The relationship between fire power and crew casualties in seven War of 1812 Battles

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sgtfox
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The relationship between fire power and crew casualties in seven War of 1812 Battles

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The Relationship between fire power and crew casualties in seven War of 1812 Battles
Guessing how much damage would be done in a battle certainly doesn’t make for an accurate gunnery chart. If one can isolate the factors involved in determining average gunnery performance, then history can act as the final authority. Here, I was not concerned about how well a nationality performed. I was only interested in finding the optimum average percentage of hits for a battle. Once that was attained, nationalities came into play later. In each case, a vessel of the Royal Navy is the target. There was some high damage in each of these battles, but the main emphasis of this article was to prove the Main Gunnery Chart. The following battles helped me to design my Main Gunnery Chart:

(NOTE) I chose the brig and sloop actions of the War of 1812, since the vessels were principally armed with carronades. The nature of those weapons was such that it forced combatants to stay fairly close together, thus pretty well guaranteeing that they would fight at very close range. The battles were also of short duration, due to the “Egg shells armed with hammers” principle. Frigates tended to fight at longer ranges and maneuver a lot, thus making it hard to pin down their range during battles. I chose only battles where the U.S. Navy was victorious because I wanted a fairly stable grouping of gunnery results to average for my table. As I stated before, when I did the figuring for nationality performance, I factored in the battles of the U.S.N. that were lost as well.

October 12, 1812
U.S.S. Wasp- (broadside) 8-32#c, 1-12#.
H.M.S. Frolic- 384 tons. 110 crew. 62 casualties. 56.36%.
(Solution) Wasp has a broadside factor of 8.93. 43 minutes translates into 9.6 game turns. One of the broadsides was a bow rake. On average throws on the Main Gunnery Chart, 8.6 broadsides would cause 38.399 low damage points. The bow rake broadside would give a bonus of 1.1. The actual low damage, in the battle, was 43.28. This comes from taking 56.36% of 76.8, which is the total hull factor of Frolic. These calculations were purely for developing the system. Players would NOT be dealing with fractions of points. In actual fact, Frolic would have rolled for surrender at 22 low damage points. This British vessel was exceptional for holding out so long.

February 24, 1813
U.S.S. Hornet- (broadside) 9-32#c, 1-12#.
H.M.S. Peacock- 386 tons. 122 crew. 38 casualties. 31.15%
(Solution) There was a discrepancy about the length of the battle. James would have made it six game turns, while Rooselvelt’s would have been 3.8. Taking the difference between the two, I used 4.9 game turns. Hornet had a broadside of 10. The historical damage points were 24.05. Again, there would be no decimals in the actual game.


September 5, 1813
U.S.S. Enterprise- (broadside) 7-18#c, 1-9#
H.M.S. Boxer- 182 tons. 66 crew. 20 casualties. 30.3%
(Solution) Enterprise had a broadside of 4.5. Seven game turns would have given Enterprise the opportunity to score 15.975 low damage points. Boxer’s low damage points came out to an historical value of 11.03. This includes one bow rake. Both vessels lost their captains early in the battle. For some reason, Enterprise was especially affected by this, so much so that I realized it caused her to fail to fire. This lead me to coming up with a rule that a vessel which has their captain killed or wounded, cannot fire on the next game turn. If it happens again, the vessel loses the following broadside as well. So, for game purposes, it looks like Enterprise fired, on the Main Battle Chart, at a rate of 34.52%, instead of the 50% average. In actual fact, she probably fired only five times, thus giving her 11.475 low damage points on the Main Battle Chart. That said, I always put historical fact above what probably happened. So, in game terms, Enterprise would have had a 1 on a 12 sided die twice during the game. That would give her the “special damage” of having her captain first wounded, and then killed.

April 29, 1814
U.S.S. Peacock- (broadside) 10-32#c, 1-12#.
H.M.S. Epervier- 382 tons. 123 crew. 23 casualties. 18.7%
(Solution) This was a strange one. Instead of the normal yardarm to yardarm battle, Epervier maneuvered quite a bit. It appears, from the diagram, that the two vessels were only broadside to broadside for three game turns, and one of those would have been at Musket Shot Range. Also, James gave Epervier just 118 crewmen, while Roosevelt gave her 128. I took the difference. Thus, Epervier really took 14.28617 low damage points. Firing two broadsides at Close Hailing Distance and one at Musket Shot Range.

