Wow, Looks like you bunnies are getting all excited
I think it's fair to say, that firing the main batteries wouldn't have the effect of some new and totally impractical drive system... as for making the ship lurch or shudder or vibrate, then yes, absolutely and without question. Any such 'real' motion of the entire vessel in the opposite direction to that in which the main guns were facing upon firing is silly or so small as to be virtually un-noticeable in any practical sense.
After all, if you fire a shotgun, you don't suddenly get propelled backwards, you absorb the recoil... so does the ship and to an infinitesimal degree, so does the water surrounding the ship. Surely if the main guns were so powerful at to alter the course of the ship, then the designers would have had to think twice before continuing?
Seems like common sense to me?
But hey, I'm just speculating here...:rotfl:
But if I was to say for sure what the movement of the ship was under main battery firing conditions, then it's definitely 10... er, 10.5368442179 blerns. :hmm: yup, for sure.