Crew Weapons

Until the time of cannons, warfare at sea consider of archers and firing arrows at each other, catapults and use of flame (through various methods) to destroy each other. Then not long after the discovery of gunpowder, it was found that you could throw a stone at the opposing side at astonishing force. This brought a new age of combat to the world and specifically to the sea. Making sea power much more important.

Early ship born guns were designed to be used as anti-personnel weapons. The first European ships fitted with these large guns during the early part of the fourteenth century. From the earliest times, these guns grew and improved, first throwing simple stone balls then progressing to a wide range of ammunition in the Napoleonic times. Ships initially didn’t have their sides pierced for guns and then ships like the Mary Rose started having their sides pierced and having guns on more than one deck.

Construction

The great guns can be constructed by two methods, they can be forged or they can be cast. Guns were made initially from iron or brass (bronze – 90% copper with tin, lead, zinc and other metals added).

Simply put a Forged gun is made up of strips (plates) of metal held together by rings/hoops or ropes in their most crudest form. This was the most common type gun until well into the 16^th century. It was less expensive to make and required less skill than a cast gun. It was always done in iron and it was blacksmith work. The work creating these guns were rather like the work done by a cooper creating a barrel.

Cast guns are made of both iron and brass though brass was the first to be regularly cast due to the iron cooling too rapidly. They were created in foundries and made by the same people who were making the church bells. The gun founder would first create a mould using a piece of wood, wrapped in strips of hay or rope and covered with clay, hair and horse hiding. The trunions (used for mounting on the carriages) are nailed on. The rear of the gun was frequently a separate mould which would be joined with the main mould at the time of casting. Then the entire thing is covered in clay( sand was used later), dried and then molten metal would be pour into the open muzzle end. After cooling, the mould is then broken and the gun is finished.

Because of these methods, no two guns were alike and weight varied. As technology improved, manufacturing guns became easier and a degree of standardization was added. By 1716, full size drawings were sent to the foundries to develop some degree of standardization. Then later in that century, copper cores were delivered by the Ordnance Board. By the time of the American Revolution, it was decided that all guns would be bored due to a series of problems.

British guns were considered the best in the world. A British gun was worth 4 to 5 times it’s purchase price in Europe. Needless to say, the Crown did not want their superior guns ending up in the hands of possible enemies.

By the 1790's, standardization was the rule. The Board of Ordnance set the basic dimensions and a gun foundry would construct a full size model of the piece, primarily in clay. This model would be used to form the mould, with separate moulds be used for the breech and the cascable ( the rear section of the gun). After the gun was cast, the mould would be split apart and the gun would then be sent to the drilling machines to be bored out (they were usually cast solid).

After completed they would be sent to Woolwich to be tested by the Board of Ordnance. One of the test would be to load it with a double load of gun powder then after it was set off they would inspect the guns for cracks. They would then insert water under pressure to see if any escaped. The guns could also be rejected for being excessively over weight. Upon passing the tests, the guns would then be sent to one of the Naval Ordnance Depots.

Types of Guns

Guns were classified by weight of the projectile, the length of the gun and the type. Cannons and carronades were classified by the weight of the shell that was used. The largest during this period was a 48 pounder (though only used on a few of the older first rates). The most common guns on a rated ship was a 9, 12, 18, 24, and 36 pounders.

Gun	Length	Range at 0 Elevation	Maximum Range	Weight (in CWT)
9 Pdr.	9' or 7 '			25 or 31
12 Pdr	9 or 7			34 or 21
18 Pdr	8' or 9'			37 or 42
24 Pdr	9' or 9' 6"			47 or 50
32 Pdr	9' 6"			55

Smaller ships and a few older frigates also carried even lighter guns. A 6 pdr was found as a secondary gun on small frigates and sloops. There were also 3 and 4 pdr guns but they were rarely found on what would be classified as a fighting ship

Due to the weight factor, the larger guns would normally be on the lower in the ship with each additional deck having lighter guns. A 100 gun ship would have 32 pdrs on the gun deck, 24 pdrs on the middle deck and 12 pdrs on the upper deck.

There were also swivel guns, mounted at various places around the ship and in the tops. These were of various sizes, including 1/2 pounders.

Carronades

The other type of gun common on ships of the Royal Navy were the Carronades. These were short and fat guns capable of throwing great weights a short distance.

The carronade was first invented in the late 1770's by General Robert Melville and built by the Carron Iron Company in Scotland. It was first adopted by the Royal Navy in 1779. It was sponsored by Sir Charles Middleton, a important naval reformer and in 1779 became Controller of the Navy. The idea was influenced by a proposal from Robins in 1747 which pointed out that most sea battles took place at short range so a short barrel cannon that used less powder but heavy projectiles would be effective in this situation. And by making the projectile a tighter fit, less powder would be wasted. A shorter gun would reduce the weight, a 32 Pdr carronade would have the same weight as a 6 pound long gun.

It was used initially on quarterdecks, forecastles and poops. While available, they had to be requested by the captain initially. In 1794 they were made compulsory for most ships, but retrofitting was done when the ship required refitting so not all ships had them right away. The carronade was not an instant hit, in 1780 the Ordnance office in Plymouth reported that" most of the captains at that port disapproved of them, and do not intend to take any". It took a while for them to be convinced, meanwhile Middleton continued pushing for them. It was thought that maybe 44 and 50 gun ships (too small for the line) could be outfitted with them and sent to sea with the main fleet. An experiment was conducted on a 44 named Rainbow, she encounter a large French frigate named Hebe. The Hebe surrendered after one broadside by the Rainbow. By 1801, it was obvious that the carronade was here to stay, on new ships, barricades were built around the poop and forecastles to protect the carronade crews.

The arrangement of carronades varied greatly in the Royal Navy. The typical 74 (1808-1816) would carry 10-2 Pdr carronades on the quarter deck, 2-32 Pdr carronades on the forecastle and 6-18 Pdr carronades on the poop deck. While a 50 gun ship might have 6 Pdr carronades on the poop, 2 18 Pdr carronades on both the forecastle and on the quarterdeck. One of the most famous ships of this period, the Victory had only 2-68 Pdr carronades on her decks.

The muzzles of the carronade were different from the muzzle of a cannon. There a canon swells and is larger in the muzzle, a carronade actually gets smaller in the muzzle. The trunions ( the part of the gun which attach the barrel to the gun carriage) was also in a different position, it was located on the underside of the barrel instead of the middle like a canon's trunions was. And the button (the tail end of the carronade) also differed, it had a hole in which an elevation screw was placed. Carronades were also usually on special carriages, made by the Carron Iron Company and came with each gun. By the 1790's, many Carronades were on solid wood platforms which were easily traversed with the use of a slide. The platforms had small wheels on the back