Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: denbeste@BBN.COM (Steven Den Beste) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Battle effectiveness of 18th c. smoothbore weapons Message-ID: <12102@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 8 Dec 89 04:13:52 GMT References: <11862@cbnews.ATT.COM> <11911@cbnews.ATT.COM> <12064@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 25 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Steven Den Beste In article <12064@cbnews.ATT.COM> cperlebe@encad.Wichita.NCR.COM (Chris Perleberg) writes: > > >From: cperlebe@encad.Wichita.NCR.COM (Chris Perleberg) > >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. Steven C. Den Beste || denbeste@bbn.com (ARPA/CSNET) BBN Communications Corp. || {apple, usc, husc6, csd4.milw.wisc.edu, 150 Cambridge Park Dr. || gatech, oliveb, mit-eddie, Cambridge, MA 02140 || ulowell}!bbn.com!denbeste (USENET)