Anyone seeing the photo of that broadside..here’s what always fascinated me. At “battlespeed”, a broadside of those 16” rifles actually pushed that gigantic steel monster a few feet in the opposite direction.
I asked a Fire Control Chief once as to the accuracy of those giant guns. His serious reply..
“If you are in a rubber raft 9 miles away, give them a free shot at you. Before they reload and re-fire.....learn to fly.”
Rifles are not large caliber crew served weapons. Guns are.