How much gunpowder could the average Napoleonic ship of the line carry?
Upvote:15
A quick search on the HMS Victory leads us to militarynavalhistory.net, where they have this to say concerning the armaments of the Victory:
The armament comprised thirty 32-pound cannons in the lower gun deck, twenty-eight 24-pound cannons on the middle gun deck, thirty 12-pound cannons on the upper gun deck, twelve 12-pound cannons on the quarterdeck and another two shooting forward on the forecastle. A special addition was the two 68-pound carronades placed on the forecastle, able to fire such huge projectiles at short range only. The carronades were mounted on partially rotating carriages which allowed to aim them either sidewards or frontally. The ship carried 35 tonnes of gunpowder and 120 tonnes of ammunition to serve her large artillery battery.
A Tonne is about 2,204.6 pounds, so 77,161 pounds of gunpowder on the Victory. (or 35,000 kg)
A similar figure can also be found in the publication:HMS Victory Pocket Manual 1805: Admiral Nelson's Flagship At Trafalgar By Peter Goodwin
The Victory had three powder magazines: the grand magazine and two ready hanging magazines. The former, approximately 32 square feet in area and 10 feet high, consisted of three main compartments creating an industrial assembly line. First was the pallating flat, containing 35 tons of gunpowder in 784 barrels, each containing 100lb (45kg) of powder. If ignited, this amount of gunpowder had the explosive equivalent of 47 tons of TNT.
For comparison, another ship of the line, the French ship César (1768), which was a 74-gun ship, (so a little more average then the Victory), had the following armaments:
César carried twenty-eight 36-pounder guns on her lower deck, and thirty 18-pounder guns on her upper deck. In addition, sixteen 8-pounder guns were distributed on the fore and aftcastle. In total César's armament weighed around 215 tons. 6,000 cannonballs, weighing some 67 tons, were carried. There was also around 8 tons of bar, chain and grape shot. 20 tons of gunpowder was embarked, stored in the form of cartridges or in bulk in the depths of the ship. On average, each gun had 50 to 60 cannonballs.
More post
- 📝 Historical precedent for using bodyguards as special forces?
- 📝 As American as the Apple Pie?
- 📝 Why did China hate dogs? Why were dogs abject creatures in China?
- 📝 Is there evidence that German soldiers tried to prevent the Jedwabne Pogrom?
- 📝 What responsibility did Golda Meir have for the Yom Kippur war?
- 📝 What were the rejected designs for the Euro symbol?
- 📝 Could Columbus have suspected the New World lay on his path to India?
- 📝 Why did Germany officially acknowledge the contents of the Zimmerman telegram?
- 📝 Where did the “vikings wear helmets with horn” stereotype come from and why?
- 📝 What uniform does PewDiePie wear in this picture?
- 📝 Why were there no religious wars in Poland?
- 📝 How did McClellan's and Grant's strategies vary when capturing Richmond?
- 📝 Why did the German air force lose experienced pilots faster than the Allies, even though they were defending their home airspace?
- 📝 If modern human existed for hundreds of thousands years why was writing invented only some 7000-9000 years ago?
- 📝 What was the role of Egypt in Soviet-Afghan war?
- 📝 Did more Jews live in Poland than any other country, prior to the Holocaust, because of how Polish laws and people regarded Jews?
- 📝 In Europe, why were hereditary dynasties more prevalent in the medieval world than in the ancient world?
- 📝 What is Street’s Jorrocks?
- 📝 Identify WW2 ammo
- 📝 Has this rock been engineered by humans and, if so, what was its use?
- 📝 Why was air support not provided during the Battle of Mogadishu, 1993 (Black Hawk Down)?
- 📝 Are there any documented cases where a society was capable of large scale selflessness for the benefit of future generations?
- 📝 How did sailing technology improve during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How pervasive was the idea that we had reached "the end of history" in America during the ninties?
- 📝 What was the legal process of raising a legion in late Republican Rome?
- 📝 Was Richard I's imprisonment by Leopold of Austria justified?
- 📝 Was the Reichspropaganda-Leitung (RPL) known to the Germany public?
- 📝 Who said that Saddam Hussein had WMDs?
- 📝 Challenges Margaret Thatcher faced as a woman?
- 📝 Where did Batista announce his resignation?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How much gunpowder could the average Napoleonic ship of the line carry?
- 📝 How much of the Napoleonic wars were paid by the sale of Louisiana?
- 📝 How did Farragut know he could get his fleet through the Confederate line of "torpedos" at Mobile Bay?
- 📝 How much money did the participating nations spend in the Napoleonic Wars?
- 📝 In the Battle of the Coral Sea, how could two Japanese scouts grossly mis-identify two American ships?
- 📝 How much evidence is there regarding the naval punishment of keelhauling?
- 📝 In the Medieval period, how long would an average swordsmith need to forge an average sword?
- 📝 How much were telegraphists in the 1950s paid?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 How much did J. Robert Oppenheimer get paid while overseeing the Manhattan Project?
- 📝 How quickly could the Roman legions march? How did it compare to their cavalry?
- 📝 How long would the average sword last in the middle ages?
- 📝 How much is known about the Punic language (of classical Carthage)?
- 📝 How could Eratosthenes measure the circumference of the Earth?
- 📝 Approximately how much travel time was saved by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869?
- 📝 How much of an impact did the Roman emperors' civil wars have on their decision to debase the coinage?
- 📝 What forces/incentives drove the Mongols to conquer a much larger territory than they could comfortably settle or rule?
- 📝 How much did it cost to buy a ticket on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul in 1914?
- 📝 How much louder was a Napoleonic era cannon than a musket?
- 📝 How much oil was spilled by the naval combatants during WW2?
- 📝 How much faster were the printing presses than hand writing?
- 📝 How much did Pan Am tickets to the moon cost?
- 📝 In Viking combat, how much damage was done using the shield?
- 📝 How much did a ship cost in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 How could it be that 80% of townspeople were farmers during the Edo period in Japan?
- 📝 How far away could one be and still see the atom bomb explosions?
- 📝 How much authority did a traveling lord have in England in the late 16th century?
- 📝 How much tax revenue did the British Empire receive from its colonies in a given year?
- 📝 How much of the Jonestown money actually got given to the USSR?
- 📝 How much of the *Iliad* was confirmed scientifically?