Mounting of Naval Ordnance. 147 



the gun rests and works. The block is made a little concave, to 

 receive the gun ; and, in the other direction of its upper surface, 

 is so cut away, or made convex, as not to interfere with the gun's 

 lodging on nearly the centre of the block, when it is elevated or 

 depressed. 



"The breech-carriage B (fig. 1) is formed similarly to the old 

 gun carriage, with the fore part of it cut away j p, p, are iron 

 clamps with a hinge at o ; the lower part is secured to the front 

 of the breech-carriage by a bolt, and by the eye-pin g, which is 

 clinched at v. The upper, or moveable part, spans round the 

 trunnion ; and, being forelocked down to the eye pin, suspends or 

 attaches the front of the breech-carriage to the gun. The breech 

 of the gun is supported upon a bed and coin, and is elevated and 

 depressed by them in the usual way." 



From this developement of our author'is principle^ it appears 

 that a gun mounted according to it, has the part between 

 the trunnions and the breech connected with^ and supported 

 upon, a two-wheeled carriage, which moves with it in every 

 direction ; and that between the trunnions and the muzzle it 

 is supported by the crutch, over the block of which, it runs 

 in and out. 



"The circumstance (Captain Marshall says) which renders 

 practicable this mode of mounting long guns, in ships of war, is, 

 that contrary to land service, the gun is stopped in its recoil by a 

 strong rope or breeching, as soon as the muzzle arrives sufficiently 

 within the port to allow of its being conveniently loaded ; for 

 since it happens that the proper and usual space over which a 

 gun is allowed to run in (all unnecessary recoil increasing the 

 delay and labour of running the gun out) is, on an average of 

 cases, about equal to the distance of the gun's trunnion rim from 

 its muzzle rim, it follows that all the action which it is expedient 

 a gun should have, in and out of its port, js obtained by its being 

 made to slide backwards and forwards from its trunnion to it? 

 muzzle upon the stationary rest or crutch of the breast-carriage, 

 The gun is prevented from running out any further by the trun-. 

 nions or trunnion rim coming in contact with the crutch ; and 

 when the gun is run in, the approach of the muzzle any nearer 

 the crutch, or the danger of its recoiling too far through it, is not 

 only prevented by a stout breeching, but doubly guarded against 

 by a strong breast rope, fixed to the breech-carriage, and passed 

 round the crutch, as shown in the figure. Thus are the two parts 

 of the carriage prevented from approaching into contact, or of 

 receding too far from each other, whilst the gun itself preserves 

 the communication between the two parts of its carriage. The 

 chief novelty of this principle of mounting consists in having 

 removed the bearing of the gun upon its carriage, from the trun- 

 nions (which have now nothing to do with supporting the gun), 

 to a fixed point at the breech, and a moveable point somewhere 

 between the muzzle and the trunnions.'* 



