The video is fun, but the military tactic it uses is called "the hammer and the anvil" and it's a horrible tactic. If you fail to hit your enemy, you subject your friendly forces to friendly fire.
My CO tried this tactic in training (blanks), and subsequently was let go. That's how bad this tactic is.
If anything it makes the ship in the center have a better chance at fighting the 2v1 since they're lining themselves up with cannons on either side of the ship, where typically they'd have to shoot from one side and rotate. That, and as you say, the friendlies on either side are a backstop for the others; firing through wooden ships like that would have probably resulted in a lot of overpenetration.
In an aiming sense, yes. But most of the tactics of the time would put all the manpower on one side of the ship to keep that cannon battery fully operational and optimally operational. They would be starved of manpower if they had to fire both sides of the ship simultaneously.
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u/edwbuck 11h ago edited 11h ago
The video is fun, but the military tactic it uses is called "the hammer and the anvil" and it's a horrible tactic. If you fail to hit your enemy, you subject your friendly forces to friendly fire.
My CO tried this tactic in training (blanks), and subsequently was let go. That's how bad this tactic is.