A Connecticutt Yankee In The British Navy

[jyl]

A long time ago I enjoyed the "Master and Commander" series of books by Patrick O'Brian. If you are not familiar with these, they follow a British naval captain and a civilian doctor, starting in 1800, as they explore, plunder and battle across the oceans. A cracking good read, every one. The movie of the same name is a good introduction to the series.

Anyway, I wondered at the time, and wonder now, how much better the naval ships of 1800 could have been, given the ideas and experience of today but limited by the technology of 1800.

In other words, no postulating nuclear reactors, guided missiles, or satellite navigation. But you'd be otherwise free to redesign the ships, subject to the materials technology of the day.

For example:
- Rotating and elevating platforms seem like they'd be a big advantage, versus the fixed guns used in warships of 1800. True? Could you do that, with the materials available to the shipyards of the time?
- Rifled, breech loading guns for those turrets would be killer, literally. In 1800, did the metal technology exist to make such things? If not, could you work around it? If rifling on such a scale was impossible then, perhaps a finned sabot round fired from a smooth bore?
- Or, with the experience of 200 subsequent years, would you equip your ship with rockets instead of cannon?
- The projectiles of 1800 were cannon balls, shot, and chain. Could you improve on these, for your rotating cannon or rocket launcher? Would the technology then have allowed explosive warheads? Incendiary warheads?
- What about the vessel? The British Navy in 1800 used heavy wooden single hulled sailing ships. Would you introduce catamarans? Steam powered propellers? Metal armored ships? Remember the ships had to survive heavy weather in the open ocean, sail for weeks or months without resupply, and be repaired "in the field" by the crews. And the first steam engines had just been introduced 20 years earlier and they were only 10 HP.
- What about tactics? With your new ships, which would presumably be scarce in number, how would you engage a dozen French ships of the line?

Thoughts welcomed, especially from any who've read "A Connecticutt Yankee In King Arthur's Court".

[Shifter]

Have you read the Safehold series from David Weber? Might answer some of the questions. You are local, I will lend you some books if you are interested.

[cashflyer]

Unfortunately, the key to many of the innovations you mention is the nuclear reactor.
Or at the very least, diesel engines.

Adding complicated systems, like elevating and rotating platforms, adds a LOT of weight. You have to displace that weight, and move that weight. How?

Are you going to try and push all that weight around with canvas sails?

Steam? As you mentioned, steam engines of the day produced very little usable power. Where will you store all the coal needed to fire them? Will you feed the boiler sea water? If so, how often do you anticipate having to descale the heat exchanger tubes?

[disclaimer: my limit of knowledge about the navy is based solely on Popeye reruns.]

[jyl]

Shifter, I am in PDX, and will PM you.

Seems to me, a ship of the line in 1800 carried up to 100 fixed guns, which must have been hugely heavy. At most half of the guns could actually be aimed at an enemy ship, much of the time none could be aimed. Maybe it would be better to have a few guns, that could always be aimed at an enemy ship. If those are longer range, more accurate guns firing a more effective projectile, that might be even better.

60 years after the Master and Commander stories took place, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) instantly made all other warships obsolete. Technology advanced a lot between 1800 and 1865, of course, but seems to me even in 1800, one could make a rotating platform, an elevating gun mount, and figure out some way to rotate and elevate using ropes and human power.

[oldE]

The Monitor vessels were of course limited to (calm) coastal waters and were really only possible because of the increases in motive technology. Petroleum fuels were really no-existant at the turn of the century. Coal consumption until metalurgy advances allowed boiler efficiency improvements.
There were turreted designs using sails by the mid 1800s, but they used sails for journeys and steam for tactical manouver.
The trouble with sails is all the string! The re-enforcement and staying of the masts and control of the canvas basically means your centre-line mounted turrets are going to do a lot of damage to your own vessel.
Remember they used chain shot to cripple the ability to move and fight.
When you get right down to it, they did a heck of a job with the technology at hand.

Best
Les