Mounting of Naval Ordnance. 143 



Which of these two suppositions is correct, our author, we 

 think, incontrovertibly settles in the following passages, by 

 which it will appear that, however sufficient the common 

 standing garrison- carriage may be in a battery on shore, 

 whose point of defence or attack is determined by the direc- 

 tion of the embrasures, the same, when removed qa tlQ^'l 

 ship, is, and must be, most lamentably deficient. ,fot/ riji. ' 



" In the first place, a ship's gun requires to be moved quickly 

 in dififerent directions, and is subject to be checked very suddenly 

 in its motions. It is, nevertheless, placed upon a carriage whose 

 axletrees are immoveably bolted parallel to each other, and upon 

 which its weight is so disposed, that nearly the whole of it rests 

 upon one extremity of the carriage. When a gun is so impro- 

 perly placed, upon a carriage so imperfectly constructed, the in- 

 conveniencies in working it, as regards the violence with which it 

 tilts up, and the difficulty which exists in laterally moving the fore 

 part of the carriage, are consequences which naturally follow." 



The author then observes, that as an action becomes pro- 

 longed, and the guns get heated, these difficulties become in- 

 creased ; whilst, of course, a less number of men, and those 

 comparatively exhausted, are left to contend with them, and 

 the difficulty with which the forepart of the carriage is laterally 

 moved, necessarily renders the oblique pointing of a ship's 

 guns very slow. Upon this most important particular Capt. 

 Marshall observes, 



** It is evident, that the further guns can be pointed towards 

 the bow or quarter, the more powerfully will they defend the ship 

 and assail the enemy. It will consequently be supposed that the 

 size of a port will favour the limit to the angle at which a gun 

 can be trained or pointed across it j but this is not the case : for 

 the form of the old carriage generally prevents the guns traversing 

 through an arc so great as might otherwise be obtained, by from 

 18° to 24° ; and thus, as it were, the application of the instru- 

 ment is limited by the clumsiness of its handle," 



And with regard, to the accuracy of fire, our author re- 

 marks, that 



" In order to discharge a correct shot from a ship in motion, 

 the elevation of the gun, and the line of its direction, must both 

 be accurately adjusted at the instant the gun is fired.*' 



This again serves to expose the deficiency of the old car- 

 riage ; for, whilst the elevation (as Captain Marshall ob- 

 serves) is undergoing constant change by the rolling of the 

 ship, the line of direction is also altered by the ship's loco- 

 motion. 



The comparatively little destruction made in naval combats 

 from such immense quantities of heavy ordnance, has evi- 



