Gun Port Covers

[Belphe]

An option to open and close gun ports on ships that had gun port covers. Apart from being a very nice aesthetical element they would also drastically lower the chance for the cannon to receive damage. Depending on how the "sinking mechanics" works (which unfortunately I know nothing about) closed gun ports would also slow down taking in water if the ship was struggling with leaks and the ports were under the waterline.

[TheStarSlayer]

It is my understanding that port lids were not closed during reloads, once the guns were run out they were kept open for the duration of engagement.  When not in combat the guns were kept housed inboard and the lids closed for sea-keeping purposes not as additional armor.  If you look at two deckers they often did not even bother adding them on the upper decks.

Edited August 11, 2016 by TheStarSlayer

[maturin]

Gunports that close has been on the to-do list for a long time now.

 

By the way, flexible rope rammers could be used to reload a gun with the port lid closed. The port lids themselves were only thin planks and wouldn't protect from anything but small arms.

[OlavDeng2]

Regarding aditional protection, doubt that it would help at all against cannon fire as maturin says, they were thin. Im pretty sure there are reported cases of gun crews just shooting through the gun port covers due to them not being able to open them for whatever reason(take with a grain of salt, im no historian and im basing this off of memory of something i read a while ago)

[Belphe]

Thank you for clarifying this

[TheStarSlayer]

It certainly would not be remiss if the guns were stored inboard and lids closed during Open World travel then run out when battle commences.

[TheAmerican]

Would love this! Maybe some heavy weather to go with... Forcing many ships to close their gun deck ports.