Force of our Ships of tVar, llS 



18-pounder to the 24-pounder. The French 36.poiin(l ball is 

 equivalent to the calibre of 38.86 lbs. avoirdupois, being nearly 

 seven pounds heavier than our 32-pound shot. This superi- 

 ority of the French naval ordnance has been often felt by naval 

 men. Captain Brenton, in his Naval History, repeatedly 

 mentions the 36-pounder as giving the French navy a decided 

 advantage. This advantage they have always retained in their 

 two-decked ships of the line ; but until 1793 our three-deckers, 

 with their 42-pounders on the lower deck, possessed the supe- 

 riority over the force of the same class of ships of the French 

 marine. The 42-pounder gun rejected in 1793, though 7 or 8 

 cwt. heavier than the present 32-pounder, was lighter than the 

 French 36-pounder, by 6 or 8 cwt. ; and, before it was thrown 

 out of the service, some means should have been devised to 

 have rendered its management, at least, equally easy as the 

 French 36-pounder gun, which, as we have already said, has 

 been unequivocally declared to be sufficiently convenient in its 

 service. 



It may here be observed, that the Americans have adopted 

 the calibre of 42 pounds for the guns of the lower decks of 

 their three-decked ships ; and we should not omit to mention 

 that, with the present service charge, the point blank range of 

 a 42-pounder is fifty yards more than that of the 32-pounder ; 

 and that at the small elevation of 1° the range of the former 

 exceeds that of the latter by nearly 300 yards *. 



As it has been most decidedly proved by Mutton's valuable 

 experiments on military projectiles, that the weight of a gun 

 of given length has no influence on the velocity of the ball, we 

 have only to refer this element of a piece of naval ordnance, 

 besides the power of management, to the attainment of a steady 

 recoil ; to the necessary length; and, lastly, to the required 

 thickness of metal. 



We suspect that much needless weight had been added to 

 the 42-pounder, for we find that in 1768, that nature of ord- 

 nance weighed only 55j cwt. f Mr. Muller, whose work on artil- 

 lery gives us this information, does not mention any objection 



♦ Vide Naval Gunnery, by Sir H. Douglas. 

 •I- Mailer's Treatise of Artillery. 

 JULY— SBPT. 18*28. I 



