Sharpe vs Hornblower

[Badgers]

Relevant bump to accompany Sharpe thread

 

[Spymaster]

Nothing between them, imo.

Hornblower might shade it in terms of pretty ladies but Sharpe's got Darragh O'Malley and his big gun.

 

[Quartz]

I wouldn't like to be holding that barrel bare-handed when all seven shots went off at once. Would it not get rather hot?

 

[Bakunin]

I wouldn't like to be holding that barrel bare-handed when all seven shots went off at once. Would it not get rather hot?

Yes, but the major problem with the Nock volley gun was its recoil. All guns have a certain kick, but the Nock fired seven 50' pistol balls all at once which meant the kick often broke the shoulder of whoever fired it. Nock originally intended the volley gun to be used by Marines who'd be station in the rigging of warships, so that they could fire a volley downward across the deck of an enemy warship if it attempted to to come alongside to let its crew try to board and capture a British warship. The result was often that recoil would shatter the shoulder of the firer, who'd as likely as not then fall out of the rigging, drop twenty feet or so and then land on a wooden deck in the middle of a full scale hand to hand battle. Hence, Marines tended not to like using them very much.

 

[Quartz]

Hmmm... he's not holding it against his shoulder, is he? So he's unlikely to hit anything.

 

[Roadkill]

I've never read Sharpe, but the TV series is enjoyable enough.

With the exception of parts of the first one, I don't like the Hornblower series at all. Ioan Gruffudd plays the character well, but they've fucked about with the storylines so much to make it TV-friendly that they've spoiled the plots and wrecked its historical accuracy. The books are absolutely brilliant: the TV version doesn't do them justice.