USS Constitution's "Close Calls"

[Diamondback]

Are you saying that 32# carronades weighed the same as 9# long guns?

I'm not, I don't know the weight, just that around 1800 when the transition to carronades started the nominal specs for what had previously been 9-pounder Sixth Rates found all of the Long Nines except maybe a pair or two of chasers replaced gun-for-gun with 32-pdr carronades, and since it was standard fleet-wide unlike some of the other experiments like All-Carronade SOL's, All-Carronade Frigates and Top-to-Bottom 24-pdr's, that implies either no change in handling or at worst a negative so minimal as to be deemed worth the tradeoff. So from there we need to work up a basic "Light Nine" Sixth, apply the Ares carronade rules to it and that gives us a better idea where to start Cyane and Levant's gun-lines.

Less manpower per gun with the same size crew also means slower attrition rates on gun crews because when one crew gets hit, if the gun can still operate there are more men to replace them if not otherwise assigned.

[Bligh]

Good pick up on the crew size DB. I knew carronades operated with fewer crew, but never considered what happened to the surplus men. I had assumed that the attrition rate was taken care of in the rules by the reduction in jobs which could be carried out, and that the firepower decreased as the guns were put out of action. Obviously the two factors are interconnected so you have raised a very important matter here.
Thanks, and good luck with your swap over of computers. I went onto Windows ten earlier this year, and despite the fact that they have inflicted smaller icons on us and seem to want to dictate how you set up your desktop etc, I am managing the new system quite well.
Rob.