Nicknamed "smashers", these close range guns fired heavy cannonballs, inflicting maximum damage to enemy ships and creating showers of deadly splinters. Service record: In 1802, Le Redoutable was the ...

Wearing the flag of Vice-Adm Cuthbert Collingwood, at the Battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805), the 100 gun ship-of-the-line HMS Royal Sovereign led Lord Nelson’s lee column against the combined ...