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The cannon shot (c. 1680), painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger Essential parts of a cannon: 1. the projectile or cannonball (shot) 2. gunpowder 3. touch hole (or vent) in which the fuse or other ignition device is inserted Firing of an 18-pounder aboard a French ship. Firing a naval cannon required a great amount of labour and manpower.
Cannon operation. Cannon operation required specialised crew and gunners, who were first enlisted by the Spanish in the 14th century. [ 1 ] The nature of cannon operation often depended on the size of the cannon and whether they were breech-loading or muzzle-loading. English cannons of the late 14th century became mobile, while the largest ...
A linstock (also called a lintstock) is a staff with a fork at one end to hold a lighted slow match. The name was adapted from the Dutch lontstok, "match stick". [1] Linstocks were used for discharging cannons in the early days of artillery; the linstock allowed the gunner to stand further from the cannon [2] as it was dangerous applying the ...
A gunlock was a flintlock mechanism that fired a cannon. They were a significant innovation in naval gunnery and were first used by the Royal Navy in 1745. Their use spread slowly as they could not be retrofitted to older guns – the French had still not generally adopted them by the time of the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). [17]
The cannon shot (c. 1680), by Willem van de Velde the Younger. The 16th century was an era of transition in naval warfare. Since ancient times, war at sea had been fought much like that on land: with melee weapons and bows and arrows, but on floating wooden platforms rather than battlefields.
Quaker gun. A Quaker gun is a deception tactic that was commonly used in warfare during the 18th and 19th centuries. Although resembling an actual cannon, the Quaker gun was simply a wooden log, usually painted black, used to deceive an enemy. Misleading the enemy as to the strength of an emplacement was an effective delaying tactic.
A touch hole, also known as a cannon vent, is a small hole at the rear (breech) portion of the barrel of a muzzleloading gun or cannon. The hole provides external access of an ignition spark into the breech chamber of the barrel (where the combustion of the propellant occurs), either with a slow match (matchlock), a linstock or a flash pan ...
Installed on the lower deck of the larger warships, the 36-pounder long gun was the largest caliber used in the Navy of the Age of the Sail. Attempts to use 48-pounders were made, for instance on Royal Louis, but these proved impractical to use on ships, partly because their weight allowed for only a few pieces, and because the heavy balls were unwieldy to load by hand.