Ya but should it take the entire stash of shells just to sink one ship. Firing close in should be devistating attack at any rate. Were talking about both rof and damage. Rate on the deck gun was 10 shells per min and that was the 5 inch. I was reading that shells were kept in water proof boxes near the gun, with extra shells stored below. In the Video they had several crew working the gun not just the two gunners. In Real battle situations they would want to get the shells there as fast as possable. "Some" safty is trown aside when sinking a ship is priority. Besides on the video the rate seemed to be a bit higher when they were firing an that was just in gunnery pratice not in war situation. A shell every 10 seconds would be more like the rate I would expect which would be a rate of 6 per min. I dont think that would be unachiveable.
As far as Damage one would expect that when firing at a ship and hitting several locations over a ship would be really devistating to a thin skinned Merchant. These shells were designed for aromored ships so they would be very effective against the merchants.
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