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From: stevew@wyse.wyse.com (Steve Wilson xttemp dept303)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Carronades
Message-ID: <7592@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 20 Jun 89 03:46:41 GMT
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From: stevew@wyse.wyse.com (Steve Wilson xttemp dept303)

In article <7441@cbnews.ATT.COM> welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty) writes:
>crews to train at the guns daily to be a waste of time and powder,
>and so when British ships encountered Constellation and Constitution
>on the high seas, they were invariably cut to ribbons.
>
The only thing I have to add is that the nick-name for the Constitution was/is
"Old Ironsides."  As I recall, it had 12 inch thick oak planking for it's
hull.  It seems that it really didn't matter how good the British gunners
were.  They may have been able to significantly damage the sheets of the
ship, and her rigging, but they couldn't put a hole is the hull, so the
ship was really never in danger of foundering. Not a bad advantage to
have ;-)

Steve Wilson