Originally Posted by
Looper
The Glorious was struck at a distance of 24 kilometres, while moving at full speed, by the Scharnhorsts 11 inch main guns at maximum elevation
Of course if you're really going ballistic ,pre rocketry and B52 the Big Berthas shelled Paris fromm130km. Interestingly the gunners were arguably more accurate than today's Arsenal F.C. ?
The Paris Gun, which was used in combat in 1918, only had a range of 130 km, but even then it couldn't hit a target smaller than a city, and . . . the gunners actually needed to calculate the earth’s rotation when aiming the weapon. Simply put, by the time one of the gun’s shells returned to earth from its then unprecedented 130,000 foot high flight path, the city had moved slightly with the planet’s own rotation.
In terms of seamanship those long Ocean transits of the Maoris and other Pacific people's set a pretty high bar, no SATNAV , safety assessments or insurance, just astrology, guts and determination or Tom Crean's escape from Elephant Island