really a big deal, but if you are looking for suggestions on how to keep things from becoming confusing, that would be a minor detail which can make a difference.

this is simply a phenomenal video

"There were no sights and aiming was very approximate [uber no scope];" Well I have to give a like now.

Great to see some pre-1900 history!! Thank you for this :).

Very informative, thank you for posting.

Excellent METAL reference around 3:50.

If anyone is interested on how the positioning of the gunports affected the ship design I can recommend a visit to the vasa museum in Stockholm. The vasa was a ship of the Swedish marine build in 1626, it originally was planned with a single gun deck half way through production it was decided to add another one. This made the ship so unstable that it almost capsized just by people running from one side to the other. It sank on its maiden voyage in the harbor of Stockholm. It was recovered 1961 and is almost completely intact. In the museum, they have a computer program where you can try designing ships yourself to get a feel of the mechanics itself. (unfortunately It's not available on the web as far as I know. Its easy to find some more information about this on the internet. Here is a random video on youtube I found: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Oa551waOz5E.html

Useful comparisons. Thanks for posting.

Massive fan, you're the only content maker I'm excited to see in my sub box at the moment. Please could I request video on urban combat tactics employed in Stalingrad and how they evolved and were later employed in the Battle for Berlin? Maybe as a 24 part anthology haha ;P Sorry got greedy But yes epic content, thanks so much! Also your English mishaps add to the charm, please don't get too good at speaking it.

The use of caronades enabled a substantial increase of number of guns while saving weight. They also usually used the same projectiles as the cannons and thus simplified logistics, not to mention that in close actions, the caronades were absolutely terrifying with grape or cannister to sweep the decks or clear the rigging of enemy personnel.

"As valid as Gaijin's BRs" Savage.

THX for posting.

2021 Rewatch & still excellent content. Bernhardt, you really do make top tier educational & entertaining content. Say hello to Bismarck & Dr. Toppel from America, please.

could you do a video on ship hulls? I believe I watched a video on "master and commander" that described the development on faster hulls and even the differences in wood armor. However I can't find it, and I think a video detailing the development of ship hulls would be amazingly enlightening. love your videos, btw. Don't stop!!!

There is often confusion between Canister and Grape shot. Canister, or Case Shot, are dozens or even hundreds of small iron or lead musket or pistol balls in a container that breaks apart as it leaves the barrel, spreading like a gigantic shot gun. Grape shot are iron and larger; perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 the size of the gun's normal cannon ball and there are far fewer of them per shot (maybe 4 to 6 in a cloth bag). These Grape Shot balls still have a chance of breaking though a ship's side or doing significant damage to rigging, while the Canister does not, but could take out far more enemies in the right circumstance. Grape also had a longer range. Both could be devastating to tightly packed crews, especially when they were concentrating on deck preparing to board or repel boarders. One well-aimed shot from the quarterdeck or forecastle carronades could stop such a boarding attempt alone by killing or wounding dozens (the main reason carronades were mounted). They were also used to suppress large numbers of prisoners on a captured ship with only a few guards; they would aim the carronade with canister or grape internally at the hatches so if the prisoners tried to rush up on deck and overcome the guards the first group would be obliterated... since no one really wanted to be in that first group, it worked very well. Guns were often "double-shotted" for shorter range work, with first a cannon ball and then a bag of grape shot in the same barrel. The term Case Shot was often used for canister in the Navy, but once the Shrapnel invention came out its meaning eventually changed to be short for "spherical case shot" which were what the first Shrapnel shells were called. Those were used on land, because at sea getting the shot bursting timing right was too difficult, and also because a cannon ball caused a horrible amount of wooden splinters anyway (the greatest cause of casualties in Age of Sail battles).

3:40 a very smooth pun

great video dude

Bloody love the complicated Symbol

brass is zinc and copper. Bronze is tin and copper.

awesome topic!

could you give some form of breakdown of the crew of a ship of the line ,just like you did with an artillery unit? it could be a good subject for a follow up video.

very good info

good video learned a lot, will you make a similar one on later naval guns?

Love it.

"as valid as Gaijins BRs" Killed me

useful information

A follow-up to this, covering the rest of the 1800's, would be great.

Shore batteries would often heat the cannonballs so they would start fires on the wooden ships they impacted. Several old forts or fortresses still have the wood fired heaters in place

Sir, Sorry for my English, I really love the Age Of Sails, If you could show more about ship building and how the models could change the ships, Thanks for listen.

