[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.