British naval firepower during the age of sail throughout the Seven Years War and the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic War provided an empire to accept British industrial production as well as population through settlement. In return, it supplied the raw materials and bases for further exploitation and control.

Britains ships possessed naval guns that had gradually become increasingly destructive and were the product of centuries of shipbuilding experience. Hand-in-hand, the increased power and number of cannons carried varied with the role the ship played over the canvas of the oceans of the world. Armed naval ships varied from small ships such as a sloop, single masted with 10 or 12 cannons to frigates with 32 up to 44 cannons on a single gundeck. ‘Ships of the Line’ were the ships for great naval battles and had two and three gun decks giving them a devastating broadside when all cannons fired at once.

Lord Horatio Nelson’s flagship was the famous three deck ‘Victory’ preserved in the dry dock Portsmouth, England.

The cannons were initially very basic but with the advance of metallurgy over the ages, became larger of calibre and thus more destructive. The ‘long tom’ hurled a 12lb round shot while the later carronade could fire a much heavier shot of 24lbs but at a shorter distance. In close quarter broadsides, the carronade was superior, but in a pursuit, the long tom was quite effective as an enemy came into range or to hold one off with distance fire.

There were three forms of ammunition for the guns of these times. Round shot was a 12 -24lb iron ball used to batter a ships hull so it would sink or surrender when its own guns were unable to continue the conflict. Cannister, was a soft bag of sharp ‘metal bits’, nuts, bolts, shards, chain etc., which, when fired, scattered, and could sever ropes and hawsers of rigging and mast braces as well as shred and tear sails. The spread was wide and could also kill or maim enemy crew. Grapeshot was like ‘buckshot’ and comprised many small balls of iron that spread widely when fired with the objective to kill or main and disable enemy crew.

To attack an enemy, a sailing ship would try to come alongside which allowed it to board and capture the ship or, to fire all of its guns at once at the ‘broad side’ of the ship, hence the term ‘broadside.’ By bringing all its guns to bear on the target, manoeuvre was essential to gain the best use of the wind so often battles were long and consisted of complex changes of direction at mostly the same speed as the crew were working the guns and not the sails.

The result of victory was glory. Recognition of the success was often at the expense of lives or ships or both and so the idea of gilding macabre success, despite the cost in human lives or valuable ships and cargo, was to glorify and revere the victor. In cases where spoil, the capture of wealth of gold and silver – treasure, there was a reward drawn from the captured treasure and if a ship was captured and in good condition, the value of the ship to the navy was shared among the crew, ‘prize money’.  Glory and prize money were two weapons to encourage victory and Britain with a large and superior navy, came to dominate the world’s oceans throughout the century long Pax Britannica.