Battle of the Virginia Capes

The Great Ships series from the History Channel about the "Ships of the Line." These floating cities were designed to fight single file in a straight line to fire constant broadside canon shots to utterly destroy your opponent. This tactic would prove costly for the British during the American Revolution.

Some side information: the term "Square Meal" comes from this type of vessel where shipmates were fed relatively well for the period, and were served one hot meal in the afternoon on a "square" plate.

Additionally, the term "Son of a Gun" come from when women on these ships, (yes, there were women) during birth if labor was becoming too difficult and a women was having a hard time pushing, she was placed in between two canons where they were fired simultaneously. The hope was to motivate the women to push harder during birth. These children were called "sons of guns."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Battle
• of
• the
• Virginia
• Capes

[cbrusharmy]

I'd be all for the Brits in any other war :-)