Mounting of Naval Ordnance, 141 



the heavy ordnance used on board ship easily manageable, 

 and equally efficient, in every position. 



We are informed by Froissart, that guns were first used at 

 sea by the Spaniards in the year 1372 *, that is, twenty-six years 

 after Edward the Third had profited by them at the battle of 

 Cressy, which was the first occasion that these terrible en- 

 gines of destruction had come into anything like general no- 

 tice in Europe. The more general introduction of cannon 

 into naval combats took place in the wars between the Vene- 

 tians and Genoese. The latter part of the fourteenth century 

 was distinguished by the most rancorous contests between 

 these rival maritime states ; and no doubt a novel instrument 

 of vrarfare, as the cannon must then have been, was taken 

 with avidity to assist in settling their dispute for naval supre- 

 macy. 



As the first guns were but very small, little difficulty and 

 labour were experienced either in transporting or managing 

 them in action ; but, as their use and power were increased, 

 it became necessary to make them much heavier ; and hence 

 additional contrivances became requisite to make them trans- 

 portable and manageable. The commonest experience taught 

 the first contrivers of these weighty engines of destruction, 

 that there was no other means of transporting them readily 

 from place to place, but upon rollers, trucks, or wheels, the 

 adoption of either of which methods depended upon the de- 

 gree of locomotion that was required ; the two first being 

 sufficient when the distance to be moved through was small, 

 and the last being evidently the best calculated for assisting 

 in military operations in the field, and passing over great 

 distances. In all these methods, however, of rendering 

 pieces of ordnance moveable by means of sledges with rollers, 

 trucks, or wheels, we find that, as it was necessary to give 

 them a diff'erent direction in a vertical plane, a contrivance 

 by which this might be readily effected, was common to all. 

 This consisted in making them move round a horizontal axis 

 at right angles to the axis of the piece, and placed in such a 

 position as to have the weight towards the muzzle of the piece 

 nearly ecjual to that towards the breech. Such necessity gave 

 birth to the addition of the trunnions, which are to be found 

 in almost all the ancient pieces that have been preserved. 



We perceive, therefore, that the mode of mounting guns 

 naturally suggested by these wants, is obviously the same in 

 principle as that which is used to this day, and we venture to 

 say, that the present standing garrison-carriage has varied 



* In a battle ofiP Rochelle with the English and their allies, the people of 

 Poitou. 



