Capt. Broke's Sword

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

Very much agreed! The sweeping of the deck with cannons was also a maneuver that pirates used in desparation (as opposed to just getting their prey to surrender). When the Rover was attacked by Blackbeard's crew, they 'scrafed' the deck with shot. This time, however, Lt. Maynard played Teach's game and hid his remaining crew below beck. When Blackbeard's vessel approached, he saw the carnage and no resistance, so cried out for his crew to board the supposedly defeated ship. Once the sea dogs were on deck, Maynard's soldiers and sailors swarmed out of the hold to confront the pirate menace hand-to-hand. The rest, as they say, is history...

Indeed it was! a great ploy!!! enter as well the Highlander and his basket hilt, who ended the great Blackbeard !
I always wondered if certain gun crews and guns were designated to grape shot and if others were to the rigging shots.......was this kind of selective tactics in place in an aligned battle between vessels?

[Bob A]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Indeed it was! a great ploy!!! enter as well the Highlander and his basket hilt, who ended the great Blackbeard !
I always wondered if certain gun crews and guns were designated to grape shot and if others were to the rigging shots.......was this kind of selective tactics in place in an aligned battle between vessels?

I would hazard a guess that chain and bar shot would have been used to incapacitate an opponents vessel through wrecking the rigging; loading grape would make sense as the boarding vessel approached, as last-ditch anti-personnel weaponry.

Not having been there, I'm just winging it here. There would be sufficient standardisation of bore to facilitate this.

If I recall correctly, not having read O'brian in a decade or so, carronades were used in various conformations in close-contact inter-ship action.

Here's a Wiki link to carronade:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carronade

Since O'Brian is on the table, here's a link to a site mapping the various voyages in the saga:
http://www.cannonade.net/