A cannon chainshot

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by fernando

Still in the XIX century this kind of procedure was adopted. In the Portuguese frigate Dom Fernando e Gloria, launched in 1843, one of the last sailing war ships, having sailed the India route during 33 years and set fire after its retirement in the Lisbon harbour, having later been faithfully restored upon its survived hull, not the deck but all gun carriages, were painted red for the mentioned purposes, as noted by its present officer in charge.


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Fernando, I am remiss in not thanking you for this great entry on the painting of gun carraiges red in honor of this practice/tradition. I am wondering if any form of this remained vestigially after the age of sail in modern naval vessels.

I know that often these kinds of things in military parlance remain in practice as certain traditional recognition and remembrance.
With the British cavalry for example, in the Battle of Aliwal (1846) the 16th lancers charged against a huge force of Sikh's, and while victorious, they lost 144 of 300 men. In action, the lance pennon is furled, and in the grim aftermath, it was discovered that the pennons were crimped by dried blood.
It became a 16th Lancers tradition to always crimp their pennons in honor of that costly victory.

While the analogy is off topic, it goes to the question of these sometimes ambiguous traditions in many instances which harken to circumstances or events in the past which are held in high importance.

[fernando]

Jim, i do beleive that navy (as other services) do keep certain traditions becoming later fetishes, resulted from earlier practical procedures, though i realize that the red paint vs blood resource would not fit in modern context, as vessels and their artillery equipment are so much different (material wise) nowadays.
On the other hand, the habit of the red paint in early days is often mentioned, only that is easier to locate them in the web than in written chronicles, where you don't have the search button to locate the required paragraph among so many book pages. Reason why sources for specific episodes are hardly transcribed from my books with writings from period chronicles.
So ... what i can show you is a part in an exhaustively detailed fictious novel, Sharpe's Trafalgar, which i expect you find interesting ...

The midshipman showed Sharpe the store where the anchor tether was housed, the two leather-draped ammunition stores protected by red-coated marines, the liquor store, the infirmary where the walls were painted red for the blood not to stand out, the pharmacy, and the cabins of the guardsmen, little more spacious than doghouses.

Hereunder three of my books covering all Portuguese navy battles from 1139 to 1579.


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[Jim McDougall]

Thanks Fernando, and you're right, finding things these days is a lot easier with the 'magic box'. Its a good thing as my mountains of notes, files, index cards, books of decades are hopelessly disheveled.

The Sharpe's stories by Bernard Cornwell from 1981+ though historical fiction, are (in my opinion) wonderful chronicles full of intriguing snippets like this, which seem to typically have basis in fact.