Comments by "Alex" (@Alex-cw3rz) on "The Drydock - Episode 213 (Part 2)" video.

  1. 1:21:26 Some cannonades had elevating screws rather quions the wedge shape peice. For almost all ships it was a guesstimate from the Gunner at the range. But Captain Philip Broke captain of HMS Shannon had the Quoin grooves marked into them for various ranges and on the evelating screw marked ranges with paint. He also made indentation marks around the guns which would give bearings for the guns to fire at, so a gun Crew could fire the gun irrespective of their ability to see the target, a sort of blind fire system. This meant the entire gun deck could focus on one part of an enemy even when the gunners couldn't see the target, a very early version of what you could call a central fire control. They would even do blindfolded drills were the crews were told the bearing and distance the target was at and they had to lay the gun on the target while blindfolded and this could be considered an early director fire control. He also had tangent sights to his guns as well.
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  2. Interesting fact I heard, that HMS Victory has live oak at her bow, which obviously needs to be strong, due to the sea, so one long peice that is naturally curved more than normal oak, is what they'd want and they had taken some live oak from America and brought it back to England in the 1750s
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