Now, keeping in mind that for whatever reason, Springsharp will only work on my laptop computer, not this one, and that for whatever reason I have
difficulty in getting my laptop hooked up to the internet, how would you go about designing a broadside ironclad for about the 1860-70's era? The kind of
ship I have in mind would be like the USS Cumberland, with a mix of broadside cannon with one or two heavy guns in turrets mounted on deck.
Okay, first questions are in regarding to the armament. In the way of cannons, commonly back then they were rated as to the weight of the shell or cannoball
they fired. 12 pdr cannon would fire a 12 pound cannon-ball, 24 pdr cannon 24 lbs shell/ball, 48 pdr cannon 48 lb shell/ball, but what would be the typical
size of these guns? Also, what might be the typical size of a murder cannon (small deck railing mounted grapeshot cannon)? Also, how would you sim the
positioning of the mounts? The broadside guns which would be below deck level would be simmed as below deck, while the deck level turret guns would be at deck
level, but would you sim for casemate mounts, or perhaps simple open mounts?
Propulsion, should be pretty standard. I'm going for a big ship, so would I do two screws, or was one screw still standard for large ships in this time
period? Also, would 8 knots be asking too much of a large cruiser/battleship sized ironclad in this time period? And what about a typical range for a
oceangoing ironclad of the period, simmed speed and range?
Finally, armored protection. Would Springsharp adjust for the earlier less efficent armor plating, or would you need to do say like 8" of armor to
represent 16" of the older steel armor belts in use? Or would it be in reverse, saying 16" to represent 8" of armor?
And I think that's about all the questions I had in mind. I was looking/thinking of designing for a 5,000 ton - 10,000 ton sized vessel with 80 24lb
broadside cannon (40 to each side) with a forward 48lb twin turret and an aft 24lb twin turret.
