| Malcolm | 24 Jan 2020 10:44 a.m. PST |
Does anyone know any papers, researches or sources about the effect of guns recoil (and other effects from firing) on wooden sail ships?
Especially interested in cases of using heavier than usual guns on light ships and when the effect of firing gun was significant enough to cause leaks and other bad things for the ship (just like in O'Brien's "Master and Commander"). |
| 22ndFoot | 24 Jan 2020 11:43 a.m. PST |
There might be something in this paper or similar stuff: PDF link |
| MajorB | 24 Jan 2020 12:27 p.m. PST |
Naval gun carriages are on wheels for the specific purpose of absorbing the recoil. The guns were also on ropes so that they did not recoil back too far. |
| JimDuncanUK | 24 Jan 2020 1:01 p.m. PST |
The ropes mentioned above were attached to the ships framework so there would be a transference of stress during recoil which could affect the integrity of the ships structure. Leaks were a common feature on wooden sailing ships hence the phrase 'man the pumps'. Good PDF though, must find time to read it through. |
Frederick  | 24 Jan 2020 1:13 p.m. PST |
Interesting question – and when the ropes broke, the effects could be very serious – "loose cannon" had real meaning to Nelson's sailors! |
| rmaker | 24 Jan 2020 1:51 p.m. PST |
The classic case was prolonged firing by bomb vessels, especially those not properly constructed and/or maintained. The mortar recoil was completely transmitted to the hull and could cause leaks and, in the extreme case, structural failure. |
| Blutarski | 24 Jan 2020 4:19 p.m. PST |
Each gun aboard a ship might fire 60-70 times in the course of an extended action. The blocks employed in connection with the gun tackle/breechings provided a considerable mechanical advantage in favor of the gun crew in restricting recoil distance. Damage to a ship would really rear its head when guns overheated as a result of prolonged firing. The heat would swell the gun tube, constricting the bore. This would reduce the windage, which would in turn produce an increasingly more pronounced recoil when the gun was discharged. This could break breeching ropes or even wrench hardware right out of the bulkhead. By far the WORST calamity, however, would be a gun burst (most typically an overheated cast iron gun – brass guns were much better behaved). There are recorded instances of a single heavy gun burst causing 75-80 casualties on the gun deck in question. FWIW, B |
 Yellow Admiral | 24 Jan 2020 4:27 p.m. PST |
Naval gun carriages are on wheels for the specific purpose of absorbing the recoil. The guns were also on ropes so that they did not recoil back too far. I'm pretty sure the primary driver of the development of naval gun carriages was to improve reloading efficiency, not absorb recoil, but they did help absorb recoil nonetheless. Rolling naval gun carriages with small trucks existed in the 1500s, but weren't allowed to return the gun to an inboard loading position until sometime in the mid- or later-mid 17th C. At the beginning of the ADW era, guns were lashed firmly to the ships' sides, then cranked inboard by hand to be reloaded, or maybe even loaded from outside the ship (there's some debate). The system of pulleys and slack paths in the gun lashing took time to develop and make useful and safe. - Ix |
| Blutarski | 24 Jan 2020 4:32 p.m. PST |
Hi Malcolm.
To respond to your specific question … > Early mounting of carronades upon "non-recoil" carriages caused many problems when they were fixed to light bulkheads – either small ships (brigs, for example or the light weather-deck bulkheads of larger ships – with the principal problem IIRC being the drawing of mounting bolts out of the wood into which they were fixed. > Broadside fire of large cannon (say 18 or 24-lbrs) from American War of 1812 gunboats (and probably those of other nations as well) produced pronounced cycles of rolling. It was functionally impossible to serve or lay the gun until the rolling had ceased. B |
| Korvessa | 25 Jan 2020 12:53 p.m. PST |
Don't know much about matters nautical, but wasn't part of the reason for having wheels on gun carriages so it would roll back on recoil? Far enough so you could reload the thing… |
| NotNelson1 | 26 Jan 2020 2:12 p.m. PST |
There were also cases where over-ambitious captains (most often corsairs) tried to mount guns that were too heavy and the deck could not take the weight, especially if they were fired at higher elevations. Special bracing could be used to support heavier weapons and bombs were designed with much heavier timbers and special bracing (ships not designed as bombs but then used as such often did not fare well!). |
