where are my t'gallants 🇺🇦

"So. What now?"

TRAVEL TIME IN BLACK SAILS

BLUE : direct route Charles Town - Nassau

RED : route taken by Flint after having been blown east by the winds

On the way back from Charles Town (XVIII.), Flint explains to Silver that they are south of Inagua - having made a stop at Tortuga -, still on their way to Nassau because the "winds blew us east. "

THE WALRUS’S SPEED

the Walrus top speed is 7.5 knots. That speed was reached while chasing the Andromache (V.) by risking the masts’s integrity (argument between FLINT and DE GROOT, the t'gallants should not have been unfolded in that wind). With a proper carrening, that speed could be reached safely (“A clean hull means an extra knot or two in speed” in IV.), but the carreening was not completed (in IV: “A few more days, we’ll have the keel cleared and tarred and she’ll be ready to go back into the water”, but the very next day they were chasing the Andromache, as established by SILVER mentionning Randall’s amputation being the previous day).

the Walrus chasing speed is 6 knots, in favorable winds (the speed reched before risking the masts’s integrity, see above).

the Walrus average cruising speed is 5 knots (my estimate, somewhat arbitrary : I take into account the occasional slow wind and a lighter workload on deck to allow shifts for the men to rest).

Average travel time, at 5 knots :

1 knot = 1 nautical mile / h

5 knots = 5 nautical miles / h = 120 nautical miles / 24h

Nassau - Port Royal : 754 nautical miles 754 / 120 = 6,2 ; 6 days at 5 knots

Nassau - Tortuga : 539 nautical miles 539 / 120 = 4,5 ; 4,5 days at 5 knots

Nassau - Havana : 407 nautical miles 407 / 120 = 3,4 ; 3,4 days at 5 knots

Nassau - St Augustine : 511 nautical miles 511 / 120 = 4,2 ; 4 days at 5 knots

Nassau - Charles Town : 631 nautical miles 631 / 120 = 5,2 ; 5 days at 5 knots

Nassau - Savannah : 623 nautical miles 623 / 120 = 5,2 ; 5 days at 5 knots

Nassau - Boston : 1426 nautical miles 1426 / 120 = 11,8 ; 12 days at 5 knots

Was he tho???

Black Sails wiki is the only place where I find MULDOON listed as a gunner (let alone the ship’s gunner, which is a role like boatswain and master, distinct of the rest of the gun crews).

I have been rewatching the show on repeat for a week now as I outline things. I have never seen that motherfucker anywhere near a gun.

My assumption was that he was the ship’s carpenter : none other seem to hold that role, he is always seen holding an axe, and he literally perishes fixing holes in the hull.

I think I figured out where the wiki got it. An early version of the script (here) includes this line:

Thank you so much ; that would explain it. And it does justify the attribution of the title, especially with this other information :

And indeed, Black Sails wiki does give this information, I just needed to find their "gunner" page :

They also have a picture of Muldoon assisting with the loading of a canon.

So Muldoon is indeed the ship's gunner.

I imagine he would be responsible, like a naval gunnery officer, of the operation and maintenance of the ship's guns and the safe storage of the ship's ammunition inventory. For operation, it would mean attributing members of the gun crews to each gun, and training the rest of the crew to assist, since it apparently takes 5 men to operate a gun (I'm guessing to put it in position, mainly ?).

He probably had to be creative to manage the gun crews to fire all the cannons at once or even in a row, since the Walrus - with its crew of 60 at the best of times - has 26 guns, and I doubt they could attribute even 2 men for each gun (that would make 52 men working the guns, often not long before a boarding).