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Earlier quoted context omitted.
When cannons were common on land it was not unussual to see cannonballs bouncing across the field towards you. As they were subsonic, you also could hear them coming.
After seeing this video I am not so sure those reports are accurate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL1DkrYL70s
https://www.networkworld.com/article/2221266/mythbusters-acc...
There was even a proposal to build larger scale ships that used small-calibre handgun ammunition and sheetmetal hulls, but it was shot down (if you'll forgive my pun) for being wildly unsafe and probably illegal (as I understand civilians are generally discouraged from owning remote-controllable firing mechanisms).
I remember reading about a model boating society that, instead of wargaming, would create scale models of famous warships and fight them - the hulls would be thin wood, and the turrets had motorised mounts and compressed air guns capable of firing a metal pellet through the wooden hulls. The ships would have less internal bulkheads (to account for the damage explosive shells would cause) but would otherwise try to be…
I work in a converted naval gun factory, built in WWII. They used to take the main guns off battleships and reline them every hundred shots or so, and my building was a huge machine shop set up to replace the linings.
The gantry crane used to take the guns off the railroad cars they were shipped on is still in place. The hook of the crane is a solid piece of steel. It is larger than my Honda.
I remember reading about a model boating society that, instead of wargaming, would create scale models of famous warships and fight them - the hulls would be thin wood, and the turrets had motorised mounts and compressed air guns capable of firing a metal pellet through the wooden hulls. The ships would have less internal bulkheads (to account for the damage explosive shells would cause) but would otherwise try to be…
If anybody has a link or video to this, I would be extremely interested in it.
I remember being at Gen-Con in the 90's and seeing a game of Harpoon[1] going on. It was pretty amazing seeing all of the ships they were using. Maybe not as impressive as some of the Warhammer setups, but still pretty cool. I remember talking to a few of the folks and they believed it was the best game of this type. Larry Bond was also an author of some note. 1) http://www.larry-bond.com/games.htm
Post is from 2016
I remember being at Gen-Con in the 90's and seeing a game of Harpoon[1] going on. It was pretty amazing seeing all of the ships they were using. Maybe not as impressive as some of the Warhammer setups, but still pretty cool. I remember talking to a few of the folks and they believed it was the best game of this type. Larry Bond was also an author of some note. 1) http://www.larry-bond.com/games.htm
I recall Harpoon was the game that began Tom Clancy’s writing inspiration.
Unless you've seen one up close it's hard to wrap your head around how big naval guns are. I work in a converted naval gun factory, built in WWII. They used to take the main guns off battleships and reline them every hundred shots or so, and my building was a huge machine shop set up to replace the linings. The gantry crane used to take the guns off the railroad cars they were shipped on is still in place. The hook o…
notice the boats along the port side near the aft gun. And, forward of the aft gun, and between the deck houses, are several grey rectangles. Each one has 4 Tomahawk missiles. Those "coffins" are roughly the size of tractor trailers.
One thing you'll notice: no humans. The shockwave will kill you.