Judas and Iron Maiden XD Naval warfare must had been a real clockwork, just loading and shooting sounds like a lot of job, I can't imagine how captains managed to maneuver the ship, apply tactics, issue orders to the crew and stay calmed!

also crew size varied on the expected area the ship was sent to and apparently many guns were often put below decks to give more room in peace time and greatly improve ship performance in bad weather Master and Comander gives a good indication of what a ship would realy be like often having live chickens, pigs, sheep and even cows on board they would all be thrown in the sea before battle

Nice dude

RE; a propellant called brown powder or cocoa powder was eventually introduced. it was made from brown charcoal, straw etc, hence the name.

Quills from the wings of large fowl were also used as cannon fuse by filling them with fine gunpowder.

Could possibly on day make a video about the Age of Discouveries and how countries like Portugal or Spain explored the world, ie, the kinds of ships, how the crew lived, the tactics they used, etc?

so interesting

11:10 "MOM, GET THE CAMERA!! GET THE FUCKING CAMERA, MOM!"

I-ron great video as always haha.

"Arrgh!" 🏴‍☠️ ☠️ 🦜

Practical ranges (ranges at which a gunner could hit a target reliably) were mostly less than 200yards, a little over 60 meters. Ships move up and down as well as across. making anything much over this range rather more likely a waste of shot and powder. The longer guns were usually fore and aft "chasers" for either chasing a fleeing enemy or discouraging a following foe- and although some had a "theoretical" range of 2000 yards, were seldom used at half that. On the whole a fairly good over view of the subject!

1:44 complicated.de = German Superior Engineering confirmed? XD

Some people also tried to use hotshot on ships (a technique normaly used for fortress guns against ships).

Just a quick suggested amendment to your point at 2:37, brass and bronze are different alloys - the former is copper and zinc, the latter is copper and tin. Love the video, very well made!

bronze (copper and tin) and brass (copper and zink) are two different alloys as far as i know it was mostly brass that was used in guns

A bit late, but loved it

I'm so going to use this information someday......somehow..

5:30 You missed out the Carronade. *EDIT: I should watch the video before commenting.*

I am not sure about other navies, but the US navy tended to use carronades on the spar deck and cannon on the gun or lower deck: During the War of 1812, Constitution's battery of guns typically consisted of thirty 24-pounder (11 kg) cannons, with 15 on each side of the gun deck (note this class of ships were considered quite large for frigates). A total of 22 cannons were deployed on the spar deck, 11 per side, each a 32-pounder (15 kg) carronade. Four chase guns were also positioned, two each at the stern and bow. I believe this was because the cannons were significantly heavier and so better to put them on the lower deck. The sister ship USS United States: thirty-two 24-pounder (10.9 kg) cannon; twenty-two 42-pounder (19 kg) carronades; and one 18-pounder (8 kg) long gun. I believe that the heavier armament of the USS United States affected if handling negatively.

2022, this video is still a fantastic resource, thank you. When you say 6 crew were assigned to a gun, do you know if that includes others fetching round shot and cartridges?

My understanding of carronades is that they were usually at least as accurate as iron guns because the used a new process of drilling and finishing the bore, which reduced the windage. It also mean that the the shot travelled further for the same relative weight of shot. Carronades were also about half the weight of iron guns for a given weight of shot and were mounted on pivots so that they could be aimed much more effectively. Also WRT the comment that a ball could penetrate 0.76 metres of oak, this is why the Royal Navy at Trafalgar sailed between enemy ships in two columns (one led by Nelson and the other by Collingwood) instead of engaging in broadsides. This meant that they were firing through the stern galleries and along the gun decks, which were little more than light timbers and glass and offered no protection to the crews, who could not fire back. This naturally relied on a high level of seamanship to be able to outmanoeuvre the French and Spanish lines.

I'd love to see a video on pre dreadnought ships, and dreadnoughts

so basically the Cannon is the equivalent of "derp guns" in the age of sail?

Can you do some videos on First World War battle tactics and unit co-ordination for various countries?

Good

hey, your doing a great job here man. can you make a video about the modern yugoslavian wars maybe?

Great video, I would like to make a subject suggestion... a video on the way warfare changed with the introduction of muskets, let's say from when the musket was first adopted in the army, up until 1815. Be it formations video or a tactics video or anything in general (yes I know about the Napoleonic Wars video, I'm saying from the beginning of musket warfare, the transition from sword to gun, and anything in between). Of course this is just a recommendation, there's no need for you to do it but anyways, Danke für reading this and for the nice informative videos.

