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Live Cannon Test


Thundershield

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Ahoy people, new guy here, and I bring cannons and explosions.

 

Last month, people working for the Danish Fregatten Jylland museum ship decided to test out one of the old cannons, since It's almost never been done in modern times, and there's little historical evidence detailing the accuracy of the old ship cannons.

 

Fregatten Jylland (The Frigate Jylland) Is one of the world's largest wooden warships, and is both a screw-propelled steam frigate and a sailship. She fought in the Second Schleswig War in 1864, where during the Battle of Heligoland, she sustained a direct hit from an Austrian screw Frigate. The hit killed 4 sailors aboard the Jylland and maimed 5 others.

The people working at the ship now decided to recreate this hit, by taking off one of the original cannons, and re-constructing a piece of the hull, like the one that was hit. Then they took them to an Army testing ground, and fired off 3 shots to test the impact, and accuracy of the 150 year old Swedish built cannons.

 

Here's what followed; Be warned, It's all in Danish and 'splosions.

 

 

But here's the highlights:

 

0:42 - slow motion
1:17 - close up
1:47 - slow motion
2:22 - damages
2:52 - slow motion
3:12 - live shot followed by close up
 

The shots were fired at a range of 90 meters, believed to be a realistic distance similar to the line of battle in 1864. They used 13 Kg cannon balls, fired with 4 Kg of gun powder. The cannons themselves weigh about 2.5 tons.

 

 

I figured fellow history buffs, as well as the deveopers might enjoy seeing the effects of a cannonball shot, and of course the delightful explosions. And the ship itself Is pretty beautiful as well.

 

496px-Fregatten_Jylland_total.jpg

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I wish I could do a real Sea fight but would be sad about the Ships and it is ofc. very risky! 

 

Oh absolutely. Firing cannons against the wind was risky as hell, the flames could blow back on the crew, ship and the sails. Which is why the test here was done with remote ignition.

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Very cool.

I was surprised by how little damage was done to the exterior of the hull. Overall that is a pretty clean hole. On the other side that is some nasty flying debris. I'd never thought of the nails. In one of the shots after you can see 2 very large nails sticking out of one of the planks.

 

Those guys have some guts firing an old (rusty) cannon like that, although I notice there was no one standing right there lighting it off.

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Very cool.

I was surprised by how little damage was done to the exterior of the hull. Overall that is a pretty clean hole.

 

I know right? It blew my mind when I saw that It just left a perfect, cannon ball shaped hole. I was sure It'd go through the hull, but i imagined It'd do a little more damage than that.

Of course It makes sense how some naval battles lasted all day, sometimes more.

 

 

On the other side that is some nasty flying debris. I'd never thought of the nails. In one of the shots after you can see 2 very large nails sticking out of one of the planks.

 

 

Indeed, that's where most of the damage comes from. Realistically, you could probably kill or injure most of the cannons crews, without doing critical damage to the ship itself, since the splinters, nails and such would just shoot right through the people inside.

 

 

Those guys have some guts firing an old (rusty) cannon like that, although I notice there was no one standing right there lighting it off.

 

Yup, remote firing. But I believe the cannons are cast bronze, and they have been pretty well maintained since 1864, so they're probably in very good condition. Even bronze cannons that have been recovered from the sea are in somewhat decent condition I believe.

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I'd never thought of the nails. In one of the shots after you can see 2 very large nails sticking out of one of the planks.

Happily for our crews, the ships in Naval Action would be unlikely to use nails in their construction.

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Fascinating. I would imagine the shot was somewhat easier with the cannon and the target both being on the ground rather than rolling about on the sea under enemy fire :)

 

I read an interesting fact in the book "Trafalgar" the other day that one of the keys to accurate gunnery was the gunners ability to predict the time between the lighting of the fuse and the firing of the cannon. If he could accurately assess this time he could incorporate it into timing the firing with the roll of the ship. It was no use initiating the firing when the cannon was on the target as the time it took for the black powder to burn into the breech would be after this.

Apparently this was one area where the British had an advantage over the French and Spanish in the battle as many of their cannons had flintlocks which had a more reliable and repeatable burn time until the actual firing as opposed to a matchlock which was a bit more random.

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I read an interesting fact in the book "Trafalgar" the other day that one of the keys to accurate gunnery was the gunners ability to predict the time between the lighting of the fuse and the firing of the cannon.

 

Very good point, and also very true. I hope this will be present in Naval Action as well.

I remember in Assassin's Creed III, during the Naval missions, you could actually use the waves in stormy weather as cover for enemy fire, only to return fire when the waves subsided again. Like a floating wall.

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