I guess it is. Masking instead of enginering...your solution could work. :hmm:
About main guns, as all the guns in the game are playable, at least the main guns should be. I'm not talking about controlling all the guns at the same time. The stock game puts the player controlling one station every time as the one who fires (officer, gunner, sailor, etc). This means the player should control one turret at the same time while the others should remain AI controlled.
By the way it looks in the picture seems imposible to fire the main guns while in motion. If it's possibe sure isn't at full speed nor medium speed, and I bet the ship gets propelled backwards the line of fire (well, if it fires in the line of its propellers I supose only is pushed or reduce its speed. Look at the water due to this babe firepower:
Photos from the compartments inside warships (sorted BB North Carolina, SS298, USS Yorktown, DD793, USS Alabama, etc:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...a_bb-61_pr.jpg