alternatehistory.com

During the age of steam, there was a period in the late 1800s when every new warship had to have a bow ram. The iron clad ram became the definitive warships of the age, marking a return to ramming as an important naval tactic since the ancient Romans.

The cause of this phenonmenon was the age old race between guns and armor. By the late 1800s the armor of new ironclad warships were sufficiently good that existing naval guns could not reliably penetrate. However naval gun development eventually over came the temporary advantage of armor, consequently the ironclad ram never got a chance to prove itself in battle.

But what if the bow ram was introduced earlier in the Golden Age of Sail? From 1700 to 1800 there was a long period where warship design changed little. The naval doctrine for a century was the line of battle: two lines of big multideck gun ships line up to fire broadsides at eachother until one line breaks. The problem is this often produced indecisive results. If two equally powerful lines met, they both became heavily damaged and both retired. It finally changed at the Battle of the Saintes when Rodney's line crashed through and broke up the French line into short sticks.

It seems to me fitting fighting ships with bow ramps in the 1700s could potentially win battles. Imagine two lines approaching eachother. Instead of forming parallel lines for broadsides, my ships would ram into their line and then commence to engage with guns ala Rodney. Would this work?


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