Naval War of 1812 95 



enormously long and thick-barreled in comparison 

 to its bore, and in consequence very heavy; it pos 

 sessed a very long range, and varied in calibre from 

 two to forty-two pounds. The ordinary calibres in 

 our navy were 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24. The second 

 style was the carronade, a short, light gun of large 

 bore ; compared to a long gun of the same weight it 

 carried a much heavier ball for a much shorter dis 

 tance. The chief calibres were 9, 12, 18, 24, 32, 42, 

 and 68 pounders, the first and the last being hardly 

 in use in our navy. The third style was the colum- 

 biad, of an intermediate grade between the first two. 

 Thus it is seen that a gun of one style by no means 

 corresponds to a gun of another style of the same 

 calibre. As a rough example, a long 12, a colum- 

 biad, 1 8, and a 32-pound carronade would be about 

 equivalent to one another. These guns were mount 

 ed on two different types of vessel. The first was 

 flush-decked; that is, it had a single straight open 

 deck on which all the guns were mounted. This 

 class included one heavy corvette (the Adams), 

 the ship-sloops, and the brig-sloops. Through 

 the bow-chase port, on each side, each of these 

 mounted a long gun ; the rest of their guns were 

 carronades, except in the case of the Adams, which 

 had all long guns. Above these came the frig 

 ates, whose gun-deck was covered above by an 

 other deck ; on the fore and aft parts ( forecastle and 

 quarter-deck) on this upper, open deck were also 

 mounted guns. The main-deck guns were all long, 

 except on the Essex, which had carronades ; on the 



