A question regarding rocket Ships

Peter2 wrote:I suspect that wooden rocket-firing ships are going to be far more trouble than they are worth.

They weren't for the British at Ft McHenry when F.S. Key wrote the STar Spangled Banner.

Weird Harold wrote:

Peter2 wrote:I suspect that wooden rocket-firing ships are going to be far more trouble than they are worth.

They weren't for the British at Ft McHenry when F.S. Key wrote the STar Spangled Banner.

Did we Brits win?

Randomiser wrote:Did we Brits win?

Depends on whose history you read. The point is that wooden sailing ships were no impediment to using Congreve rockets.

The first thing I thought when reading this title was the one mission from Fallout 4, the "USS Constitution".

If Charis had those...heheheh.

Weird Harold wrote:

Randomiser wrote:Did we Brits win?

Depends on whose history you read. The point is that wooden sailing ships were no impediment to using Congreve rockets.

Congrieve rockets and the indian rockets they are based on are not shore bombardment weapons. The are to be blunt terror weapons and lighter open field artillery replacements.

Basically the rocket weapons RFC has given the church forces are failry close to congrieve rockets though he is launching them in a katyshua fashion or possibly as an overgrown Hwacha.

Rockets were fired from below deck through rocket ports without setting the ship ablaze but the use of naval rockets was dropped as soon as decent shell guns came on the scene so there is no use for them in Charisian service.

This following from wikipedia sums up thier limitations and coresponds well with RFC's proposed emplyment as massed bombardment weapons which is how the Mysorean troops deployed them against the british.

"Their lack of specific accuracy with the larger rockets at long range was not a problem if the purpose was to set fire to a town or a number of moored ships; this was shown with the attack on the French Fleet in Aix and Basque roads and at the bombardment of Copenhagen. As Congreve himself had warned, however, they were of little use against fortified places, such as against Fort Henry, because of the lack of combustible structures.
The 12-pounder deployed at very close range was a fearsome weapon, as was seen at the battles of Gohrde and Leipzig in 1813, as well as the crossing of the Adour River and the Battle of Toulouse in 1814.
The problem of accuracy at medium range remained a problem. This is best illustrated by Captain Mercer's description of G Troop Royal Horse Artillery during the retreat from Quatre Bras on 17 June 1815:
"The rocketeers had placed a little iron triangle in the road with a rocket lying on it. The order to fire is given - port-fire applied - the fidgety missile begins to sputter out sparks and wriggle its tail for a second or so, and then darts forth straight up the chaussée. A gun stands right in its way, between the wheels of which the shell in the head of the rocket bursts, the gunners fall right and left… our rocketeers kept shooting off rockets, none of which ever followed the course of the first; most of them, on arriving about the middle of the ascent, took a vertical direction, whilst some actually turned back upon ourselves - and one of these, following me like a squib until its shell exploded, actually put me in more danger than all the fire of the enemy throughout the day"

Silverwall wrote:Rockets were fired from below deck through rocket ports without setting the ship ablaze but the use of naval rockets was dropped as soon as decent shell guns came on the scene so there is no use for them in Charisian service.

Again, everything but this paragraph is irrelevant to the question of using rockets from wooden ships. Whether the rockets used historically were accurate or effective doesn't matter as long as the were used from wooden ships that didn't burn to the waterline after they were fired.

Neat picture. Source?

Dilandu wrote:

Hehe - thats quite impressive.

I do suspect that perhaps the topmost pic was drawn with a certain amount of artistic licence!