A “broadside” was defined by having all the guns on one side of
the ship brought to bear at once. In order to bring the guns on
the unengaged side to bear, the ship had somehow get to the
other side of the attacked ship or, if able, run ahead of the
opposing ship and turn about and run back down the same side it
had attacked. Otherwise only about half of its guns could be
used to fight another ship. The idea was to get close, fire
several volleys and then smack into the other ships and engage
in hand to hand battle. Warships were rated by the number of
guns they bore and a design balance had to be maintained between
speed and the number of guns and their throw weight of
projectiles. No matter how many guns, however, with the
exception of bow chasers and perhaps some guns pointing astern
(limited in both cases by the beam of the ship – a much narrower
space then the length of the ship). And, no matter the number of
guns, maneuvering meant everything. Such maneuvering required
substantial room for the ships to