Hello Jay...
The listing of ammunition is very interesting. This list also shows up in Commander Tyrone Martin's book "Undefeated - Old Ironsides in the War of 1812". Martin essentially claims in his writings that Captain Hull lied/manipulated the facts of the battle in his post-battle reports and that the battle played out much differently than the official reports state. In particular, Commander Martin argued that the amount of ammunition expended makes it obvious the battle went much longer than the 30 minutes Hull claimed in his after-battle report.
Here is what Martin puts forth on this point: " As for Hull's statements that the close action lasted 30 minutes, one must consider them in relation not only to the sequence of events but to the reported ammunition expenditure by Constitution. This appears in Moses Smith's recollection and is said to have been taken from the ship's log. According to this source, she fired 953 rounds of all kinds. If we delete the ten 18-pounder shot…by the bow chasers, and if we assume that the 260 stands of grape all were used in double-shotted loads, we are still left with 683 rounds to be fired by twenty-seven guns in a half hour. This equates to each of those guns firing once every minute and eleven seconds, an incredible sustained rate of fire for gun crews in their first battle. Even if we assume that the 100 rounds of canister likewise were expended in double shots, the rate of fire remains a surprising minute and twenty-three seconds between rounds." This argument ultimately provides the foundation for all of Martin's other arguments… It lengthens the battle considerably and allows him to justify using the British start time of 5pm and inserting a whole section of maneuvering that no eyewitness account corroborates (Martin actually states in his book "the record goes blank" here and proceeds to fill it in with his speculation presented as fact - yikes!).
The prodigious amounts outlined would rightly raise eyebrows. But the explanation given by Commander Martin would not be very likely. He seems to have overlooked the simplest and most obvious answer to the explanation of this prodigious output of iron and lead - never seems to have considered it... The truth is that USS Constitution fired every broadside - every discharge- with TWO round shot. Every. One. Look at this interesting snippet gleaned from Commander Martin's own website - The Captains Clerk:
[From the Secretary of the Navy] To Captain Charles G. Ridgely, Baltimore, MD, 31 Aug 1813:
"I have before me your letter of yesterday, and am not surprized that you burst one half Mr. Dorsey's Carronades. The proof was too severe, and I am astonished that any of them stood it. The particulars of the proof of the Carronades for the Constellation, having certainly escaped your recollection. The Gunner of the Navy Yard, who has proved all the Guns, for several years, on this station, assures me, that he has never used any other proof than that which Capt. Tingey certified, and delivered to Mr. Dorsey; and that, in the instance of the Constellations Carronades, none of them were tried a second time ‑‑ The long heavy Guns were, and this may have given rise to the mistake.
"The Constitution's Carronades were proved in the same manner, and they, in the action with the Guerriere, stood a full charge, with two round shot, every round during the action.
"The pocket Gunner is very equivocal in respect to the proof of Carronades. He says, 'They are proved with 2 rounds, with their chambers full of powder, and one Shot, and one wad;' but, in the table, assigns 8 lbs of powder to a 32 pr. Carronade, as a proof charge, but says nothing of a shot or wad. The chamber will not hold 1/8 part of the weight of the Shot in powder. The fact is, that the proof, used at this station, has been amply sufficient, and Mr. Foxall, or his clerk, always attends to see the powder weighed, agreeably to the proof charge contained in Com. Tingey's certificate.
"You will, therefore, have all the Carronades proved in conformity with the certificate; and if, after the first proof, you have reason to suspect any particular piece, it will be well to repeat the proof."
Commander Martin seems to have never considered this very simple and obvious answer to the dilemma of the ammunition expenditure. If we isolate and examine the 32 pounder carronade round shot - which would only be used in the close engagement - the math works out quite nicely (even for those of us without advanced math degrees). I agree with Martin that the grape and canister would've been thrown in on top of the round shot for good measure and can be omitted from our calculation:
236 32 pdr round shot expended in 35 minutes. (Let's round up to 240 for us math-challenged types)
Double-shotted , so divide by two and get 120 discharges in 35 minutes.
12 carronades on a broadside... 120/12 gives 10 discharges for each gun.
35 minutes/10 discharges gives us one discharge every 3.5 minutes.
The math works out exactly the same for the 24 pdrs. It is very likely that the American gun crews loaded most of a full charge along with two round shot for each discharge. They probably filled up the remaining space in the tube with grape/canister and let 'er rip. Mark Adkin in his excellent "Trafalgar Companion" notes that a well drilled British gun crew could fire one round every two minutes or so... The Guerriere crew claimed to have outshot the Americans by a 3/2 ratio in the after-battle court martial. So it is also probable that the British outshot the Americans, but with reduced charges and single round shot. Based on the damage to Constitution, most of the British shot flew high as the crews loaded and fired without regard to the uproll of the ship. The Americans, for the most part, seem to have waited to fire on the downroll.
Does anyone think a crew drilled constantly for six weeks by professional American naval officers can fire one double-shotted round every 3.5 minutes? Me too. I've used 35 minutes because Martin mentions that length of time elsewhere in his justification. Even at 30 minutes (which Capt Hull claimed) we have a discharge on average every 3.0 minutes - I'm good with that too. It certainly explains the gruesome damage inflicted on HMS Guerriere - all the accounts of washtubs of blood flowing down hatches and bits of brain and skull scattered across the smoldering decks when the prize crew got on board. Not to mention the water filling her hold that eventually sealed her doom.
I have great respect for Tyrone Martin and his immense contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the USS Constitution, but his theory regarding the Guerriere battle is a bit whacky and most of the recent historians seem to have dismissed it.