Cannons/ Guns

[Jib]

I know that "guns"on a ship had different shot weights and names. Things like "Culverin" , "Saker", etc.

Anyone know the proper names and shot weights? A list form biggest to smallest would be very nice...

[Mad Matt]

Google turned up this:

http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/gen1.htm

[blackjohn]

Great big list here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon

[PirateKing]

Bunch of info on Cannons and projectiles used with illustrations here:

http://www.thepirateking.com/historical/weapons.htm

Hope this helps,

The Pirate King

[capnwilliam]

A great site you have there, Pirate King! :)

Capt. William

[Brit.Privateer]

This topic brings up something that I have been looking for for a long time. Is there any place where it would list muzzle velocities for cannon? It would be interesting to figure out how much power that gunpowder is producing, how fast the ball is going, and ect.

[Patrick Hand]

You could join the muzzleloading forum, they have a section on cannons, and people that shoot them..... someone there is going to know.

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/index.php

(I'm not sure if this is the right page..... I'm already a member, so this page automaticly comes up.... So you may have to fiddle with the addresss get the right page..... sorry....)

[capnwilliam]

As I understand it, the old saker / culverin / demiculverin etc. classification goes back to the 1500's and was eventually replaced by the more-modern "pounder" arrangement: six-punder, 12-pounder, etc.

I'm going to check ROUND SHOT AND RAMMERS to see if I can find anything about velocities, relative powder charge to shot weight, etc.

Capt. William

[Fox]

The trouble with the older system of classifying guns by name (culverin, saker etc) was that it wasn't standardised. Two sources from the same period will often give different values for the size and weight of powder and charge for the same gun (I'm brought to mind of the differences between Monson and Ward which I was looking at recently, both English, both 1630s, yet significantly different).

By the GAoP the classification by shot size method was coming in and during the period the two systems were sometimes used side by side. Indeed there are documents describing the armament of ships as, for example, "6 demi-culverins, 8 9pdrs, 5 sakers, 12 3pdrs..."

[Misson]

I came across something in Rayner Thrower's book on Piracy which talked about cannon names that I thought was interesting. While this information does appear in different forms on some of the various above linked pages, Thrower gives us a nice little chart that appeals mightily to my info organization side. For those of you who like to indulge in neat categorization, I am sharing it. It may make the mistake of leveling reality by making neat categories where history is a bit more fuzzy. Foxe's comment that source material varied in regard to categories of shot and name is duly noted. Still, if you were at one place at one time, this information was probably correct. If you were at another place at another time, it may not be so. Caveat emptor and all that. (It's still a cool chart. )

"It is remarkable that, apart from making them shorter, there were no material alterations in the design of guns and the methods of use from the time they were introduced into the Western World from China in the 15th century, until they were finally outdated in the 19th century. They were all heavy and cumbersome, and, indeed, field pieces could not exceed 18-pounders, and usually were were much smaller. At sea, then, as now, it was possible to used big guns, some as large as the 48-pounders in ships of the line; but for defending merchantmen and, by implication, in pirate ships, only the small calibres were practicable. Originally even the small calibre guns were 2.5 or 2.8 metres long, and not until some were accidentally cast too short was it discovered that these were equally efficient and much more manageable. Rather after the manner of giving names to various church bells, so different guns were named to distinguish the sizes; eventually all guns came to be designated by the weight of the shot fired. Only one, the culverin, retained its name and became a term often used to signify a slender handy guns fitted on the deck of the merchantmen to help repel boarding parties with grape shot.

Since there is little mention of these names in popular books this old list (giving contemporary weights) is of interest in connection with the subject of merchant ship armament.

...Name................................pdr..........cwt.

Whole Culverin....................18.............50

Demi Culverin.......................9..............30

Falcon...................................6..............25

Sacker Largest.....................8..............18

.............Ordinary..................6..............15

.............Lowest sort.............5..............13

Dragon.................................6..............12

Serpentine...........................4................8

Aspic....................................2................7

Falconet............................3,2,1.......15,10,5"

(Thrower, The Pirate Picture, 1980, p. 103)