24-pounder carronade (140 mm)

68-pounder British naval carronade

The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK used from the 1770s to the 1860s. Smoothbore refers to a Firearm or Cannon which does not have a rifled barrel. Cast iron usually refers to grey cast iron, but identifies a large group of Ferrous Alloys which solidify with a Eutectic. | NOTE Throughout this article "cannon" is used as BOTH the || singular and plural The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) The Carron Company was an Ironworks established in 1759 on the banks of the River Carron near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, Scotland. Falkirk is also the name of the Scottish council area centred on the town see Falkirk (council area. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located

The carronade was designed as a short-range naval weapon with a low muzzle velocity, and is said to have been invented by Lieutenant General Robert Melville in 1759 and developed by Charles Gascoigne, manager of the Carron Company from 1769 to 1779. A gun's muzzle velocity is the speed at which the Projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun Lieutenant General is a Military rank used in many countries The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the Robert Melville ( 12 October 1723 - 29 August 1809) was a general in the British Army and an Antiquary. Charles Gascoigne (1738&ndash August 1, 1806) was a British Industrialist at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It was adopted by the Royal Navy in 1779, and its early years was also known as a "gasconade" or "melvillade". The lower muzzle velocity of a carronade's round shot was intended to create many more of the deadly wooden splinters when hitting the structure of an enemy vessel, leading to its nickname, the smasher. Round shot is an obsolete solid Projectile without explosive charge fired from Small arms or Cannons As the name implies round shot is spherical A nickname is a Name of an entity or thing that is not its Proper name. However, the small powder charge of the carronade was only able to project a heavy cannonball over a relatively limited distance. The short barrel, low muzzle velocity and short range also increased the risk that a carronade would eject burning wadding onto nearby combustible materials, increasing the risk of fire.

Diagram of a carronade mounting

A carronade was much shorter and a third to a quarter of the weight of an equivalent long gun: for example, a 32 pounder carronade weighed less than a ton, but a 32 pounder long gun weighed over 3 tons. The term long gun is used to describe classes of Firearm and Cannon with longer barrels than other classes Units of mass There are three similar units of Mass called the ton: Long ton (simply ton in countries such as the United Carronades were manufactured in the usual naval gun calibres (12, 18, 24, 32 and 42 pounders, but 6 pdr and 68 pdr versions are known), but they were not counted in a ship of the line's rated number of guns. The term caliber or calibre designates the interior Diameter of a tube or the exterior diameter of a wire or rod The pound or pound-mass (abbreviation lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States #) is a unit of Mass A ship-of-the-line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th century through the mid-19th century to take part in the the naval tactic known as the Line of battle As a result, the classification of Royal Navy vessels in this period can mislead, since they would often be carrying more pieces of ordnance than they were described as carrying.

Although the carronade, like other naval guns, was mounted with ropes to restrain the recoil, the details of the gun mounting were usually quite different. This article is about backward Momentum produced in firearms when fired The carronade was typically mounted on a sliding, rather than wheeled, gun carriage, and elevation was achieved with a turnscrew, like field guns, rather than the quoins (wooden wedges) usual for naval guns. A limber is a two-wheeled Cart designed to support the trail of an Artillery piece, allowing it to be towed For other senses of this word see Elevation (disambiguation. In Ballistics, the elevation is the Angle between the A field gun is an Artillery piece Originally the term referred to smaller Guns that could accompany a field army on the march and when in combat could be In addition, a carronade was usually mounted on a lug underneath the barrel, rather than the usual trunnions to either side. A trunnion is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting and/or pivoting point As a result, the carronade had an unusually high centre of gravity. Towards the end of the period of use, some carronades were fitted with trunnions to lower their centre of gravity, to create a variant known as the gunnade.

As a result of irregularities in the size of cannon balls and the difficulty of boring out gun barrels, there was usually a considerable gap (known as the windage) between the ball and the inside of the gun barrel. For the fictional characters see Gunbarrel (Transformers. A gun barrel is the tube usually Metal, through which a controlled Explosion Windage is a Force created on an object by Friction when there is relative movement between Air and the object The windage of a cannon was often as much as a quarter of an inch and caused a considerable loss of projectile power. Inches redirects here To see the Les Savy Fav album see Inches. The manufacturing practices introduced by the Carron Company reduced the windage considerably. Despite the reduced windage, carronades had a much shorter range, typically a third to a half, than the equivalent long gun because they used a much smaller propellant charge (the chamber for the powder was smaller than the bore for the ball). However, typical naval tactics in the late 18th Century emphasised short-range broadsides, so the short range was not thought to be a problem: indeed, their much lighter weight allowed a ship to carry more carronades, or carronades of a larger calibre, than long guns, and carronades could be mounted on the upper decks, where heavy long guns could cause the ship to be top-heavy and unstable. Naval tactics in the Age of Sail were used from the early 1600s onward when Sailing ships replaced oared Galleys These were used until the 1860s The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system A broadside is the side of a Ship; the battery of Cannon on one side of a Warship; or their simultaneous (or near simultaneous fire in Carronades also required a smaller gun crew, were faster to reload, and were easier to aim. HMS Victory used the two 68 pdr carronades which she carried on her forecastle to great effect at the Battle of Trafalgar, clearing the gun deck of the Bucentaure by firing a round shot and a keg of 500 musket balls through the Bucentaure's stern windows. Construction In December 1758 the commissioner of Chatham Dockyard was instructed to prepare a Dry dock for the construction of a new First-rate Forecastle, also spelled fo'c's'le (ˈfoʊksəl originally meant the upper deck of a Sailing ship, forward of the Foremast. The Battle of Trafalgar ( 21 October 1805) was a historic sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the The term gun deck originally referred to a deck aboard a Ship that was primarily used for the mounting of Cannon to be fired in Broadsides However For the Venetian vessel see Bucentaur. Round shot is an obsolete solid Projectile without explosive charge fired from Small arms or Cannons As the name implies round shot is spherical A musket ball was an early form of Ammunition used for loading Muskets Musket balls were generally made from Lead (though at times stone musket balls were

The carronade was initially very successful and widely adopted, and a few experimental ships (for example, HMS Glatton) were fitted with a carronade-only armament. However, the lack of range against an opponent who could keep well clear and still use his long guns led to the demise of the carronade. In the 1810s and 1820s, greater emphasis was placed on the accuracy of long-range gunfire, and less on the weight of a broadside. Indeed, Captain David Porter of USS Essex complained when his 12 pounder long guns were replaced with 32 pounder carronades. For the American Civil War naval hero see David Dixon Porter, for other persons see David Porter. Service history With the United States involved in naval action against France on 6 January 1800 Essex, under Captain Preble departed New York in company with The carronade disappeared from the Royal Navy from the 1850s after the development of steel, jacketed cannon by William George Armstrong and Joseph Whitworth. Sir William George Armstrong 1st Baron Armstrong ( November 26 1810 &ndash December 27 1900) was a Tyneside industrialist who Sir Joseph Whitworth Baronet ( December 21, 1803 &ndash January 22, 1887) was an English Engineer and Entrepreneur Nevertheless, carronades were used in the American Civil War in the 1860s. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South

References

• Originally from http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/gen1.htm, with the author's permission.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
• Lavery, Brian (1989). Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation 1793-1815. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 1-59114-611-9.  [[1]]