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Old 12-29-13, 07:03 AM   #1021
Hitman
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Also the firing of the big guns caussed always damage to the decks, and bulkheads, paint blistered and burned from the muzzle blasts and the wooden decking often took damage as well from ths ships own guns. ...not to speak of damage from enemy fire. It was no small matter to fire the guns, and the barrels has a specific life time which would be affected by wear, and even in normal firing, the wear of the gun bore woudl change the deflection and the angle of fire achieved by each individual gun. So turrent captains were in charge of maintaining their guns quality and accuracy along with the Fire Control Officers and it was a complex and demanding aspect of the Big ships and their batteries. the ammunition itsself often had to be specifically machines for individual types of battery, and type, and the storage of the ammunitoin as you will well know was a critical matter and caused the loss of ships due to magazine fires esp for the Royal Navy at Jutland. Fortunatley for the High Seas Fleet due to an accident involving a magazine fire and flash back the High Seas Fleet has fitted fire proof doors to all their major ship magazines and did not suffer from this hazard.
IIRC there was a set of bells that ringed furiosly when teh ship was rigged for combat and hatches closed, so that nobody remained on deck. Anybody there after the ship commenced firing would be simply blown away and teared appart by the expansive waves on the air, coming from the explosions.



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