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Monday, September 20, 2004

Some English 3rd and 4th Rates at the Four Days Battle had peculiar guns, perhaps as chase pieces

This data is from Dr. Weber's book about the Four Days Battle. At first glance, the 3rd Rate Dover looks to have uniform calibers per deck. The lower tier must have been 22-demi-cannon (32pdr) with an upper tier with demi-culverins, with demi-culverins (9pdr) on the quarterdeck (a total of 32 demi-culverins). There were 4-odd culverins (18pdr) that we are left to wonder where they were mounted. One explanation could be 2-culverins firing forward and two aft. Perhaps a few of the demi-culverins were also firing forward and aft. All the van de Velde drawings tend to show all ports armed, even in the chase, rather than allowing for guns to be moved from the broadside, a difficult thing with big guns, even as small as the culverin (only relatively small).

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