Comments by "Vikki McDonough" (@vikkimcdonough6153) on "The Spanish Armada and Antwerp - Did Zeeland doom the Armada before it even sailed?" video.

  1. In rifled breechloading small arms, when the action cycles, the projectile is rammed into a short section of freebore, only engaging (and engraving to) the rifling upon firing. In contrast, with large rifled breechloading naval guns, the projectile is rammed into the start of the rifled section of the barrel and engages (and engraves to) the rifling upon ramming; this greatly increases the force needed to ram the projectile and makes it much more difficult to unload the gun without firing it (which would be necessary if, for whatever reason, the gun becomes unsafe to fire while it's loaded - for instance, if part of the breech mechanism breaks and prevents the breech from locking shut, or if an enemy shell hit bends or distorts the gun barrel, or if a shell squibs in the barrel). Given these issues, why are large naval breechloaders built this way?
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  2.  @hmsbelfast2019  I thought it was Pennsylvania anthracite that was the best coal available?
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