Pinned post for Q&A :)

I got a splinter from Chinese Baltic birch substitute while running a CNC beam saw. Within 24 hours, my finger knuckle was like a huge grape and painful. The amount of stuff in this abscess was incredible as was the pain. I can only imagine what this horror was like and in a period of no antibiotics

The compressive feeling of being on deck of an Iowa class battleship is quite amazing. The closest that I could get to the forward turrets, on USS Missouri, was approximately the large antenna near the anchor chains. The thick windows on the bridge had to be lowered so as to not blow them out. This created some fun when the loose papers get sucked out of the bridge and go fluttering across the waves. One of our Executive Officers, I won't name him, got very jumpy and ducked when on the open area above the bridge. The big guns hit you with a big whoomp feeling. The smaller 5" guns were much more annoying as they have a sharp krang that hits you in the groin. To me, it was a glorious experience and best captured with a fast motor drive on the camera. To those at the end of the round's trajectory weren't as enthused. Below decks, there was virtually no affect other than a dull whump sound of the guns. Inside the turrets, it's very quiet with the sounds being mostly crew talking and the mechanical sounds of the loaders and breeches. So sad that people can't experience that sensation anymore. PH1 (SW) ret.

My issue with Myth Busters is the way they "scale down" their tests.
Dimensional scaling is not enough.
When dealing with fluids, Reynolds number is paramount. When dealing with solids, microscopic, macroscopic and composite structure matters.
This is exactly what Drach showed with 6  pounder vs. merchant hull and 24 pounder vs. ship of the line

40:20 "The best defense against heavy artillery is a lightly built ship." This reminded me of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where the Japanese battleships were firing armor-piercing ammunition against escort carriers and destroyers.

Took a nautical archeology class from Dr. Hocker in the late 90s at Texas A&M - it's good to see he's still at it!  Thanks for the age of sail content Drach!

Anyone who has ever experienced an artillery attack in a wooded area knows how deadly those "splinters" (some of them literally as large as logs) can be.

to be fair about the smoke filling up the ship...in a battle, if you're (un)lucky, you'll have extra vents holes punched through the sides over time

Drach out here busting Mythbusters
Also RIP Grant

This is really cool.
Drac: So this obscure effect described, that we can't really know nowadays..
Dr Freddy: Oh no, we tested that.

Drach: „three problems with mythbuster experiment“
Proceeds to demolish said experiment, while being an absolute gentleman about it.

Oh, yes. I can see why sailors wanted that last stitch through the nose. The perfect horror would be waking up at twenty feet, bathed in pearlescent light with a cannon ball at your feet. Fascinating conversation with Dr. Hocker that goes into very satisfying depth about the phenomenon of splinter formation and effect.

Having seen a piece of broken baseball bat puncture a player's lung, and in other cases the big end knocking the catcher or umpire off his feet, and given that ships of the line created splinters that big, sharp on all sides and moving much faster, I'm inclined to side with Drach.

Something that isn't talked about nearly enough, is the effects of double and triple shotting the guns. That is loading multiple cannonballs into a single gun in order to increase the amount of metal being thrown at the target, as well as reducing the velocity of each individual round, so as to reduce the risk of over-penetration, and more effectively transferring kinetic energy into the target, especially in close range battles. There are accounts of this being used to great effect, even shredding entire decks, at Trafalgar.

"It's better to be a lightly build ship that the shot will pass cleanly through"

USS Johnston: THIS IS THE WAY

I just watched the footage of the test firings. As of now, the first thing I'm going to do if I win the lottery is pay the Vasa museum whatever it costs to get another round of test firings, and pack the Slo-Mo Guys off to Stockholm.

I remember thinking exactly that after seeing the Mythbusters episode - that both the gun they used was too small and the wood was both too thin and should have been good solid oak rather than pine.

The U.S.S. Niagara museum in Erie, Pennsylvania, has an excellent display showing the results of shipboard guns against wooden hulls. A recreated section of O.H. Perry's first flagship at the Battle of Lake Erie, U.S.S. Lawrence, was tested with naval artillery correct for the War of 1812 period. The display includes representations of crews at their guns. Suffice to say, you would not want to be on the receiving end of those wood splinters. The larger ones would easily rip limbs from the body, smaller ones would instantly disembowel a man. A horrible way to die.

A brief portion of the video created by the museum can be seen here on YouTube. Search "USS Niagara Live Fire Demonstration."

“A jet of flame 10 meters long”

That broadside must have looked absolutely insane

The Mythbusters experiment is better described as a BB gun being used to simulate impact damage of a .50 BMG as far as caliber, impact damage and of course splinter damage.