Re: Battleships and Merchants

At 06:46  14/01/02 +0100, Karl wrote:

G'Day

<interesting information about German naval auxiliaries snipped>

>Good enough against unarmed merchantmen, but nobody would confuse them
with
>a real warship. Ad would any of the American ships you mention have
stood up
>to a ship of the line ? I think not.

Against a Battleship? may be not (I believe it was the French who
provided 
ships of the line in the Revolutionary War) :) But against a warship of 
comparable size (frigate)? Well that depends on the crews and their 
captains. That's because once refitted there would be little difference,

both ships would have wooden hulls and a comparable number of guns.

I know I already mentioned this, but once armour plate, exploding shells

and steam propulsion came on the scene, then that's when the design of
men 
of war really became specialized when compared to their merchant
cousins. 
Even though these new technologies greatly improved the capabilities of 
warships, they required much more of the ships carrying them (and that's

certainly one reason why armed merchant cruisers didn't do well against 
their thoroughbred naval cousins).

Cheers

Derek

Derek Fulton
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