Broadside

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Broadside

A broadside is the side of a ship

Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
; the battery

Artillery battery

In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortar s, or rockets, so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems....
of cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any tubular piece of artillery, that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile over a distance....
on one side of a warship

Warship

A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way than cargo ship....
; or their simultaneous (or near simultaneous) fire in naval warfare

Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers....
.

dsides were quite different during older naval warfare, in the age of sail

Age of Sail

The Age of Sail was the period in which international trade and naval warfare were dominated by sailing ships, lasting from the 16th to the mid 19th century....
. An 18th century man of war

Man of war

The man-of-war was the most powerful type of armed ship from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The term often refers to a ship armed with cannon and propelled primarily by sails, as opposed to a galley which is propelled primarily by oars....
like the HMS Victory

HMS Victory

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Encyclopedia

A broadside is the side of a ship

Ship

Artillery battery

Cannon

A cannon is any tubular piece of artillery, that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile over a distance....
on one side of a warship

Warship

Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers....
.

In older naval warfare

Broadsides were quite different during older naval warfare, in the age of sail

Age of Sail

The Age of Sail was the period in which international trade and naval warfare were dominated by sailing ships, lasting from the 16th to the mid 19th century....
. An 18th century man of war

Man of war

HMS Victory

HMS Victory is a first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, started in 1759 and launched in 1765, most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar....
had cannons that were only accurate at short range. The penetrating power of naval guns was mediocre; which meant that the thick hull of a well-built wooden ship could only be pierced at short ranges. These wooden ships sailed closer and closer towards each other until cannon fire would be effective. Each tried to be the first to fire a broadside, often giving one side a decisive headstart in the battle when it crippled the other ship.

As a measurement

Additionally, the term broadside is a measurement of a vessel's maximum simultaneous fire power

Fire Power

Fire Power is a strategic military tank action game developed by Silent Software, Inc. originally for the Amiga. It was released in 1987 in video gaming and published by MicroIllusions and Activision....
which can be delivered upon a single target, due to the fact that this concentration is usually obtained by firing a broadside. This is calculated by multiplying the shell weight of the ship's main armament shells times the number of barrels that can be brought to bear. If some turrets are incapable of firing to either side of the vessel, only the maximum number of barrels which can fire to one side or the other are counted. For example, the American Iowa

USS Iowa (BB-61)

USS Iowa was the lead ship of Iowa class battleship of battleship and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named in honor of Iowa. Iowa is the only US battleship to have been equipped with a bathtub, and was the only ship of the class to have served in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II....
-class battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large, heavily armour warship with a main artillery battery consisting of the largest calibre of guns. Battleships were larger, better armed, and better armored than cruisers and destroyers....
s carry a main armament of nine 16-inch main guns in turrets which can all be trained to a single broadside. Each 16-inch shell weighs 2,700 pounds, which when multiplied by nine (the total number of barrels in all three turrets) equals a total of 24,300 pounds (11,022 kg). Thus, an Iowa-class battleship has a broadside of 12 short tons (11.0 tonnes), the weight of shells that she can theoretically land on a target in a single firing.

See list of broadsides of major World War II ships

List of broadsides of major World War II ships

The list of broadsides of major World War II ships is a comparative listing ranking the main armament broadside weight of major vessels in service during World War II....
for a comparison.