Help me find evidence concerning the deadliness of splinters

ubernostrum — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:54:12 -0800

I just watched the Mythbusters pirate special, and I'm looking for historical evidence to argue with the cannonball/splinter conclusion. (don't click through if you don't want spoilers) The myth in question concerns the deadliness of splinters thrown out by a shot penetrating the ship's hull; after testing with air cannons and a replica six-pounder, they weren't able to produce significant splinter-related injuries to the pig carcasses in use as human analogues.

Much as I'd love to argue with the methodology, it was probably the best that could have been done; finding a heavier ship's gun (say, in the 18-pound to 36-pound range seen on warships of the 18th and 19th centuries) and being able to test fire it doesn't seem likely. So I'll leave the methodology alone; instead I'm hunting for historical records which would support the threat posed by splinters and similar debris.

I've done some initial poking around in Google and found a couple promising items (for example, this description of a Revolutionary War battle lists two splinter wounds, one of which apparently proved fatal), but what I'd really like is to get my hands on some real historical accounts -- the more primary the source, the better. A really good example is this Wikipedia article, which (while being horrifically badly formatted) reproduces a British captain's official letter detailing a battle from the War of 1812, including mention of two splinter wounds. Unfortunately, if there's a web-accessible repository of these sorts of captains' reports, I haven't been able to find it.

Anyone know of such a thing, or of similar records which would contain relevant information? I know the evidence is out there, I just need to find it!

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Help me find evidence concerning the deadliness of splinters