Pirate Gunnery

[capnwilliam]

...and shipboard gunnery in general, in the age of sail.

What size cannon were used? With what type of shot? Size of shot? What were the practical ranges? Maximum ranges? Sighting devices? Ignition systems?

What tactics were utilized? Where can we see good collections of period naval cannon? Where to buy replicas? Etc.

Let's get a shootin' good discussion goin', brethren!

Capt. William

[El Pirata]

The cannons I have seen throughout my travels I have often wondered what size the actual shot was. I have also wondered how much it literally would ruin your day getting hit by one. I took this pic while I was in Panama specifically to remember to gauge the actual size of the bore on a large cannon. Using a ruler next to my hand I guestimated the bore to be about 6-7."

I had recently been forced kicking and screaming to accompany some of my co-workers to see the Yorktown Victory Center. While there we actually went outside where they had a living museum type of setup. There were several people dressed in traditional clothing of the time. While this literally means nothing about your subject they did have someone who was playing with muskets and they said the general rule of thumb for effective range on a smooth bore musket was about 100' or less.

[Dorian Lasseter]

Aye Ladds,

Don't rightly know 'bout th' cannon... but anywhere from 4 pounders on up to whatever th' largest was made, and captured, that they could get...

Type o' shot, Iron ball, cannister, bar shot, chain shot, le Grange (sp), etc...

Ignition, black powder poured down th' touch hole n' lit with a linstock (cotton line soaked in saltpeter)

Sighting was done down th' barrel, the cannon could be angled up or down by movin'a wedge under the breech o' the barrel in or out, and th' whole truck could be shifted side to side with either ropes or spike bar levers.

Musket ranges, in practiced hands, had a range of several hundred yards... unpracticed, the range of a medium caliber modern handgun...

Yer nautical milage may vary....

[Scupper]

Aye, I agree with Dorian. It depended on what ye wished to do. Demast, icause mass injury, demorilazation, fire, or just plain pound them

Scupper

[capnwilliam]

When we visited the old fort on Ship Island, MS last year, the guide said that the most common way for shore batteries to attack offshore vessels was not to aim at the craft directly, but to aim at the water level, betwixt the two.

This way, the cannon ball skipped across the water, and - if all went acording to the gunner's calculations - struck the vessel at the water line, leading to a quicker destruction than if the vessel were struck at a higher spot.

Now, a pirate wouldn't want to do that, if capturing, vs. destroying, the vessel were his "aim" (bad unintentional pun). But I was wondering whether such a tactic was also utilized during ship vs. ship warfare, in other circumstances?

Also, how commonly was hot shot used aboard ships! Or was that also primarily a shore vs. ship tactic? Seems as though the heating works might have been cumbersome aboard the vessel. (?)

Capt. William

[Coastie04]

Heated shot was definitely a shore vs ship tactic. Heating shot on a wooden ship with open powder would have been suicide. However, it did do quite a bit of damage to these ship when they were hit by the heated shot. Fire was the most feared disaster on a ship, as it was hard to control, spread quickly, and could lead to sudden death for all hands (some 'fertilizer' ships found this out).

As for small arms, I fired a .60 cal smoothbore this summer and had about a 5" diameter spread at 50 feet. I'd say that an average combatant of the day would be able to at least hit a chest sized target at 100 feet. With a volley (as done on land), then 200 feet would easily do considerable damage, even with many misses. With a rifled barrel, the effective range increases considerably.

Depending on what size cannons you're looking for, I found a couple sites:

http://www.cannon-mania.com/Arsenal%20Store.htm

http://www.cannonsonline.com/barrels.asp

[capnwilliam]

Hey, Coastie, good to hear from you again! King George's Cutter Academy been keepin' ye busy, I'll wager. (?)

So, does anyone have any opinion as to how pirates DID utilize cannon? Heated shot is out. Waterline hits with a solid ball is out, if you want to capture the veesel. So, do we use chain or bar on the riggin'? Grape against the personnel? Or just fire a round over the bow, and board 'em?

:angry:

Capt. William

[Coastie04]

I really think that would depend on the circumstances, and no one way can really be pinpointed. Sometimes the sea condition will not allow boardings, sometimes the pirates do want to sink vessels that are bigger and containing a higher level of available force(ie...the "oh shit" factor), and sometimes the shot used depends on the shot available. As demonstrated in POTC, in the right circumstances, anything could be used. The classic is broken glass from a swivel gun. Another good tactic is bar or chain at the rigging to disable, and then being able to rake with grape or canister, and board at leisure. If anyone played AOSII online, I've employed the dismast and rake tactic often.

Coastie04 :angry:

[Black Deacon]

But I was wondering whether such a tactic was also utilized during ship vs. ship warfare, in other circumstances?

