Gunner's man your station

[Boats]

How would you like to load this puppy!!

Would have to figure out how it works first.

[revwardoc]

One of the nastier aspects of naval warfare in the days of "wooden ships and iron men" that Hollywood never shows is that the guns, due to block-&-tackle, didn't recoil all that much. So when it came time to swab-and-ram the barrel, the gunners had to stick their arms out of the gun ports. When the ships were close aboard and boarding parties were sent away, the lower deck guns kept firing but the opposing sides stationed men with swords, boat hooks,and axes at the gun ports to hack at the arms of the gunners. That's why a lot of surviving gunners were nicknamed "Stumpy".

[Boats]

I just watched a rerun of the Captain and Commander the other night and both ships had some close broadside combat with those big guns. Blew out and killed most of the surface personnel - and the below decks personnel had splintered and mangled deck hands and large holes in their sides.

Ye-ow those guys had to be half nuts back then to get into the sites of those guns - now that was extreme action.