Two 11-inch smooth-bore guns.
One 30-pounder rifle.
Four 32-pounders.
It will therefore be seen that the Alabama had the advantage of the
Kearsarge--at all events in the number of her guns; whilst the weight of
the latter's broadside was only some 20 per cent. greater than her own.
This disparity, however, was more than made up by the greater rapidity of
the Alabama's firing, and, above all, by the superiority of her
artillerymen. The _Times_ informs us that Capt. Semmes asserts, "he owes
his best men to the training they received on board the 'Excellent;'" and
trained gunners must naturally be superior to the volunteer gunners on
board the Kearsarge. Each vessel fought all her guns, with the exception
in either case of one 32-pounder, on the starboard side; but the struggle
was really decided by the two 11-inch Dahlgren smooth-bores of the
Kearsarge against the 7-inch Blakely rifle and the heavy 68-pounder pivot
of the Alabama. The Kearsarge certainly carried a small 30-pounder rifled
Dahlgren in pivot on her forecastle, and this gun was fired several times
before the rest were brought into play; but the gun in question was never
regarded as aught than a failure, and the Ordnance Department of the
United States' Navy has given up its manufacture.