September 1, 1814
U.S.S. Wasp- (broadside) 10-32#c, 1-12#.
H.M.S. Avon- 391 tons. 117 crew. 42 casualties. 35.9%.
(Solution) This was a night action. It was fought at Close Hailing Distance, but visibility was still a problem. In game terms, Avon took 28.073 low damage points. Via the Main Gunnery Chart, the Wasp should have inflicted 33.198 low damage points. This prompted me to put in a night firing adjustment to the Main Gunnery Chart. Fire is only allowed at Close Hailing Distance, and the optimum percentage of hits will be 45%.

March 23, 1815
U.S.S. Hornet- (broadside) 9-32#c, 1-18#.
H.M.S. Penguin- 387 tons. 127 crew. 40 casualties. 31.5%
(Solution) This action began at Musket Shot Range, gradually getting closer. Roosevelt claimed the crew was 132, with 42 casualties. James claimed that her crew was 118, with 38 casualties. I took the difference between the two. Penguin’s historical loss was 24.38 low damage points. Using the Musket Shot Range chart for the first broadside, then the Close Hailing Distance chart for 4.4 more broadside, the Main Gunnery Chart showed an average damage of 25.5 low damage points.

June 30, 1815
U.S.S. Peacock- (broadside) 10-32#c, 1-12#.
H.C.S. Nautilus- 185 tons. 100 crew. 15 casualties. 15%
(Solution) Peacock’s captain refused to believe that peace had been agreed between Great Britain and the United States. He demanded the surrender of the Honourable Company’s Ship Nautilus. Nautilus refused, causing Peacock to fire a broadside from Close Hailing Distance. James doesn’t list an amount for the crew, while Roosevelt states 80. Lieutenant Charles R. Low, formerly of the Indian Navy, wrote an account in his history of the same. He clearly stated that, adding together lascars, regular crewmen, passengers, and invalided soldiers, there were 100 aboard when Peacock fired into her. Historically, Nautilus took 5.55 low damage points. (NOTE) The Honourable East India Company had its own private army, originally called the Bombay Army, but also had a private navy. It was commonly called the Bombay Marine, since the Royal Navy was a bit touchy about private navies. There’s an article about it in “The Courier” wargaming magazine- Vol. III, #3 for November-December 1981. There is also a trio of fictional books, by Ellis K. Meacham, about a captain during the Napoleonic Wars. “The East Indiaman,” “On the Company’s Service,” and “For King and Company.” They were written between 1968 and 1976 and are a fun read. It’s also interesting to note that Meacham included a bibliography with the first book. I love it when Age of Sail novelists actually do research!

(Note) To test the gunnery results of actual battles, I simply reduced the broadside factors of the vessels to game terms. A broadside is figured by adding the total poundage, then dividing the result by 30. Seeing that the U.S. Navy, of the War of 1812, goes directly to the Main Gunnery Chart, there was no need to go to the Nationality Gunnery Chart. When the correct length of the battles was figured, it was then divided into five minute turns. Taking that figure, then multiplying the broadside factor times the amount of game turns needed would give the actual results of low damage. Later, comparing that figure to the amount of the total broadside would give a percentage of the total to help construct the gunnery table. (Example- U.S.S. Hornet’s broadside factor was 10. Using 4.9 game turns, 4.9 times 10 equals 49. She caused 24.05 low damage points on her opponent (31.15% low damage against a hull factor of 77.2.) Dividing 49 into 24.05 gives the result 49.081%. I did this in each case to get an average.
Historical Hit Rates
U.S.S. Wasp- 49.969961%
U.S.S. Hornet- 49.081%
U.S.S. Enterprise- 34.52%
U.S.S. Peacock- 49.66%
U.S.S. Wasp- 42.28%
U.S.S. Hornet- 47.8%
U.S.S. Peacock- 50.18%
Average 46.2%
Adding the historical damage rates, then dividing by 7 gives an average of 46.2%. When one takes into consideration the Enterprise’s temporary loss of fire power, due to her captain being killed, and the poor visibility in the night action between the Avon and Wasp, it seems that an average hit rate of 50%, for the Main Gunnery Chart at Close Hailing Distance, is pretty accurate in game terms. It’s also an easy number to work with when using d20s.
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