Research behind splinters in ship battles?

Stormy wrote:I just got done watching an episode of Myth Busters that debunked splinters from cannon balls going through the wooden sides of ships being more lethal than the balls themselves. In fact, they did very little damage to the pig carcasses being used to test it.
Now, I'm pretty sure in the various books of the Safehold series, rather exhaustive attention was paid to the amount of splinters and how deadly they could be using various different forms of ammunition and lighter or thicker planking and what have you. Since I know DW puts quite a remarkable bit of research into his books, I was quite surprised that the results weren't a lot gorier for the pigs in this show! So how much research was put into this aspect of the stories?

Stormy wrote:I just got done watching an episode of Myth Busters that debunked splinters from cannon balls going through the wooden sides of ships being more lethal than the balls themselves. In fact, they did very little damage to the pig carcasses being used to test it.

Weird Harold wrote:

Stormy wrote:I just got done watching an episode of Myth Busters that debunked splinters from cannon balls going through the wooden sides of ships being more lethal than the balls themselves. In fact, they did very little damage to the pig carcasses being used to test it.

That episode of Mythbusters doesn't agree with centuries of historical evidence to the contrary. I'm not sure where they went wrong in testing the assertion, but there were a couple of substitutions for budgetary and availability issues. Specifically I think the ACW vintage field piece was considerable more powerful than the 18th century naval cannon most associated with "shivered timbers."

Weird Harold wrote:

Stormy wrote:I just got done watching an episode of Myth Busters that debunked splinters from cannon balls going through the wooden sides of ships being more lethal than the balls themselves. In fact, they did very little damage to the pig carcasses being used to test it.

That episode of Mythbusters doesn't agree with centuries of historical evidence to the contrary. I'm not sure where they went wrong in testing the assertion, but there were a couple of substitutions for budgetary and availability issues. Specifically I think the ACW vintage field piece was considerable more powerful than the 18th century naval cannon most associated with "shivered timbers."

Weird Harold wrote:

Stormy wrote:I just got done watching an episode of Myth Busters that debunked splinters from cannon balls going through the wooden sides of ships being more lethal than the balls themselves. In fact, they did very little damage to the pig carcasses being used to test it.

That episode of Mythbusters doesn't agree with centuries of historical evidence to the contrary. I'm not sure where they went wrong in testing the assertion, but there were a couple of substitutions for budgetary and availability issues. Specifically I think the ACW vintage field piece was considerable more powerful than the 18th century naval cannon most associated with "shivered timbers."

Earldrygulch wrote:... I question how many operable 64 lb muzzle- loadin cannon are around. My guess is that the majority in existance are monuments.

Using a simple air cannon and four pig carcasses, the MythBusters proved that a cannonball could penetrate at least four pigs with a single shot. However, when fired at a wooden wall, the splinters did not have enough power to pierce any of the pigs. To fully confirm or bust the myth, the MythBusters used an authentic Civil War-era cannon. Through preliminary testing, they proved the Civil War cannon was significantly more powerful than the air cannon. However, when fired at the wooden wall, none of the splinters managed to penetrate the pigs with enough force to be lethal. Therefore, the MythBusters concluded getting hit with a cannonball was more deadly than the splinters it creates.

saber964 wrote:Your over looking that at various times over the age of sail the size of the guns changed upwards in weight. During the period of 1760-1790 18 pounders was about the largest in standard use. From 1800 to 1825 it was 24 pounds and IIRC 56 pound carronades, during the ACW era it shot up dramatically with some ships firing 100 pound shot or more.