A capital ship's magazine capacity does not establish how much ammunition it actually carried. A British 15-inch shell weighed about 1,900 pounds, or roughly 880 kilograms, so one hundred rounds per gun represented hundreds of tons of projectiles. Renown, Courageous, and Hood officially carried 120 rounds per gun because battlecruisers were expected to operate farther from support. The propellant allowance also raises a separate question: was enough carried to fire every shell at reduced, full, or overload power? Supply logs are needed to compare what ships actually received with the capacity stated on paper.
Notable Point · 3:12:54-3:16:28
Why paper ammunition loads need supply logs
Official rounds-per-gun figures describe magazine capacity, but projectile weight, propellant choices, and wartime supply logs reveal what a ship actually carried.