Let's hope the breezes are gentle, DD. Not only do you have to dope the wind correctly, but you have to figure out some way to attain the range once you have figured out what it is. Repeatable results at a known distance ain't easy with a mortar. Lateral deflection is much easier to control, depending on the WIND CONDITIONS, of course. We are sticking with 70 Deg. elevation, although some may think we are naive here, because the wind has more time to mess with our projectile's natural trajectory. The reason for sticking with 70 Deg. is simple; we want to attain the maximum height at ANY range for masonry-arch crushing impact on any given target.
The Brookes and the Parrot rifles that Seacoast builds, what Iron clads would they have fired against? Merrimac style or Monitor style?
The 100 Pdr. Parrott was almost entirely used against land batteries and fortifications; very few opportunities were afforded it to compete with Confederate Iron-Clads. The Battle of Trent's Reach was a rare exception.
http://www.oldgloryprints.com/Fredericksburg%20at%20Trents%20Reach.htm The 7" Treble-Banded Brooke Rifle we are building now was designed as an Iron-Clad Killer and was actually the only Confederate gun to ever penetrate the Ericsson Devil's, (Monitor's), hull. Sorry Dan, but the Monitor's Swedish inventor was not loved in the Confederate states.
On September 7th and 8th, 1863 the big 7" Treble-Banded Brooke, in Battery Marion on Sulivan's Island, (Charleston, South Carolina's outer harbor) was very busy indeed as she sent a baker’s dozen of her large shells over to the tip of Morris Island to greet the Federal troops taking over former Confederate positions abandoned before dawn. She repeatedly hit one monitor that came out for some action later that day. At dawn on the 8th, the hated Monitor Weehawken was spotted, stuck on a sand bar near Cumming’s Point.
That June the Weehawken defeated the well-armed, but unwieldy CSS Atlanta in Georgia’s Wassau Sound just south of Savannah. The Atlanta ran aground and four shots from Weehawken’s 15 inch Dahlgren Shell Gun at only 200 yards smashed 2 of Atlanta’s 4 Brooke rifles and created huge holes in her 4” iron casemate armor.
Sensing an opportunity for payback here, all the Sullivan’s Island batteries, including Battery Marion, Fort Moultrie and a few large guns at Fort Johnson opened up on the Weehawken, hoping to destroy her on the spot. They hit her 24 times, but only one shot went into the unprotected hull below the armored belt. It was a 7” hole, probably a bolt from the Treble-Banded Brooke. Temporary repairs were made,
and the Weehawken was re-floated at high tide, later in the afternoon, and went back to her anchorage outside the bar. Months later she sank at her anchorage near Morris Island, while riding out a gale.
Regards,
Tracy and Mike