Capt. William

Quite a common occurrance. In fact that's how the Spanish Armada was destroyed. Using smaller quicker ships they got in under the Galleons cannons and blasted the water line. All that weight plus water equals Glub, glub pretty quickly.

It did depend on what you wanted to do. Pirates generally were after prize where as the ships they encountered were trying to sink the Pirate ship.

[Cap'n Coyote]

Cap'n William.

Take a look at this link, it's got a nice breakdown of cannon size, range, etc.

Cannon and Carronades

[the Royaliste]

.....Everyone's forgetting mortars on bomb ketches....smaller ships wif' big mortars to destroy the rigging fired upwards from smaller vessels. No time to deal with big ships when smaller ones are kicking your butt from all sides...

[Daniel]

I've read that the most common pirate ship guns were four-pounders, maximum range about 1,000 yards, weighing almost 1,000 lbs including the carriage.

It does not seem that heated shot was used very often shipbord. As others have pointed out, heating the shot was probably riskier to the ship firing it than the ship receiving it. However, I'm guessing it was used on very rare occasions, because I've read about pirates and privateers wetting down their battle topsails in preparation for combat to prevent them catching fire.

Loads were round shot, grape, and canister. (It seems canister came along surprisingly early; I've read about it being used in the late 1600s). Also various kinds of chain shot to destroy sails and rigging. Langrage or langrel (I believe these were the words Dorian was looking for) seems to have been used fairly often; I believe that's what Blackbeard used against Maynard's sloops.

The process apparently was to ram down powder, ram down a shot with a wad behind it and then ram down another wad to prevent the ball rolling out of the bore when the ship heeled. You would then use a pick to clear the touchhole, and prime it with powder. I've heard contradictory accounts of how you actually fired; some people have a burning linstock applied directly to the powder, while others suggest some kind of fuse or matchcord was used.

After firing it was necessary to sponge out the piece to extinguish leftover burning powder, and use a worm (a kind of roto-rooter looking thing) to clear out pieces of wadding.

Ideally there were cloth cartridges prepared in advance with the correct amount of powder to pour into the barrel, but presumably you ran out of these pretty fast in combat.

I understand guns are elevated by the use of a quoin and handspike (not clear on the exact process for this). I haven't read how windage was adjusted, but I guess one simply pulled on one gun tackle at a time to shift the gun left or right.

One strange thing about sailing-era guns is the weird names they had. Four-pounders were initially called "minions," and other guns of various size had names like saker, falconet, culverin or demi-culverin, cannon, or cannon royal. I believe the proper "cannon" was a 36-pounder, and other guns were not considered cannon. It seems that the later one gets, the more one hears guns referred to by their shot weight (i.e. four-pounder) and the less one hears these exotic names.

[the Royaliste]

.......Windage was an unnecessary adjustment. Deck guns fire true for at least 1200 yards, most combat was considerably closer..No such thing as a burning linstock. The linstock is merely a handle to get a slow match to the touchole........

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

OK I'm gonna sing the praises of the swivel gun for a moment.

It's interesting to look at the pre-Civil war accounts of how privateers and pirates were armed. It's not what we see in the movies. Hollywood has taught us that bigger is better. But as Royaliste has said many times, when we've talked on this subject, "... this country was won with swivel guns."

The swivel guns are the "little" guns mounted on swiveling mounts all over the decks of a ship. They have many advantages. First of all, they are small, light and you can carry a whole bunch of them on board. You can pick them up and move them to other places on the ship. You can turn them and aim at your target before the ship is perfectly aligned. You can't do any of that with a full size gun (gun is the term for a cannon on a ship) mounted on a carriage.

Here is an example. The Black Prince, a Revolutionary War privateer was outfitted with sixteen 4-pounder guns and thirty swivels. All of that was on a ship only sixty-five feet in length by twenty feet in the beam (width).

One thing no one has answered yet was the question about technique. Here is a great illustration of "firing on the up-roll" which means firing the guns as the ship rolls her side upward- this delivers the volley high and into the rigging of the ship. The idea was not to sink your prize, (another Hollywood myth) but to disable it and take what's on it. You can't spend gold that's on the bottom of the ocean.

But, if ships are engaged in battle where the objective is not to collect the goods, but to kill the bastards on board, then the idea is to get your ship situated to "rake" the other ship, meaning to fire lengthwise down the ship and break her. This was a deadly and leathal blow to any ship. It shattered the ship's structure, and sent and explosion of wooden shrapnal flying everywhere. Here is an illustration of raking a ship:

Also a little clarification on the linstock- It is a wooden handle with a wire assembly that holds the slow match as Royaliste pointed out, not the part that burns, but the part you hold. Here are a couple of illustrations of different types of linstocks-

And here's a rather piratical looking old salt with his swivel and his linstock, smiling as if his prize is ready to be boarded!!!

