Didn't some sailing ships shoot two smaller balls connected by a chain out of the same cannon barrel? Took out the other ship's rigging...Geo
Seems as if I have heard of that. Some years back in the past at some museum, I visited they had a device which looked like two halves of a spherical ball connected by a rod joining the two flat sides. The rod was as I recall some 10"-12" long & this was said to be to shoot down the rigging.
The masts on a large sailing ship could not hold against the thrust of the sails without the support of those ropes, so if you could wreck a bit of the rigging it was Dead in the Water.