Very good video. The only thing more to say is that you didn't really discuss that being under the receiving end of a ships's broadside could result in massive crew casualties, even if the ship wasn't sunk. For example at the Battle of Trafalgar, the Fougueux suffered an 84% casualty rate without sinking. Nelson's flagship suffered a 19% casualty rate, and he won!

2:20 its pronnounced in two ways "Hoe-moe-jeen-ee-ous" (long vowels) Or "Ho-maw-jenus" (short vowels)" :)

subscribed,please do something on Gustavus Adolphus's contribution to military advancement. It is something that very few Americans know very much about. Or, you could include the reign of Karl the twelfth and discuss the short lived Swedish Empire.

Loving all the little jokes you adding into the videos as of late. From that Rainbow Dash joke a while back to now the Iron Maiden pun and complicated.de. It really adds a good bit to the videos. Derping out here, but what are you referring to with "Gaijin's BR"?

11:45 When you say the royal navy assigned 5-6 men(10-12) later on. Does that mean per gun? And if so how would their work be assigned?

one shot at glory \m/

three miles was about the maximum range which is where we get national waters limit from around the coast line the range which your cannon can defend

What was the supposed "more powerful" propellant introduced in the middle of the period?

Carronades I thought, had similar combat ranges to standard cannon. However the crew did not know how to aim them and thus they usually missed at longer combat ranges. Thus you can say they had a short range because of the way they were used. However if the crews knew how to aim them properly they would have had longer range.

Keep up the good work! Do the same video but in WW2 period, showing how naval combat worked!

Your loading procedure is wrong, first a worm was used to scrape residues out then they used a sponge to extinguish any left embers. Then they loaded the gun !

Maybe you should add info about why the number of steel cannons was so small (remembering, that iron was cheaper from bronze) ;)

One other subtopic is the way different Navies used the different kind of ammo. You alluded to it but the French (and Americans) generally preferred to disable the enemies rigging and the board her. French ships tended to have a larger crew to capture enemy ships. The Brits tended to blast away with round shot to disable as many enemy crew as possible. Then board her. This assume that all the Patrick O'Brien novels I read are correct.

Bronze isnt the same thing as brass, Bronze is mostly Copper and tin, brass is Copper and zinc alloyed together

by the way brass is an aloy of copper and zinc and not the same as bronze witcch is an aloy of copper and tin

3:20. hmm i too wonder what the French Navy was in 161999

Pretty old video I know but it seems to have missed one important factor about stone shot. Unlike iron, it often shattered forcibly on impact and in doing so essentially became a frag grenade. Given how most casualties on a ship were caused by splintering hull rather than the shot itself this seems to be a fairly notable benefit to stone balls although I suspect iron shot caused a significantly higher amount of splintering/damage so perhaps that makes up for it's own lack of fragmentation.

Your Iron Maiden joke earned a like

hello, I just wanted to ask if you knew the case after the battle of Marengo, French troops(I'm guessing under Desaix) urinated into their muskets to get them to work again, and probably the Consular Batteries had to do the same.

Hell yeah! Maiden🤘

I like your voice

7:32 One could argue that hardtack would be more effective.

Do you have any data on the usual range, in which navies preferred to engage? I recall reading about an engagement between the entire Danish and Swedish fleets, who pounded each other for for 4 hours... without any casualities because the distance was too great.

There was a limit on how long a wooden ship could be made and survive. An interesting comparison: HMS Victory, First Rate Ship of the Line, 104 guns, 3,500 tons displacement: Length overall, 227' USS Constitution, Frigate (although a big one), 44 guns, 2,200 tons displacement: Length overall, 203' Packing the firepower in a limited hull length gave ship designers a major challenge.

Bronze is copper and tin. Brass is copper and zinc.

Bronze is and brass are different alloys of copper - tin & zinc. So, the names were not interchangeable.

Fuck the Metal and love the Hardrock of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden!

The carronade was much more important than indicated in this video.

I am curious how you found all those statistics on how many guns they had :)

I'm sorry, but you calling bronze "brass" is incorrect. Brass is copper and zinc, whereas bronze is copper and tin. Maybe the people who talked about cannons back in the 16th century thought that they were the same metal, but they are not, and the material properties of each are drastically different.

Always appreciate a Judas Priest and Iron Maiden reference.

3:50 hahaha YOU FIRE YOUR MUSKET BUT I WILL RUN YOU THROUGH! damn now I have to listen to metal for a few hours.