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
- 📝 Jerusalem 1187: How did ethnicity impact Saladin's army?
- 📝 Is it true that "All spicy food is from Latin America"?
- 📝 Were any of Queen Victoria’s portraits widely publicised?
- 📝 Did countries use insurance to compensate for their economic losses after the Black Death/Spanish flu/Asian flu?
- 📝 What are the stages of traversals of the Mediterranean Sea?
- 📝 Why did England and Portugal cheap out on the Battle of Aljubarrota?
- 📝 Why did almost every ancient civilization have a found religion?
- 📝 Did Stalin offer Hitler peace after Stalingrad?
- 📝 Were poor Georgians mainly "neutral or friendly" to the Union in 1864?
- 📝 How literate were common people in Medieval Europe?
- 📝 Why didn't the Austrian Empire have Household troops?
- 📝 What's the birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth, assuming he existed?
- 📝 How widespread was the Arabic Language in Syria before Islamic conquest?
- 📝 Has any (nominally) democratic government ever been domestically overthrown without military assistance?
- 📝 What is the origin of the myth of St. Valentine?
- 📝 Is there an objective measure of decadence?
- 📝 how could japan recover very fast their economy eventhough the two bombs were dropped?
- 📝 Do Manchurian Nationalists want Independence?
- 📝 Did any Chinese warlord claim the mantle of the Beiyang government after 1928?
- 📝 Did the USSR use trotskyism as a bogeyman in the post Stalin period?
- 📝 How was the Black Death stopped?
- 📝 How were mounted infantry (like dragoons) used in battle?
- 📝 What was the primary method the Jews used to make a fire at the time of Jesus?
- 📝 Are there any important biographies of nobodies?
- 📝 Was there a contingency plan in place if Little Boy failed to detonate?
- 📝 Why were the some "New Deal" programs cancelled in the beginning of WWII?
- 📝 Who was the Holy Roman Emperor that was a travelling adventurer?
- 📝 History of ways of choosing members of the electoral college
- 📝 Were there actually slaves in Georgia while slavery was banned there?
- 📝 Are there any documented cases where a society was capable of large scale selflessness for the benefit of future generations?
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?