[Coastie04]

A little more on the swivels...I've heard of them mounted in the fighting tops before. Imagine a large shotgun firing down on a crowded deck, into the Marines in a fighting top, or into men climbing up the shrouds. Death and destruction galore! Another nice advantage is that, since the guns were mounted on a swivel (hence the name) and could be easily aimed as mentioned before, they could also be used to suppress mutinies. Often swivel guns would be stored out of the weather, as they were relatively light weight and easy to mount in the approach of battle. However, a few could be left rigged around the quarterdeck, or at least kept loaded and in easy access to the officers. Once rigged, they could be turned inboard on the crew to emphasize that mutiny would not be allowed.

The pictures of linstocks are very nice, though I'm more used to a cut-off wooden broomstick with a hole drilled through it, and maybe some wire to help keep the slowmatch in place.

Coastie04

[the Royaliste]

:) when in unfamiliar waters, I keep my 1 1/4 inch bore swivel gun loaded with old brass screws near my bunk...black powder, unregistered, and a wondeerful deterrent to those who would steal my dingy, or try to rob my crew.....

[Cap'n Coyote]

Does anyone else get this image?:

Some unfortunate would-be pirate, stapled to the bulkhead with hot brass screws, and Gary standing in front of him saying "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

[Coastie04]

The only problem with that, is that if he was already nailed to the bulkhead with brass screws, he already knows if he's lucky or not. The quote looses a bit without the "I know what you're thinking...did he fire six shots, or only five?" With a swivel gun, there be only one shot, and you'd know with a high degree of certainty if it had been fired or not. 'I know what you're thinking...did he have time to sponge out the barrel, worm it out, pack the powder down, insert more brass screws, insert a wadding, ram it all down tight, prick the touch hole, insert primer, make sure that the slowmatch was glowing, and aim the swivel gun again?' just doesn't have quite the ring to it.

Coastie04

[capnwilliam]

That be a great site about cannon, Cap'n Coyote; and great graphics, Claire!

Capt. William

[capnwilliam]

Royaliste, ye be a man after me own black heart! Pirates we may be fer fun, but pirates there be out there fer real.

Let's see: a 12 gauge shotgun's about a .72 bore, and if you're using a 1.25 bore...now THERE be an alley broom if anything be!

Capt. William

[Cap'n Coyote]

The only problem with that, is that if he was already nailed to the bulkhead with brass screws, he already knows if he's lucky or not. The quote looses a bit without the "I know what you're thinking...did he fire six shots, or only five?" With a swivel gun, there be only one shot, and you'd know with a high degree of certainty if it had been fired or not. 'I know what you're thinking...did he have time to sponge out the barrel, worm it out, pack the powder down, insert more brass screws, insert a wadding, ram it all down tight, prick the touch hole, insert primer, make sure that the slowmatch was glowing, and aim the swivel gun again?' just doesn't have quite the ring to it.

Coastie04

Aye, I'll grant ye all that...but I wield sarcasm better than me cutlass, an' if ye be sayin' "Do you feel lucky?" wi' sarcasm, all the rest just ain't necessary. 'tis self-evident.

[Rosalinda]

[Hawkyns]

Gunnery was a very advanced subject in the period. Manuals on ships gunnery were being written as early as the 1540's. "De Pyrotechnica" by Berengutti (sp?) had directions on casting cannon, making granadoes, how to pack a fire ship, and a number of other topics was one of the first. Bourne wrote "A Regiment for the Sea" and "The art of Shooting in Great Ordnance" in the 1590's. "The Sea Gunner" (John Seller, 1691) became a standard on the subject. The 18th century saw a series of manuals on artillery, most of which had chapters on sea gunnery. So it was not a by guess and by god operation. A master gunner new his pieces and his art and was highly valued. No doubt he would be a specialist who was offered the chance to join the crew rather than be killed or ransomed.

A large amount of math was involved, geometry for ginding aiming points and ranges, calculating the dispart (the difference between the height of the breech reinforce and the muzzle swell), and the weight of shot versus charge. A gunner had to know each individual piece because cast cannon all shoot differently due to the variations in a core cast cannon.

Israel Hands gets passed off as a violent whacko. If he was as good as he was supposed to be, then Stevenson made a big mistake in portraying him as barely civilised.

Hawkyns

Master Gunner

[Cap'n Coyote]

Thanks, Hawkyns. That's really interesting. I'll try and track those down. Unless you can recommend something as good or better.

Used to be pretty fair at geometry. Hmmm. Where's the best place to mount a swivel on a Mercury Sable?

[BoneHunterLane]

Used to be pretty fair at geometry. Hmmm. Where's the best place to mount a swivel on a Mercury Sable?

<mental image of Mercury whipping down highway, one swivel emplaced on the fore hood... one above the sideview mirror on the driver's side....>

Fair to say you might want to have it hidden under the hood... the peace officers might take objection to the appearance otherwise...