Kameron Willison > Recent Status Updates

Now we're seeing improvement in ammunition and guns, AKA: shoot pointy steel thing very fast at enemy armor and hope it gets through.

Solid steel shot tended to just bounce off even the lighteir armor, but what if we elongate the projectile, add a bursting charge within, and make it spin REALLY FAST as it leaves the barrel? Now we're getting somewhere! Say hello to armor piercing ammunition!

The Predreadnought is standardized. The Admiralty finally convinces Parliament that Britain's opponents are catching up, and behold: the beautiful Royal Sovereigns and Majestics are built. Surely with advances in gun technology we can finally say goodbye to the ram, right? WRONG! Ramming is still considered viable for some reason. The masculine urge to smash giant metal ships into each other can't be suppressed.

Woohoo! The Royal Navy adopts turrets! Too bad HMS Captain was questionably designed and sank with massive loss of life. Ah well, at least HMS Devastation would set the standard that battleships would adopt until the launching of Dreadnought 35 years later. Oh, and what's with the Admiralty and being obsessed with ramming when the only ship they managed to ram was their own???

The transition between wooden ships of the line to armored steam powered screw propelled ironclads was certainly a time of experimentation and this book so far captures it well.