Black powder Cannon Ballistics in the Age of Sail

[Jinumon]

I don't know if this is exactly helpful but I had a working model for this that conforms pretty well with the example cannons given in GURPS Low-Tech.

Damage (in dice) = Bore Size (in) x cube root of (Barrel Multiplier) x 2
*Barrel Multiplier = Barrel Length (in) / Bore Size (in)

Damage Type is pi++

Range is determined by Bore Size and Barrel Multiplier
*1/2 Damage Range = square root of (Bore Size) x cube root of (Barrel Multiplier) x 60
*Max Range = 1/2 Damage Range x 7.5

Rate of Fire is 1

Shots is 1

Weight = (Bore Size)^1.5 x Barrel Multiplier x 32
*Weight Per Shot = (0.5 x Bore Size)^3 x 2.5

ST = fourth root of (Weight) x 7

Bulk = ST / 4

Recoil is 2

Cost = Weight x $14

Cost Per Shot = Weight Per Shot x $20

Jinumon

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by hal

Getting access to the books you mention may be a wee bit problematical... ;)

What books I do have - I try to scour them for any data possible. More often than not, the books I Have purchased with high hopes didn't have what I needed.

Hal, I would say that there is a 90% chance that you can either borrow both from a public library interlibrary loan, or find them used for a few dozen dollars ... wargamers buy things like that then sell them when they change periods, and 20-year-old books with a decent print run are usually cheap. The information on guns is probably no more than one hop from a widely-available book (open the right chapter, read the footnotes, order the things cited or download them off the Internet archive for period documents) but I don't know which books ... it is not my period.

Have you looked for wargaming forums or social media groups? They tend to be good for statistics.

I would just rule that a recoiling gun inflicts 3d Cr to a random extremity. You could always use the collision rules and eyeball the speed.

[Polydamas]

Also, this site cites some of those period handbooks and has a 'back-of-the-envelope' model to calculate energy from powder charge and shot diameter https://arc.id.au/CannonBallistics.html

I have a journal article by a certain Reitsma "The explosion of a ship, loaded with black powder, in Leiden in 1807" which calculates that Napoleonic black powder was about as strong as modern. I would be happy extrapolating that back into the Golden Age of Piracy, I don't think the technology changed much.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Also, this site cites some of those period handbooks and has a 'back-of-the-envelope' model to calculate energy from powder charge and shot diameter https://arc.id.au/CannonBallistics.html

I have a journal article by a certain Reitsma "The explosion of a ship, loaded with black powder, in Leiden in 1807" which calculates that Napoleonic black powder was about as strong as modern. I would be happy extrapolating that back into the Golden Age of Piracy, I don't think the technology changed much.

Best as I can tell, gunnery from an earlier time period is significantly different in the 1660's than the 1760's. Charge weights were closer to 1/2 shot weight than 1/3rd shot weight. Possible reasons might be difference in formulas and/or windage (actual bore diameter / actual shot diameter where the bore is significantly large enough that more gas escaped. Also, max distance was less in general.